GREG WARKEL: We’dalwaysstartthenightatCecil’s.Hewas anolddrunk.Ifhepassedoutwhileweweretheredrinking,we’djust go behind thebarand getourowndrinks.
DAVE ZINK ( Blackboard Jungle): Cecil was a 65-year-old bartender at the Olympia Inn on Victory Blvd. Although the only legible sign outside the bar said, “BEER”. He was from Arkansas and drankCoorsina bottle.Hehad a weird habitofslammingthebottle capsinto theceiling.Hewould takecount of what he drankthatnight by laying on the floor before passing out and counting the caps that wereintheceiling.
K ENNYPRICE (BlackboardJungle):I thinkitwasEricwhofound Cecil’sbar.Hewould dopitchersforlikea buckortwo.Wewould get so fucked up there.We’d drink allnight long and then at the end of the night Cecilwouldsay,“Uhhhyeah,just give me tenbucks”.
Blackboard played thereonenight,andwehadsomeguy Jeffon the drums because Joel had just left the band. We only had like 60 people there. Joe Howard was going behind the bar to bartend, and some guysaidsomethingtoJoe’s wife. SoJoegrabbed theguy,pulled him outside,andslammedhisheadintoa car. He pulled the guy back andhadrippeda chunk ofthe guys hair out. Heheldtheclumpofhair intheguysfaceandsaidsomethingsosimple andfunnytohim.Damn I wishI couldrememberwhatitwas.
JOE HOWARD: It was my wife’s birthday at the time, and Blackboard was going to do an acoustic set at Cecil’s bar. Everyone was there withtheir girlfriends whensome biker guys came walking in.They weresittingatthebar,anditwassupposedtobea private night.ButwewerecooluntilInoticedthemcheckingoutsomeofthe girlsweweretherewith,andthey madea fewcomments.SoIsaid, “Hey man, this is kind of a private thing. So if you’re gonna be here justdon’tbecreepin.”Oneguytoldmetofuckoff,thenwalkedbehind the bar to pour himself a drink. I said something to him, he hit me over the head with a mug, so I pulled him over the bar and started whoopin the shit out of him. I took him outside, grabbed him by the head,andendeduprippingabigclumpof his hairoutasIsmashedhis face into the side of his ‘66 Malibu. When I was done I said, “Hey man,here’syourhairback.”
DAVE ZINK ( Blackboard Jungle): I remember we were playing when one of the bikers said something terribly rude to Kristi, who was my girlfriend at the time. Beaubien took the guy, flipped him downonto theground,jammedhisbootintohisneck,andtoldtheguy, “Don’t move.” A bar fight broke out, and all of a sudden, I see Joe Howardrunningoutofthefrontofthebarwithsomedudethatwas justhelpless.Theguy hadtobeat leastafoot taller thanJoebuthad noideahowtodealwith him. IwatchedJoetaketheguyoutside,and he starts yelling at him, “Which one is your car!” the guy wouldn’t answer, so Joe yells again, “Which one is your car asshole!” and the guy points to a ‘66 Ford 2 door. It was sapphire blue, beautifully repainted.Joe takes the guys head,smashes itintotherightsidefront fender, and dents the fender with the guys head. I never saw anythinglikeit
It was right when I was feeling at ease with everything that an unexpected blast from the past walked through the doors of the Burbank house on a random evening, Spencer.
Although Spencer had always been nice to me in the past, I really didn’t know her that well. She was never a regular at Cassidy’s house, and I hadn’t seen or talked to her since the days of me dating Sebastian.
When she walked into the Burbank house, she gave me a friendly hug, and we talked a little bit over the course of the evening. Although she didn’t bring up my falling out with Cassidy, I was still very weary of letting any girls from that group of people back into my life.
While my overactive paranoia had me keeping tabs on Spencer, Kennedy and I had heard through the grapevine that Blackboard and Faster Pussycat had a show coming up at The Palace in Hollywood. My heart began to flutter at the very thought of encountering Brent again. Especially since our last encounter was such a flop due to Faye’s excessive beauty getting in the way.
