By the end of 1976, “Honeycomb” had peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band, along with Daisy, had performed the song on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. They had finished up their North American tour dates and were gearing up for the short European leg of the tour. Camila Dunne, now six months pregnant, returned with Julia to Los Angeles.
Billy: I couldn’t make Camila and Julia stay out on the road with me indefinitely, I had to take control of it myself.
Camila: I knew him well enough to know when I needed to stay and when it was okay to go.
Billy: The first night without them was hard. I remember sitting on my suite balcony after the show, hearing all the chaos outside, wanting to be a part of it. There was this voice in my head saying, You can’t do this, you can’t stay sober for much longer.
I ended up calling Teddy. It was early hours of the morning but it was only about dinnertime for him. I made up something to talk to him about. [Laughs] I think we ended up discussing whether he should marry Yasmine. He was worried he was too old for her. I told him to go for it anyway. And by the end of the call, I was feeling tired. I knew I could go right to sleep. Live to see another day. When we got off the phone Teddy said, “You feeling all right now, Billy?” And I said, “Yeah, I am.”
After I had that first night under my belt, I felt a bit better. I stuck to my routine. I stayed away from the partying. When the show was over, I went back to my hotel room and I’d listen to some records or I’d go get a decaf coffee and read the paper at a diner. Sometimes Pete or Graham would join me. Although, most of the time, God knows Graham was just trailing after Karen somewhere.
But I just kept on like I’d been doing when Camila and Julia had been with me. Toeing the line.
Graham: It was the same when Camila was there as when she wasn’t there. Billy was with the band when there was work to be done. And Daisy was with us when there was partying to be done. And never the two shall meet, or whatever it is they say.
Rod: Right before we were heading out to Sweden, I’d told Billy and Graham that Runner was considering extending their tour once the European leg was done. I asked them what they thought of tacking on a couple more weeks once they got back to the States.
It was a nonstarter. Camila was due around when we’d be getting back. Billy felt like he was cutting it close as it was.
Graham: It was a two-second conversation. Would I have liked to have continued the tour? Of course. Did it put us in a tough spot that Billy had to go home? Yeah. But he had to go home. End of discussion.
Warren: All of us wanted to do more dates but we couldn’t perform without Billy. You can plug in some guitarists for a few shows, a keyboardist. But you can’t replace Billy.
Daisy: We were doing sold-out shows. And a lot of that was my doing.
Meanwhile, the band’s album was selling a lot more than mine. Theirs was better than mine, so it made sense, but when it came to the live show, a lot of people really were coming to see me. And even some of the ones that didn’t care who I was before they got there left with a Daisy Jones T-shirt.
I had real buzz. And I’d been working on some good songs of my own. I had one—super simple melody, not very complex—but it was good. It was called “When You Fly Low.” I’d written it about selling yourself short, how some people try to keep you small. “They want you humble/want to atrophy that muscle/want to stunt the hustle/get you to call uncle/to keep you flying low.”
I’d been saying to Hank that it was time to talk to Teddy about a new album. And Hank kept saying that I should slow down. I got the impression that he thought I was asking too much. Like I thought I deserved more than I did.
Our relationship was not in a good place. I should never have been with a guy like that.
That’s one thing they don’t mention when they tell you to stay away from drugs. They don’t say, “Drugs will have you sleeping with some real jerks.” But they should.
And I had let Hank into every part of my life: He often stood between me and Teddy, he was the one who hired my entire band, my money was funneling through him. And he was in my bed.
Karen: When we were heading out to Stockholm, we went out on Runner’s private jet.
Daisy: Hank and some of the crew had flown out the day before but I waited and hitched a ride with the band. I made it seem like I wanted to hang out with them on the plane but I just didn’t want to fly over with Hank.
Eddie: It was on the flight out that I overheard Graham talking to Karen about turning down the extension. Man, that was the first I’d heard of it. No one had told me or Pete.
We had a hit song, we were selling out shows with Daisy. Lots of people making a lot of money. The band, the roadies, everybody working on our tour and at the venues—we all have to pack it in because Billy got his wife pregnant?
And it’s not even put up to a vote. We have to find out about it after the decision has already been made.
