Seductive Chaos (Bad Rep #3)(72)
Author: A. Meredith Walters

I sat down beside him. “Yeah, man. He was. He thought he had a better chance of making his big cut if I went off on my own. I told you he’d been after me to sign a contract with Deep Hill Records. I guess he went behind our back and started talking smack to the people here at Pirate. So I’m not sure exactly what they’re expecting when we walk in there. It sounded like Jose filled their heads with a bunch of bullshit.”

Jordan let out a heavy sigh and dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. Finally he looked at me with a pained expression.

“I think I owe you an apology,” Jordan said.

Mitch and Garrett stared at our drummer in surprise.

“An apology? Is the world ending?” I crossed my arms over my chest defensively.

“I’ve been a dick. And I haven’t given you the benefit of the doubt. You’re a pain in the ass. But I get that’s who you are. I should have trusted you to have our back.”

Despite the barbs thrown in, it was the one thing I had really needed to hear from him.

“Thanks, man,” I said.

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but we need to go in that room as a team. We need to take this on together. Because at the end of the day, this is our band. Our music,” Garrett spoke up.

We all nodded.

It wasn’t much longer before we were called back into a small conference room. We sat down around a table that took up most of the space. There were a couple of guys that I recognized from when we had signed our initial contract.

Danvers, the CEO, and Tate, the Vice-President of Operations. There was also a man and a woman that I didn’t recognize who had a pile of papers in front of them.

“Hi guys. I wish I could say it was good to see you, but given the circumstances, I can’t really say that,” Danvers began, narrowing his eyes as he looked at each of us. We didn’t bow our heads like naughty little school children. We kept our chins up and our backs straight.

“This is Fiona and Chet with legal. They’re going to talk through the finer points of your contract. Because apparently we have pretty big problem here guys,” Tate said, leaning forward and folding his hands together.

“Where’s Jose?” Danvers asked.

“We fired him,” I reported.

Danvers and Tate raised their eyebrows.

“Really. Well, that changes things significantly,” Danvers stated.

“I know he’s been talking in your ear about shit that’s definitely not true,” I chimed in, seeing this as my chance to set things straight.

Danvers leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his protruding belly. “Go, on,” he prompted.

“I’m not planning to jump ship for another label. I’m not looking to leave these guys and go out on my own. I’m here until the bitter end. And Jose didn’t like that. So now he’s gone. And here we are. And we hope like hell you don’t drop us. Because we made some mistakes. We messed up big time. But we can also learn. We have a better handle now on how to navigate through some of this crazy shit. And I think, if you give us a chance, we can prove you were right to sign us in the first place,” I finished, taking a deep breath.

Danvers and Tate shared a look. I wish I knew what they were thinking.

Jordan leaned forward and clasped his hand on my shoulder. “Nicely said, man.”

“Thanks for that, Cole. It’s nice to hear you all are taking this seriously. Because it was beginning to look like it was a big joke to you,” Tate said sternly. We all shook our heads.

“We take this opportunity very seriously. And we’re thankful you’ve given it to us, “ Jordan interjected.

Tate nodded before continuing. “Look, let’s get to the guts of this meeting. You’ve been called here because of your behavior on the Primal Terror tour. We signed you guys because we saw potential there. You have talent. That’s no secret. But there’s more to making it in this industry than just talent. And your unprofessional attitudes is totally unacceptable.”

He turned to Jordan and the other guys. “I understand you haven’t been happy with the direction of the publicity. Well that’s tough tits, fellas. We plan to market this album how we think is best. What do you have to bring to the table as far as marketing experience?”

Garrett, who was normally impassive, clenched his jaw. “This is our band. We know what works and what doesn’t. We have a pretty good idea of what our fans want. We just want an opportunity to talk about marketing before it’s shoved down our throats. We get that Cole is a great singer. He’s awesome at what he does. But this isn’t a one-man show. And we want the chance to market the band as a band.”

Danvers and Tate seemed to consider what Garrett had to say.

“This is the way it works, guys. You don’t have any say in how things are put out in the press. It’s the name of the game,” Tate looked at me.

“Cole, Jose had told me that you wanted out of your contract. That’s why I’m more than a bit surprised to find out that he’s no longer managing you. He seemed pretty sure of the other opportunities out there for you.”

My bandmates were looking at me but my attention was on Danvers and Tate. “Fuck, Jose,” I spat out, not caring that my use of language perhaps wasn’t appropriate for the setting.

“Like I said, I never gave him permission to talk on my behalf with you about my contract. I have no desire to terminate, nor do I plan to leave the Rejects. My priority is this album and promoting it.”

I chanced a glance at Garrett and he gave me a small nod. Jordan patted my back and Mitch smiled.

It felt good to be back in the fold.

Danvers and Tate seemed pleased but still very serious. “Okay, well that’s good to hear because we’ve already invested a lot into this release. We need to talk about where we go from here. Because what happened on the road was inexcusable. To be asked to leave a major nationwide tour does not make you look good. And it doesn’t make the label look good either. We need to rethink how we’re going to market you and this album in the best possible way. But you need to trust that we’re going to do what we have to in order to ensure you and the album is a success. Can you put your egos aside and let us do that?” Danvers gave each of us a pointed look.

Jordan nodded. “Yeah, we can do that.” The rest of us nodded.

Tate turned to Fiona and Chet. “It doesn’t look like we’re going to need you today. Thanks.” The legal department said their goodbyes and left us to talk about all the ways Generation Rejects were going to take over the world.