The night of The Palace show, Greg got us passes. We were hanging out in one of the dressing rooms when Brent walked in with a petite blonde.
“That is girlfriend Selena,” Ramie said in her broken English.
DAMN. A girlfriend. Of course he would have a girlfriend. Selena had long blonde hair and thin-pursed lips to match
her skinny frame. She was a standard kind of pretty but nothing stunning as far as I was concerned. Brent and Selena walked up to Greg and Ramie, exchanging hellos and hugs. Greg introduced Kennedy and I, to Brent and Selena. They politely said hello and got caught up talking with other people that were hanging out in the dressing room.
The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful. Blackboard and Faster Pussycat put on a great show, but I didn’t have any further interaction with Brent the rest of the night. I knew it was for the best since he had a girlfriend, but it didn’t curb the fact that I was crushing on him big time. Although our encounter was brief, I was floating on cloud nine when I went home that night. I couldn’t wait for the next outing when I’d get a chance to run into him, and luckily, I didn’t have to wait very long.
The following weekend was Kenny’s 25th birthday. The plan was to have a party at Britt’s, the bass player of Blackboard Jungle, who had an apartment on Larrabee right near The Viper Room.
The night of Kenny’s birthday party, I hitched a ride with Kennedy, Ramie, and Greg to Britt’s. I scanned the living room when we walked in and recognized a few familiar faces that hung out at the Burbank house. I also noticed one that used to hang out at the Cassidy’s, Vaughn from The Beautiful Destruction.
I hadn’t seen him since my falling out with Cassidy. Although most of the guys we hung out with had stayed neutral, Vaughn and Cassidy had always been really close, so I was hesitant on going up to him. I felt it was best to keep my distance and figured if he wanted to say hi to me he would, which he did just moments later.
While I chatted with Vaughn, I sporadically glanced around the room, hoping for a glimpse of Brent. I finally spotted him standing in a corner of the room and barely recognized him. He wasn’t gussied up like he was at The Palace show. He was wearing a long-sleeved, black button up shirt, and his long dark hair was covered up by a green fedora with a little feather sticking out the side.
Vaughn walked off to chat with a few other people, and my gaze at Brent was broken when Greg handed me a beer. He handed one to Kennedy and Ramie as well, then walked off to the kitchen. I noticed an uninhabited couch in the center of the living room, so Ramie, Kennedy, and I walked over and took a seat.
“I’m so excited Brent’s here. The only thing that could make this night better is if Nikki Sixx walked through the door,” I said.
“Oh my god. Do you see what I see?” Kennedy said to Ramie.
“I swear if you tell me Nikki just walked in, I’m going to
walk down to Sunset and throw myself in front of a car,” I said
holding my stomach.
“No, it’s not Nikki. Ramie did you notice?” Kennedy asked. “Yes, I did,” Ramie said with a big smile on her face. “What? What did you see?” I asked.
“Brent keeps looking over at you,” Kennedy said. “You're so full of shit,” I said rolling my eyes.
“Ramie, am I lying?” Kennedy asked.
“No, he is,” Ramie confirmed.
My back was facing Brent, so the only way I could look at
him was to completely turn around, which was a little too
obvious. Kennedy and Ramie were sitting on either side of me at
an angle, so it didn’t look completely obnoxious if they took a
simple glance in his direction.
“What’s he doing now?” I whispered to Kennedy. “He’s just talking to some people, but he keeps looking
over here.”
“Damn it. I wish I could be facing him right now,” I said. I thought back to the first time I met Brent in front of The
Whisky with Faye. Is it possible that he recognized me from
back then and that was the reason he kept staring at me? Not a chance in hell.
He was all about Faye that night. I could’ve walked out of
The Whisky with a purple tail and shot glitter out of
my ass, and
he still wouldn’t have remembered me.