Karen: That was an interesting flight. I think that was the flight Warren got slapped by the stewardess. I only heard the slap, I didn’t see it.
Warren: I asked her if she was a natural blonde. Lesson learned. Not all women think that’s funny.
Karen: Daisy and I were in the back minding our business the majority of that flight. We had these two chairs facing each other, a couple of cocktails, looking out the window. I remember Daisy pulled out a pillbox and knocked back two pills, washed ’em down with a sip of her drink.
She’d started wearing all of those bangles by then, as many as would fit on her arms. Everything clinked when she moved. So as Daisy is putting her pillbox back in her pocket, her bangles start clanging and I made a joke about how they were built-in tambourines. And she thought that was cool. She took a pen and wrote it down on her hand.
And then when she put the pen away, she took out the pillbox again and took two pills from it and put them in her mouth.
I said, “Daisy, you just took two.”
She said, “I did?”
I said, “Yeah.”
She just shrugged and swallowed them.
I said, “C’mon, don’t be one of those people.”
Daisy: I was irritated by that. I shoved the pillbox in her hand. I said, “Take them if you’re so worried about it. I don’t even need them.”
Karen: She threw the pills at me.
Daisy: But the moment I handed the pillbox over to her and I saw her put it in her back pocket, I started panicking. The dexies were one thing. That was fine. I could snort coke if I needed to.
But I could not sleep without the Seconals.
Karen: It surprised me how easy it was for her. To just hand it all over and stop.
Daisy: When we got to the hotel, Hank was already in my room. I said, “I ran out of reds.” He just nodded and picked up the phone. By the time I wanted to go to sleep, I had another bottle in my hand. It depressed me, how easy it was. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted the pills. I needed the pills. But it was just so boring, so repetitive. Having any narcotic I needed at any time, nobody really stopping me.
As I fell asleep that night—I think I was still holding a brandy glass—I heard myself say, “Hank, I don’t want to be with you anymore.” At first I thought there was another woman in the room, saying those words, but then I realized I was saying them. Hank told me to go to sleep. And I didn’t so much fall asleep as feel like I was disappearing.
When I woke up in the morning, I remembered what had happened. I felt embarrassed but also sort of relieved, to have actually verbalized it. I said to Hank, “We should talk about what I said last night.”
And he said, “You didn’t say anything last night.”
I said, “I told you I didn’t want to be with you.”
He just shrugged and said, “Yeah, but you say that all the time when you’re falling asleep.”
I’d had no idea.
Graham: It was pretty clear to everybody that Daisy needed to drop Hank.
Rod: There are a lot of slimy managers out there and they make the rest of us look bad. Hank was taking advantage of Daisy, clear as day. Somebody needed to be looking out for her.
I said, “Daisy, if you need help, I’m here.”
Graham: I think Daisy saw what Rod was doing for us—the way he made sure everything was taken care of. Rod was the first guy to tell anybody that we were going to rule the world. He wasn’t telling us to be happy with what we had and to keep our mouth shut. And, not to be a jerk but … he wasn’t sleeping with us and keeping us high as fuck so we didn’t know heads from tails.
I told Daisy, “Leave Hank and team up with Rod. He’s got you covered.”
Rod: I was already doing so much for Daisy anyway. I’d hooked up Rolling Stone to see the show. They were sending Jonah Berg out to come watch the set and then hang out afterward. It was a potential cover. I’d made a point of including Daisy in that. I didn’t have to. I could have pushed for it to be just a story on the band but I figured what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
Karen: The day that Jonah Berg was coming, we were in Glasgow.
Daisy: I was stupid. I picked a fight with Hank right after sound check that day.
Karen: Graham had come over to my room that afternoon to bring me one of my suitcases. Somehow my things had ended up with his stuff. He was standing in the hotel hallway, at my door, holding a duffel bag of my bras and underwear. He said, “I believe this is yours.”
I grabbed it from him and rolled my eyes at him. I said, “Oh, I bet you just love having your hands on my panties.” I was just joking around.
But he shook his head and he said, “If I get my hands on those panties, I want to have earned it the old-fashioned way.”
I laughed and said, “Get out of here.”
And he said, “Yes, ma’am.”
