“Ruby, you have to sing out!” It was late on a Saturday night. The rock opera band was rehearsing in a rundown makeshift studio on the second floor of a car repair shop and tensions were running high as opening night drew close. I was going through my usual bouts of insecurity, being surrounded by all the pros, and two other very gorgeous back-up singers who were way more sure of what they were doing or at least pretended to be as such. We were actors after all. Also, by that time, my crush for Brad had developed into full-fledged this-is-a-guy-I-definitely-need-to-have-to-get-close-to. I was feeling the fear, and the lack of confidence that seemed to rear its ugly head every time I was in the presence of greatness. Brad was great. The band was great. The girls were great. I was the weak link, trying to get my vocals to match and sound powerful. I didn’t want to face the fact it was kinda out of my league, but I persevered despite the humiliation. It didn’t occur to me that Brad might have made things easier by having our parts clearly written out rather than expect us to join in whenever it sounded right. The woman who was doing the musical direction and accompanying us on keys pointed this out, but she too was a big fan of Brad and gave him carte blanche to take his artistic vision wherever he wanted. He was the visionary rock n’ roll artiste, "Beelzebub", and things were not so structured in his universe. This oddity enamoured me even more, and I found myself being drawn to his orbit.
After the rehearsal, Brad drove me and one of the other pretty back-up singers who was actually playing the female lead in the play. Something magical happened that night when she asked Brad to drop her off at a friend’s instead of her home which was close to mine. I thought he would drop me off first, and was disappointed that I wouldn’t get a chance to ask him out for a bite to eat. My chance was staring me smack in the face as soon as the girl was dropped off at the friend‘s. I moved myself into the front seat. We were driving back into town, and I had to act fast.
“Um…do you feel like getting a bite to eat?”
“Sure.” That was fast!
To be continued...Blog 3
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