Ramie and Kennedy knew about my longstanding crush on
Brent, so I figured they were blowing smoke up my ass by saying
that he was staring at me. I just had to check it out for myself. I turned around and pretended I was doing a casual glance
around the room to see who was there. When my eyes met with
Brent’s, he gave me a little smile, raising one corner of his mouth
ever so slightly. I smiled back and slowly turned around. “I’m going to die,” I whispered to the girls.
As people began to slowly pile into the apartment, I became
paranoid of anyone overhearing what the girls and I were talking
about, so I developed a plan.
“Listen, anytime Brent looks at me, you guys gently snap
your fingers okay?” I whispered to the girls.
Kennedy and Ramie immediately snapped their fingers at
the same time.
“Stop it! I said only when he looks at me,” I said. “What? He just did right now,” Kennedy whispered. A few minutes later, Jamie Scrap walked in. He spoke with
Brent for a few moments and they both walked out together. “Oh no, he can’t be leaving already!” I whispered to the
girls.
“No way, it’s still early. They are probably just making a run
to the store,” Kennedy said.
Ramie, Kennedy, and I speculated on where the guys
could’ve gone. About an hour later, Jamie walked in with Brent
and his girlfriend Selena. She walked off and said hello to a few
people while Brent hung out near the front door talking with
Kenny and Britt. Despite Selena’s presence, the girls resumed
snapping their fingers just moments later, which totally caught
me by surprise. Their sporadic snapping continued for another
fifteen minutes or so when suddenly it came to a standstill. “What happened? Why are you not snapping anymore?” I
asked sadly.
“Brent walked into the bedroom,” Kennedy said. “Well I do have to go to the bathroom,” I said with a smile. The three of us got up and walked into the bedroom, which
had the only bathroom. Brent and Selena were sitting on a bed
and both were talking with a few people that were standing
around them. While I waited in line for the bathroom, I could
feel Brent staring at me. I didn’t make eye contact with him
though, I just couldn’t. I would've melted onto the floor, and the
girls would've had to scoop me up in a bucket.
When the bathroom door finally opened, the three of us
piled in. We shut the door behind us and started jumping up and
down, squealing like wild piglets. Although music was blaring
throughout the apartment, I was still paranoid about anyone
knowing of my crush on Brent. I was still traumatized from
being 86’d at the hands of Cassidy and had just gotten used to
having a social life again. I wasn’t about to start making enemies
in my new circle of friends and do something stupid to piss
people off. Or would I?
When we walked out of the bathroom, I could feel Brent
looking in my direction. I avoided all eye contact and stared
straight ahead. Kennedy gently snapped her fingers by my ear as we passed him, and I giggled as we continued our way back into
the living room.
“You see Brent look?” Ramie asked, as we sat down on the
couch.
“The question is did you see Selena glaring at her?”
Kennedy added.
“Oh no! Are you serious?” I asked.
“She totally noticed Brent staring at you when we walked
out of the bathroom. She was NOT happy,” Kennedy said. “But I didn't do anything, I didn't even look at him,” I said. “Yes you did, you caught her boyfriend’s eye. That’s quite
enough,” Kennedy said.
As the night went on and the girls continued snapping their
fingers like they were at a hipster poetry reading, my thoughts
went back and forth on how to handle Brent. If I was going to
continue hanging out in the Blackboard circle, being around him
was inevitable. I couldn’t very well run out the door every time
he came around. So until I could figure out a game plan, I
decided it was best to avoid any further interaction with him for
the remainder of the night.
I was about to get up and grab myself another beer, when
Greg waved us over from across the room and asked if we were
ready to head out. We gathered our things and walked over to
Greg, who was talking to a few people by the front door. Brent
suddenly strolled up, said hello and mentioned he remembered
me from The Palace show. He smiled as he shook my hand and
didn’t let it go. He just held on to the tips of my fingers and
lightly swung my arm back and forth as he asked me random
questions like where I was from, how I knew Greg, etc. I was
freaking out beyond belief, but I felt I did a pretty good job at
keeping up a cool demeanor as I answered his questions.