And he walked back to his room. But when I shut the door, I … I don’t know.
Daisy: I broke it to Hank when it was just the two of us in my hotel room. He was putting his arms around me and I was done with it. I kept snapping at him and he asked me what my problem was and I said, “I think it’s time we part ways.” Hank tried to ignore me a few times, kept telling me I didn’t know what I was saying. So I said it really clear. “Hank, you’re fired. You should leave.” Well, he heard it that time.
Graham: Billy and I were planning on going out to grab a bite—I’d bet him he wouldn’t eat haggis.
Daisy: Hank got in my face. He was so angry and he was standing so close to me that as he spoke, his spit landed on my shoulder. He said, “You’d still just be screwing rock stars if I hadn’t found you.”
When I didn’t say anything back to him, Hank cornered me, up against the wall. I didn’t know what he was going to do. I’m not sure he knew what he was going to do.
When you’re in a situation like that, when you have a man looming over you, it’s as if every decision you made to lead to that moment—alone with a man you don’t trust—flashes before your eyes.
Something tells me men don’t do that same thing. When they are standing there, threatening a woman, I doubt they count every wrong step they made to become the asshole they are. But they should.
My body was stick straight—I felt sort of shockingly sober—and I put my arms out in front of me, holding on to whatever space I could try to defend. Hank was staring right into my eyes. I don’t know if I was even breathing. And then Hank punched the wall and walked out of the room, slamming the door on his way out.
After he left, I triple-locked the door behind him. He yelled something in the hall but I couldn’t make it out. I just sat on the bed. He never came back.
Billy: I was walking out of my room to go meet Graham when I saw Hank Allen coming out of Daisy’s room muttering, “That fucking bitch.” But he seemed to be calming down so I was thinking I should let it go. Then I saw him stop and turn, like he was going to back into Daisy’s room. I could tell he was trouble right then. You can see it in somebody’s gait, you know? Hands balled up into fists and jaw tight and all that. I caught his eye and he saw me. We looked at each other for a moment. I shook my head, to say, That would be the wrong move. He kept looking at me. And then he looked down at the ground and walked out.
When he was gone, I knocked on Daisy’s door. I said, “It’s Billy.”
It took a moment but she opened the door. She was wearing a navy dress—that kind where the sleeves are off the shoulders. I knew people always talked about how blue Daisy’s eyes were but that day was the first time I really noticed them. They were so blue. You know what they looked like? They looked like the middle of the ocean. Not the shoreline, not that light blue. They looked like the dark blue of the middle of the ocean. Like deep water.
I said, “Are you okay?”
She looked sad, which I’d never really seen before. And she said, “Yeah, thank you.”
I said, “If you need to talk …” I wasn’t sure how I could really help but I figured I should offer all the same.
She said, “No, that’s all right.”
Daisy: I didn’t realize just how much of a wall Billy put up around himself when he was near me until that moment, when suddenly there was no wall. Like how you don’t register you’re hearing the hum of a car engine until it’s turned it off.
But I looked him in the eye then and I saw the real Billy.
I realized I’d been looking at this guarded, cold version of him the whole time up until then. I thought, It might be nice to know this Billy. But then it was over. Just one second of realness from him and then, poof, gone the way it came.
Graham: I was waiting for Billy when my phone rang.
Karen: I don’t know why it was that day that I decided to do it.
Graham: I said, “Hi.”
And Karen just said, “Hi.”
Karen: We were sort of quiet on the phone for a second. And then I said, “How come you’ve never made a move on me?”
I could hear him drinking a beer. I could hear him take a sip. He said, “I don’t take shots I know I’ll miss.”
It was out of my mouth before I’d decided to say it. I said, “I don’t think you’ll miss, Dunne.”
And then as soon as I said it, there was a dial tone.
Graham: I have never run anywhere faster than down that hall to her room.
Karen: Three seconds later—that’s not an exaggeration—there’s a knock on my door. I opened it and Graham was out of breath. A tiny run down the hall and he was out of breath.
Graham: I looked right at her. She was so gorgeous. Those thick eyebrows. I’m a sucker for a girl with thick eyebrows. I said, “What are you saying to me?”
Karen: I said, “Just go for it, Graham.”
