Daisy Jones & the Six

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

  GRAHAM: We wouldn’t have been voting if Billy liked the song, right? My instinct was to back him up. But it was also a great song.

  DAISY: Everybody has their hands up but Graham and Billy. And then Graham put his up, too.

  I looked at Billy in the back. I said, “Six against one.” He nodded at me, at everybody, and he walked away.

  EDDIE: We recorded it without him.

  ROD: It was time to think about how we were going to market this album. So I set the band up with a photographer friend of mine, Freddie Mendoza. Real talented guy. I played him a couple of the early tracks from the album just to give him a sense of what we were going for. He said, “I see it in the desert mountains.”

  KAREN: For some reason I remember Billy saying he wanted to shoot the cover with us on a boat.

  BILLY: I’d thought we should do a shot of the sunrise. We’d already decided the album should be called Aurora, I think.

  DAISY: Billy had decided the album should be called Aurora and nobody could really argue with him. But it was not lost on me. That this album I worked my ass off on was named after Camila.

  WARREN: I thought we should shoot the cover on my boat. I thought that would be cool.

  FREDDIE MENDOZA (photographer): I was told to get a picture of the whole band with Billy and Daisy as the focus. Really no different than any other band photo shoot, right? You have to be keenly aware of who you’re featuring and how to make it seem natural.

  ROD: Freddie wanted a desert vibe. Billy said it was fine. So that was that.

  GRAHAM: We all had to be at this spot in the Santa Monica Mountains at the crack of dawn.

  WARREN: Pete was something like an hour late.

  BILLY: I looked at us all, as we were standing around waiting for the photographer to set up the shot, and I sort of stepped outside of myself a bit. I tried to see us as others would see us.

  I mean, Graham was always a good-looking guy. Bigger than me, stronger than me. He’d grown a little rounder over the years we’d been living high on the hog but it looked good on him. And Eddie and Pete were gangly guys but they dressed well. And Warren had that mean ’stache that was cool back then. Karen was gorgeous in an understated way. And then there was Daisy.

  KAREN: We’re all gathering up there and we all pretty much just have on jeans and a T-shirt. That’s what Rod said, “Just wear what you’d normally wear.” And then Daisy comes in and she’s wearing cutoffs and a white tank top with no bra on. And she’s got her big hoop earrings, the bangles up her arms. Her shirt was thin, and white, and you could see her nipples clear as day. And she knew that. And suddenly it was crystal clear to me: This cover is gonna be about Daisy’s chest.

  DAISY: I’m not apologizing for shit having to do with that album cover. I dress how I want to dress. I wear what I feel comfortable in. How other people feel about it is not my problem. I said that to Rod. I said that to Billy before. I had a lot of talks about it with Karen. [Laughs] She and I have agreed to disagree.

  KAREN: If we want to be taken seriously as musicians, why are we using our bodies?

  DAISY: If I want to walk around topless, that’s my business. Let me tell you, when you’re my age, you’re gonna be glad you took a picture of them then, too.

  GRAHAM: Billy and Daisy hadn’t really spoken, that I could see, since “Regret Me.”

  BILLY: There was nothing to say.

  DAISY: He owed me an apology.

  FREDDIE MENDOZA: Billy had this denim-on-denim look, right? And then Daisy had on a shirt that was barely a shirt. And I knew that was the photo. His denim and her tank top.

  I put the band along the road, against the guard-rail that stood between the pavement and the steep drop-off of the canyon. There was a huge, looming mountain, a hundred feet behind them. And the sun was coming up.

  Between the seven of them standing there, all in their various poses, I could tell we were getting something great. I mean, it was just so much Americana in one photo, right? You got the road, and the dust and dirt. You’ve got this band on a cliff—half of them scruffy, half of them beautiful. You’ve got the desert and forest of the Santa Monica Mountains, with just a little bit of trees cropping up in the pale tan ground. And you’ve got the sun, shining down on all of it.

  Then you’ve got Billy and Daisy, right?