Although Selena was nowhere to be found at the moment, I still
felt uncomfortable talking to Brent. Especially after Kennedy
mentioned she was giving me the stink eye when we left the
bathroom earlier.
I slowly pulled my hand away from Brent’s as we continued
to chat. A few seconds later, Selena walked into the living room from the bedroom. The close call completely freaked me out, so I quickly wrapped up my conversation with Brent. He kissed the back of my hand, smiled and said it was great seeing me again.
*sigh*
We said our goodbyes to everyone, walked out of the
apartment, and I held in my excitement until we reached the
street, at which point I performed the Snoopy happy dance. “Oh my god, Selena hates me,” I said as I stopped dancing. “Yeah, but Brent obviously likes you,” Greg said. “Oh my god, what did he say?” I said charging Greg. “Earlier in the night he told me you were really cute.” “SHUT UP!” I yelled.
“Okay, I’ll shut up.”
“Don’t you dare! What else did he say?” I said clawing at
him.
“Nothing really. You happened to walk by when we were
talking. He asked who you were, and I said you were a friend of
Ramie’s. That’s when he mentioned you were cute, that’s all.” It seemed like just yesterday I was a 14-year-old freshman,
slobbering over pinups of Brent Muscat on my wall. Now five
years later, I find myself at a party with him just a few feet away,
staring at me like a lion eyeing a steak. Finally, my baked squash
days were behind me! Everything had come full circle...well
almost. The day I’d come face to face with Nikki Sixx would be
the final step in reaching the Holy Grail.
The next morning, I grabbed my typewriter and pounded
away on the keys as I described every detail concerning the party
at Britt’s in my journal. The obnoxious amount of finger
snapping between Kennedy and Ramie was too good to be true.
It seemed more like a fictitious story I would’ve written when I
was 14, rather than something that could’ve actually happened. I wondered when I would see Brent again. I knew
Blackboard and Faster Pussycat would be leaving soon to go on
a mini tour of the east coast. Something had to happen before
then to bring everyone together. Luckily, it only
took one call to
Ramie to get my answer.
About a week or so later, a bunch of us went to Cecil's bar
to hang out. I ended up going straight to the bar and got there
before Ramie and Kennedy did. Greg, John, and Eric were there
along with a few guys in Blackboard. Brent was there with Selena
too. He greeted me with a big hug hello while she gave me the
stink eye once again. After saying hi to Brent, I walked off and
chatted with Kenny for a little bit about the upcoming tour. Two
beers later, my bladder was acting up, so I went to the bathroom.
While I was washing my hands, Ramie and Kennedy walked in
and greeted me with hugs.
“We noticed Brent outside. Did you get a chance to talk to
him?” Kennedy asked.
“Not really. We just said hi and exchanged a hug,” I said. “That’s it?” Kennedy asked.
“What was I supposed to do? Give him a lap dance? Selena
was right next to him shooting daggers at me,” I said. Selena kept a very tight leash on Brent for the remainder of
the night, and anytime I did talk to him, I could feel her eyes
burning into me. She must’ve sensed something was up at
Kenny’s birthday. Now she was out for blood.
I ran into Brent a few more times before the guys left on
tour, and Selena continued to mad dog me every time I saw her.
In an attempt to ease the tension, I’d try to avoid Brent when
we’d all be out and about. But he’d always come up and talk to
me, which I’m sure pissed her off even more. I smiled at her
once, but she didn’t even crack. She just shot back another one
of her many dirty looks. After weeks of trying to extend the olive
branch to Selena, it hit me that she was going to hate me no
matter what I did. So I figured if she already had issues with me
for doing nothing, then I might as well be my normal friendly
self with Brent.
A few days after the boys left for tour, things were way too
quiet in the Burbank house, downright boring actually. The only
interesting thing that happened was that a verdict had finally
been reached in the Rodney King civil trial. Throughout the
Rock and Roll High School: Growing Up in Hollywood During the Decade of Decadence Page 30