Chapter 22 They Ended Up Taking Requests For Quite 3

• “Killian asks what we want to play, and I say, ‘Whole Lotta Love,’ which is a Zeppelin tune. Killian nods like he’s happy to hear it. Ryan’s killer at this – we’ve practiced it, like, fifty times here in the basement – so we launch into it, and it’s awesome. I’m pretty good, Ryan’s losing his nervousness, and Killian just owns the song. It was like we’re playing with fuckin’ Jimmy Page. We actually start attracting a little crowd.
• “Then Killian is like, ‘What’s next?’ and I say ‘Higher Ground,’ and he says, ‘Stevie or Peppers?’ because the Chili Peppers covered the original Stevie Wonder song, and I say, ‘Chili Peppers.’ Killian tells some guy to go get the drummer from Gobsmacked, and he comes back and he’s pissed, but Killian tells him ‘Get on the drums, mate, we’re doin’ the Chili Peppers’ ‘Higher Ground.’ So the guy does, and it ROCKS. We’re getting a bigger crowd. We play a couple more songs, and people are totally into it, but the lead singer comes back in and he is PISSED that he’s not the center of attention, and he and the bassist basically get the roadies to load all the equipment up and tell us to fuck off.
• “Killian flips them off and looks back at us and says, ‘You guys are good. Really good. You – ’ and he points to Ryan – ‘are technically excellent. You just need to get more of a feel for it. You need to get spiritual with it. Let the music own you. And you – ’ and he points to me – ‘you’ve got that ‘something’ you need to be a great lead singer. You just need to stop mimicking those other people. Stop imitating them. Find your own voice. It’ll take awhile, but if you do it, you’ll be unstoppable.’”