  They had each veered to opposite ends of the group. But I kept trying to get everyone to mix it up. And at one point, I watched as Daisy leaned forward. She was looking at Billy. I just kept shooting. I always try not to call any attention to anything. I try to hang back and let people do what they are going to do. So I just kept snapping as Daisy was looking at Billy. And everyone else is looking at me, at the camera. And then, for a split second, bam, Billy turns and looks at Daisy just as she’s looking at him. And they locked eyes. And I caught it.

  I thought, That’s good enough to be an album cover. As soon as I think I have something good, I immediately feel freer, right? I feel ready to try stuff and move people around and I feel like I can push people a bit further because if they get mad at me and walk off, it’s not a problem, right? So I said, “That’s great, guys. Now let’s go to the top of the mountain.”

  BILLY: We had already been out there in the hot sun taking photos for an hour or two by that point. I was ready to go.

  GRAHAM: I said, “We’re driving up. Not walking.” And the photographer and I went back and forth a few times and finally it was decided that I was right.

  FREDDIE MENDOZA: We ended up in the perfect spot.

  Billy and Daisy got out of the car and they stood there on top of this mountain. With just a clear blue sky behind them, right? And the rest of the band lined up, and they started standing in between Billy and Daisy and I said, “Let’s do Billy, Daisy, Graham…” So I finally got Billy and Daisy next to each other and their body language was like they didn’t want a single atom of their bodies in contact. I tried to make conversation to loosen them up. I said, “How did Daisy come to join the band?” Because I didn’t know the story and I figured it would be easy to talk about.

  Billy and Daisy both started talking at the same time and then they looked at each other again. I took a few shots and then I zoomed in on Billy and Daisy’s torsos, their chests, as they were talking to each other. They were angled in, and there was so much…the negative space between them felt…alive somehow. Electric. There was so much purpose behind the not touching, right?

  I could tell as I was looking through the viewfinder. I knew it was a great shot.

  DAISY: When we were up there on top of the mountain, the guy put Billy and me next to each other and asked us some dumb question and immediately—Billy and I have barely said five words to each other in days—the first thing out of Billy’s mouth is some dig at me.

  BILLY: It’s some nerve, coming into my band and taking over my album and being at the center of my album cover and then interrupting me when I’m trying to answer the guy’s question.

  KAREN: We were standing there, posing, the rest of us, and you could tell the camera wasn’t even aimed at us. The guy wasn’t even pretending to take our photo. Do you know how stupid you feel posing for a picture nobody’s taking?

  WARREN: I accidentally sat on a rock that got loose and started tumbling down the hill. Almost knocked Eddie down with it. He had to jump out of the way.

  EDDIE: It was a long day. I was getting so sick of those fucking people.

  GRAHAM: I was standing on the top of a mountain, with the woman I loved, shooting a cover for an album we all knew was going to be a massive hit. I swear, I think about that day sometimes when I’m feeling low. I think about it to remind myself you never know what kind of crazy good shit is around the corner. But it’s hard not to remember, when I think about that day, that lots of crazy bad shit is often around the corner, too.

  FREDDIE MENDOZA: When I started de
veloping the images I knew the one of the band against the guardrail with Billy and Daisy looking at each other…I knew that one was great, right? But then I pulled out the best one from the shots of Billy and Daisy’s torsos, and I just went, “Fuck yeah.” It’s the kind of great photograph that—the moment you see it—you can’t help but have an emotional reaction.

  He was in denim, you could see her chest. You knew who they were, even without seeing their faces. You could fill in the gaps yourself. With the clear blue sky between them, which was framed in a more or less straight line on Billy’s side and then on Daisy’s side it was curvy, because it ebbed and flowed with her body…it was masculine and feminine at the same time.

  And then when you really looked, you could see there was something in her pocket. I didn’t know what it was for sure. It looked like a vial—I was assuming for pills or powder. And it just brought it all together. It was America. It was tits. It was sex. It was drugs. It was summer. It was angst. It was rock ’n’ roll.

