Unknown | Warren Rojas

Iris

Rod Reyes (manager, The Six): Billy Dunne was a rock star. You could just see it. He was very cocksure, knew who to play to in the crowd. There was an emotion that he brought to his stuff. There's just a quality that some people have. If you took nine guys, plus Mick Jagger, and you put them in a lineup, someone who had never heard of the Rolling Stones before could still point to Jagger and say, "That's the rock star."Billy had that. And the band had a good sound. 

Billy Dunne: When Rod came up to us after that show at the Wreckage...that was the watershed moment. 

Rod: When I started working with the band, I had some ideas. Some of which were well received and others...not so much. 

Graham Dunne: Rod told me I needed to cut out half of my solos. Said they were interesting for people that loved technical guitar work but boring for everyone else. I said, "Why would I play to people who don't care about good guitar?" He said, "If you want to be huge, you gotta be for everybody." 

Billy: Rod told me to stop writing about stuff I didn't know about. He said, "Don't reinvent the wheel. Write about your girl." Hands down, best career advice I ever got. 

Karen Sirko: Rod told me to wear low-cut shirts and I told Rod to eat shit and that was about the end of that. 

Eddie Roundtree: Rod started getting us gigs all over the East Coast. Florida to Canada. 

Warren: Let me tell you the sweet spot for being in rock 'n' roll. People think it's when you're at the top but no. That's when you've got the pressure and the expectations. What's good is when everybody thinks you're headed somewhere fast, when you're all potential. Potential is pure fuckin' joy.

"The last thing I'll say, and this is key. You need to get the f*ck out of Pittsburgh. You want to be signed to a label, you want to work with Jimmy Miller, Tom Dowd, Teddy Price..." Rod Reyes trailed off, speaking to the Dunne Brothers, as the Six used to be called.

"You know Teddy Price?" Billy asked excitedly.

"Yeah, man. I know everybody, and they're all in L.A. now. Not London, not New York. California, my friend. That is the place you got to be."

"I'm in," Billy didn't hesitate.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, me, too," Came Graham's response.

"Yes," Then Karen's.

"Give me a call," Rod said, before leaving to catch his flight. 

Aza: I remember the day vividly. Rod had recently gotten back from his trip to the East coast. He wouldn't shut up about them, had his phone nearby in case they called. I had just gotten back from getting us breakfast, actually, when I met them.

"Oh, here he is."

"Hey, that's him. That's him."

"Rod, hey. Uh, it's, uh, Billy Dunne and the, uh... The Dunne Brothers. We met at The Staircase
in Pittsburgh, you know? You said I could call." Aza listened with amusement through the buzzer at Rod's gate. She giggled.

"Come on in," she said melodically, before turning around. "Roddy Rey, your boys are here!" The group looked at her and she motioned for them to follow her to the back of Rod's house, where he was sitting out in the patio, sunbathing. 

"Ah, Az, so glad you brought breakfast," he said nonchalantly. 

"Of course Roddy Rey, anything for you," she then chucked the bag at his head, giggling when he failed to catch it. 

She then scanned the four boys, and the woman with them while Rod droned on about how they didn't call, they just showed up. The man doing the most talking, Billy Dunne, seemed like the most typical narcissistic front man she'd ever met. His brother, who stood near him at all times, seemed quiet and kind. There was a blonde boy who seemed to hold some resentment for Billy, based on his body language. Then, there was the fourth boy. He couldn't have been much taller than Aza, and he had curly brown hair that was stuck to his forehead with sweat, clearly not used to the California heat. He was staring directly at her with his jaw glued to Rod's concrete patio with the most intense eyes Aza had ever seen.