Graham: I stepped right into her room, I shut the door behind me, and I grabbed that woman and kissed her good.
You don’t usually wake up in the morning and think, This is going to be one of the most exciting days of my life. But that day was. That day with Karen … that was one of them.
Warren: Here’s something I’ve never told anyone. No, this is good. You’re gonna like this.
When we were doing our show in Glasgow, sometime after sound check, I’m taking one of my beer naps—which is what I would call having a beer and taking a nap—and I wake up because Karen is having sex with somebody in the next room! I can’t even sleep it’s so loud.
I never found out who it was but I did see her being a little flirty with our lighting tech so, anyway, I think Karen had a thing with Bones.
Billy: After I left Daisy, I tried to find Graham for lunch but he wasn’t anywhere.
Graham: When it was time to leave to get down to the venue, Karen made me sneak out her door, go to my room, change, and then meet her at the elevators.
Karen: I didn’t want anyone to know anything.
Billy: By the time we all got backstage, everybody was running around like chickens with their heads cut off because Daisy’s band was nowhere to be found.
Eddie: Apparently, Hank went down to the Apollo on his way out of town and took all five of Daisy’s band members out with him. They just up and left.
Karen: It was such a low blow.
Graham: Nothing was supposed to come before the music. Our job was to go out there and play for the audience. No matter what personal shit was going on.
Daisy: My band had walked out. Just walked out. I didn’t know what to do.
Hank Allen (former manager, Daisy Jones): All I care to say is that Daisy Jones and I had a strictly professional relationship from 1974 to 1977, which was mutually terminated due to differences of opinion regarding the trajectory of her career. I continue to wish her the best.
Billy: I find Rod and he’s already in damage control mode. I said to him, “Is it really that bad if Daisy doesn’t play one night?”
And then I realized, as I said that, that he was probably her manager now. And so, you know, to him … yeah, it was.
Rod: Jonah Berg was in the audience. From Rolling Stone.
Karen: Everybody was trying to figure out what to do. But Graham is trying to catch my eye every second no one’s looking. I was laughing to myself thinking, We are supposed to be trying to solve a problem here.
Graham: I couldn’t stop looking at Karen.
Karen: Graham was always the guy I would talk to about stuff. And that night I found myself wanting to tell him about this great afternoon I’d had. It was like I wanted to talk to him about him.
Daisy: I said to Rod, “Maybe I should go out there on my own.” I didn’t want to give up. I wanted to do something.
Eddie: Rod had suggested that Graham go out there with Daisy and the two of them do a few acoustic versions of some of the songs from her album. But Graham wasn’t really paying attention. I said, “I can do it.”
Rod: I sent Daisy and Eddie out there with no idea what was going to happen and the whole time I’m watching them walk out to the mike like a cat on hot bricks.
Daisy: Eddie and I did a few songs. Really pared down. Just his guitar and me singing. I think we did “One Fine Day” and “Until You’re Home.” It was fine but we did not blow anybody away. And I knew Rolling Stone was out there and I needed to make a good impression. So on the last song, I decided to go off script.
Eddie: Daisy leaned over to me and she gave me this vague beat and a key and told me to come up with something. That was it. Just “Come up with something.” I did my best, you know what I mean? You can’t exactly make up a song on the fly like that.
Daisy: I was trying to get Eddie to play something I could sing my new song to. I wanted to sing “When You Fly Low.” He started and I sang a few bars, tried to get into a rhythm with him, but it wasn’t working. I finally said, “Okay, forget that.” I said it right in the mike. The audience was laughing with me. They were rooting for me. I could feel it. So I started singing it a cappella. Just me and my voice, singing this song I’d written.
I’d worked hard on it, I’d polished it up from beginning to end. There wasn’t a stray word in the whole thing. And it was just me and my tambourine with the stomp of my feet.
Eddie: I was there behind her, tapping a beat out on the body of the guitar for her, helping her out. The crowd was into it. They were watching our every move.
Daisy: It was such a rush, singing like that. Singing a song that I felt in my heart. Words that I had written that were all my mine.
I watched the people at the front of the crowd listening to me, hearing me. These people from a different country, people I’d never met in my life, I felt connected to them in a way that I hadn’t felt connected to anyone before.