  So there it was, Billy and Daisy, their torsos on the front. And then the whole band with Billy and Daisy looking at each other on the back. A great fucking album cover. If I do say so myself.

  DAISY: It was coke, in my pocket. What else would it be? Of course it was dope.

  BILLY: You know when you just can’t stop clocking where somebody is? Even when you tell yourself you don’t care? I just…I felt like I was always trying not to look at her. [Laughs] I swear that guy just caught the only two times I was looking at her. He caught me on the front cover and the back cover.

  GRAHAM: When Teddy showed us the full mock-up of the album sleeve, with Billy and Daisy on the front and then them looking at each other on the back…None of us should have been surprised. But it does sting a little, to know you’re not the main attraction. I mean, I’d been living in my brother’s shadow from basically the day I was born. I was starting to wonder how much longer I had to do that.

  EDDIE: Billy and Daisy always believed they were the most interesting people in the world. And that whole album cover confirmed it for them.

  BILLY: It’s a great cover.

  DAISY: It’s iconic.

  KAREN: Recording was really starting to wind down. We were back in the studio putting finishing touches on stuff.

  EDDIE: I think it was sometime after we finished the overdubs on “This Could Get Ugly” and I was at the studio listening to some of the tracks with everybody. Well, not Warren and Pete or Billy. They weren’t there. And then Teddy left at some point. And then Rod. And I think even Artie left. And then I was gonna call it a night so I went out to my car to go home and I realized I forgot my keys so I came back real quick. And I heard two people screwing! And I thought, Who the hell is getting off in the bathroom?

  And then I heard Graham’s voice. And I saw, through the crack in the door, Karen’s hair. And I just ran right out of there. Got in my car. Drove home. But when I got home, I realized I was still smiling. I was happy for them. They made a lot of sense together. I thought, I bet they get married. And I never thought that about anybody.

  WARREN: I think I finished my last tracks somewhere in December. I remember thinking I was ready for this album to be done so we could get back on the road. I wanted the crowds and cheering and the groupies and the drugs. Also, something they don’t tell you when you buy a houseboat…it’s very easy to get cabin fever. That’s really meant to be more of a weekend thing.

  KAREN: As we all got done with our parts on the album, we started taking off. Taking a much-needed break. When Graham and I had laid down everything we were supposed to, we rented a place in Carmel for a few weeks. Just the two of us, a cabin, the beach, the trees. Well, and shrooms.

  GRAHAM: I think Eddie and Pete went back to the East Coast for their mom’s birthday or something.

  EDDIE: I needed to let loose. After our parents’ anniversary party, Pete and Jenny stayed with our parents and I spent about two weeks in New York.

  DAISY: There wasn’t anything left for me to do. I’d recorded my vocals. The album cover was done. Our tour dates weren’t set yet. I said, “Screw it, I’m going to Phuket.” I needed a trip to clear my head.

  BILLY: I took a little bit of time off but then I went back in the studio with Teddy and we went through that album second by second, track by track, and we remixed and remixed and remixed until it was perfect. Teddy, Artie, and I were in the control room for what felt like twenty hours a day for three weeks or something.

  Occasionally, I’d get in there and rerecord some of the instruments when we felt like a riff wasn’t exactly right or we wanted to add tack piano or a Dobro or some brushes on the drums. Simple stuff.

  ARTIE SNYDER: It was one album when everyone left and when everyone came back it was…it was a different album. It was much more nuanced, layered, innovative. Teddy and Billy went in and filled in all the air. They added cowbells and shakers and claves and scrapers. I think at one point, we even recorded the sound of Billy’s fist hitting the side of the arm of a chair because we liked the hollow sound it made.

  Teddy and Billy had a real vision. They had a keen sense for how the songs needed to build and Teddy had a real focus on momentum.