It is what I have always loved about music. Not the sounds or the crowds or the good times as much as the words—the emotions, and the stories, the truth—that you can let flow right out of your mouth.
Music can dig, you know? It can take a shovel to your chest and just start digging until it hits something. That night, singing that, just reaffirmed that I wanted to put out an album of my own songs.
Billy: I was standing backstage watching Daisy and Eddie when she started singing “When You Fly Low.” She was good. Better than … Better than I’d realized.
Karen: Billy was staring at her.
Daisy: When I was done, the audience was hooting and hollering and I felt like I’d gone out there and done the very best with what I had. I felt like I’d really turned it around and put on a good show for them.
Billy: After she finished the song, I heard her saying goodbye to the audience and I thought, We could do “Honeycomb” now. Just me and her.
Graham: I was surprised to see Billy going out there.
Daisy: I used my usual line, “That’s it for me tonight! It’s time for The Six! Everybody get your hands together.” But in the middle of me talking, Billy walked out onto the stage.
Billy really shined onstage. Some people, you bathe them in those lights and they disappear. But some people, they glow. Billy was like that. I mean, offstage, no. Offstage, he was sullen and sober and he barely had any sense of humor that I could see. At that point, I thought he was sort of a bore, to be honest with you.
But onstage he looked like there was no place he’d rather be than standing right there with you.
Eddie: I was sitting there with the guitar and Billy comes up to me. I said, “What do you want me to play?”
But instead, Billy put his hand out, asking for my guitar. I’m the fucking guitarist. And he’s trying to take my guitar.
He said, “Can I borrow it, man?”
I wanted to say, “No, you cannot borrow it.” But what could I do? I’m standing up in front of thousands of people. I handed it over and Billy took it and walked right up to the mike with Daisy. I’m standing there with my dick in my hand, no reason to be on the stage. I had to slink off.
Billy: I waved to the crowd and said, “How about this Daisy Jones, everybody?” And the audience cheered. “Do you all mind if I ask Daisy a question?” I put my hand on the mike and I said, “How about ‘Honeycomb’ now? Just me and you?”
Daisy: I said, “All right, let’s do it.” There was only one mike out there. So Billy stood right next to me. He smelled like Old Spice and his breath smelled like cigarettes and Binaca.
Billy: I started playing it acoustic.
Daisy: It was a bit slower than we normally played the song. It gave it a tender feel. And then he started singing, “One day things will quiet down/we’ll pick it all up and move town/we’ll walk through the switchgrass down to the rocks/and the kids will come around.”
Billy: And Daisy sang, “Oh, honey, I can wait/To call that home/I can wait for the blooms and the honeycomb.”
Karen: You know how sometimes people will describe other people and say they make you feel like you’re the only one in the room? Billy and Daisy could both do that. But they somehow did it with each other. They each seemed like they thought the other one was the only person in the room. Like we were watching two people who didn’t realize thousands of people were watching them.
Daisy: Billy was a great guitar player. There was an intricacy, a delicateness when he played.
Billy: At that slower tempo, the song started to seem even more intimate. It was gentler, softer. And I was sort of taken aback, in that moment, that Daisy could so easily go where I was taking us. If I played slower, she could bring a warmth to it. If I played faster, she’d bring the energy. She was so easy to be good with.
Daisy: When we finished, he put the guitar in one hand and he grabbed my hand with the other. All the skin on the soft side of his fingers was callused. Just by touching you, he’d scrape you.
Billy: Daisy and I waved to the audience and they cheered and whooped and hollered.
Daisy: And then Billy said, “All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are The Six!” And the rest of the band came out onstage and went right into “Hold Your Breath.”
Eddie: I came back out onto that stage and my guitar is sitting on the side there and I have to go and pick it up. And that chapped my ass. It’s not enough he tells me how to do my job, he controls when we can go on tour, now he’s taking my goddamn instrument from me and taking my place onstage. And he can’t even bother to hand it back to me when I get back up there? Do you understand where I’m coming from?
Daisy: As they were all walking out, I whispered into Billy’s ear. “Should I leave?” And he shook his head no. So I joined in, started harmonizing when I could, banging my tambourine. It was such a fun show being up there with them the whole time.
Billy: I don’t remember why Daisy stayed that night. I think I assumed she’d leave but when she didn’t, I thought, All right, then. I guess she’s staying. I mean, the whole night was a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of deal.
Warren: I swear to you, Karen had this “I just got laid” vibe to her all night. And I was convinced Bones was lighting her special.
Billy: I leaned over to Eddie, between one of the songs, and I was going to thank him for earlier but he wouldn’t even look at me. I couldn’t get his eye.
Eddie: I was so over Billy’s nice-guy routine. He was an asshole. A complete and utter selfish prick. Sorry to say it but that’s how I saw it. To be honest, I still see it that way now.
Billy: I finally tapped Eddie on the shoulder, right before the finale, I said, “Thanks, man. I just wanted to really give ’em a good show since Rolling Stone is out there.”
Eddie: He said he’d normally let me play but since it was Rolling Stone, he wanted to really do it right.
Graham: Pete gave me a look between sets and I was trying to figure out what the problem was. He finally nodded toward Eddie.
Look, I got it. With Billy, it was easy to feel like a second-class citizen. But how we all feel about it doesn’t change the fact that people were paying money to see Billy. People liked his songs, the way he wrote them. They liked watching him up there. Billy was right to go out onto that stage and take Eddie’s guitar. It wasn’t respectful, necessarily. It certainly wasn’t flattering or nice. But it made for a better show.
The band was a meritocracy for the most part. Even though it functioned like a dictatorship. Billy wasn’t in charge because he was a jerk, he was in charge because he had the most talent.
I had told Eddie before.… It’s a losing battle if you’re going to try to compete with Billy. That’s why I don’t. Eddie didn’t get that.
Karen: We ended the show by playing “Around to You” with Daisy harmonizing with Billy for the whole song. We hadn’t done a pure vocal harmony song before. It sounded good.
It seemed like Daisy and Billy had a sort of unspoken language, they could pick up stuff quick with each other.
Billy: When we ended that song, I thought that was the best show we’d ever played. I turned back to the band and I said, “Great job, everybody.”
Warren: Eddie got really heated and he snapped. “So happy to please you, boss.”
Billy: I should have read the situation and just backed away. But I didn’t. I don’t know what I said but clearly, whatever it was, I shouldn’t have said it.
Eddie: Billy got up close to me and said, “Don’t be a dick to me just because you’re having a bad night.” And that was it for me. You know why? Because I’d had a great night. I played great that night.
So fuck him. And that’s what I said, I said, “Fuck you, man.”
And Billy said, “Take it down a notch, all right?”
Billy: I probably told him to calm down or something.
Eddie: Just because something doesn’t matter to Billy, doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter to me. And I was real sick and tired of people expecting me to feel exactly Billy’s way about something.
Billy: I looked out to the crowd, thinking nothing was going on. And I said, “Thanks, everybody! We’re The Six!”
Karen: Right before the lights went out, I looked over at Eddie and I saw him lift the guitar off his shoulders and I could just tell.
Daisy: Eddie took his guitar and lifted it into the air.
Graham: It just came smashing down.
Eddie: I smashed my guitar and walked off. I instantly regretted it. It was a ‘sixty-eight Les Paul.
Warren: The neck broke off of it and Eddie just swung it and let it land on the ground and he walked off. I thought about kicking my snare just to join the fun but it was a Ludwig. You don’t go kicking a Ludwig.
Rod: When they came off the stage, I was of two minds. On the one hand, they had just put on a crack fire show. On the other hand, I was afraid Eddie might slug Billy if given the chance. And Jonah Berg was about to come backstage.
So when I saw Eddie, I pulled him aside and gave him a glass of water and told him to take five.
Eddie: Rod tried to get me to back off. I said, “You get Billy to back off.”
Rod: You know, some days, you’re just trying to get your job done. And musicians can make that a lot of fun or a real drag.
Billy came off the stage as everybody else trickled down. I said to him, “Don’t start, all right? Just put it behind you. Jonah Berg’s coming back here any second and you need to keep the good show going.”
Daisy: It was a great show. A great show. I felt like dynamite after that show.