  You take a song like “Regret Me,” which, when they started with it, was just the one vocal and a pretty simple shuffle and Teddy pretty much forced Billy to get in there and do a whole second vocal layer. Billy didn’t want to at first, but by the end of it, he’d put a big stamp on that song. He rewrote and recorded the main riff, he and Teddy pulled Warren’s drums back until the prechorus. I mean, they made it a new song.

  On “Aurora,” Billy slowed it down, thinned out Karen’s keys, and turned Graham way up. It became much cleaner.

  Teddy and Billy—and it got to be me, too—we had a shorthand. We were having fun with it. I think that really shows. I think it shows on the final cut. The final mix of that album is dynamite material.

  BILLY: When we had the songs how we wanted them, Teddy and I gave a lot of thought to the song order. People like it when you make them sad, I think. But people hate it when you leave them sad. Great albums have to be roller coasters that end on top. You gotta leave people with a little bit of hope. So we thought for a real long time about the track list. We had to get that just right. We ordered it, thematically and instrumentally.

  You start big and bold, “Chasing the Night.”

  Things start getting more intense with “This Could Get Ugly.”

  Then “Impossible Woman” is wild and dark. It has a haunting quality to it.

  “Turn It Off” takes off running. It’s an anthem.

  “Please” is desperate, there’s urgency and begging.

  You turn to side B.

  “Young Stars” is tortured but up-tempo, it’s a little dangerous but you can dance to it.

  And then you go right into “Regret Me,” which is hard and fast and raw.

  And then come down off it with “Midnights,” which gets a little sweeter.

  You lead into “A Hope Like You.” Slow, and tender and wistful and spartan.

  And then, you know, the sun comes up at the end. You leave on the high note. You go out with a bang. “Aurora.” Sprawling and lush and percussive.

  The whole album…it’s a great ride. Start to finish.

  SIMONE: I was in Manhattan when I got a postcard from Daisy from Thailand.

  DAISY: For the first few days I was in Thailand, I just wanted to decompress. I had this idea that I would go somewhere alone and maybe reflect on myself. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Two days in, I was going stir-crazy. I was almost about to book myself a flight home, five days early.

  SIMONE: The postcard she sent just said, “Come to Phuket. Bring coke and lipstick.”

  DAISY: But then I met Nicky.

  I was laying outside at the pool, looking out over the water. High off my ass. And
this incredibly handsome, tall, elegant-looking man came out and he was smoking a cigarette and I said, “Can you put that out please?” Because I hated smelling smoke unless I was smoking.

  He said, “You think just because you’re gorgeous you get what you want?” And he had this fabulous Italian accent.

  I said, “Yes.”

  And he said, “Okay, then. You are right.” And he put out the cigarette. He said, “I’m Niccolo Argento.” And I thought that was such a great name. I kept saying it over and over. Niccolo Argento. Niccolo Argento. He bought me a drink. And then I bought him one. And then we did a line or two off the side of the pool, as you do, and then I realized he had no idea who I was. Which was sort of a novelty, at that point. Because most people at least knew “Honeycomb.” So I tell him about the band and he tells me about himself, that he travels from place to place, never staying anywhere for too long. He calls himself an “adventurer.” He says he’s in search of a “full life of experiences.” Then, it comes out that he’s a prince. He’s an Italian prince.

  The next thing I know, it’s four in the morning and we’re in my hotel room, listening to records at full volume, and the hotel staff are telling us to keep it down and Niccolo has LSD and he’s telling me he loves me and I’m saying that I know it sounds crazy but I think I love him, too.

  SIMONE: I wanted to see her and I had a few weeks off between gigs and I was a little worried about her, which at this point was just status quo. So I bought a plane ticket.

  DAISY: Over the next few days, I told Nicky everything. I bared my soul to him. He loved the music I loved. And the art I loved. And the pills I loved. He made me feel like he was the only one that could ever understand me. I told him how lonely I was and how hard it had been to work on that album. And how I felt about Billy. I didn’t hide anything from him. I opened up and just let it pour out. And he listened to it all.

  At one point, I said, “You must think I’m crazy.”