Misprinted Lies (Alice in Chains/Bruno Mars)

Put that Record On

At the end of the tour, on the very last date, we had some serious issues with sound from the beginning. We had to postpone the show for an hour while Lily worked on it.

"Can you fix it, Lily? Or should we just postpone the show?" I asked, thinking about it. "I don't think we can though. We're so close to the holidays."

"I can fix it, I just need like an hour or so."

I would tell you what she did to fix it but I don't even know...it's beyond what I understand. I knew most of the studio stuff at this point, but that was it. She worked with the venue, flipped some switches, replaced some cords, and turned some knobs. The crowd was antsy but it was the last show.

She gave instructions all band members to see if everything was in working order.

"Alright Bruno, play a chord and a scale."

I played both and the sound came out crystal clear. She smiled and clenched her fist.

"Hell yes," she yelled, standing up.

"No way!" I shouted, bringing her in close for a hug. "Just kidding...I knew you could do it."

"Rock the house, baby!" she said after we kissed.

The crowd "Awwwed" and Lily began to collect the old cords and pedalboards to bring them offstage.

"Give it up for the sexiest sound engineer ever!" I yelled into the microphone.

The crowd applauded her. My fans grew to love her. I mean, how could they not?

I flew up to Washington to meet with Jerry a few days later. He had surprises he'd wanted me to give to Lily for her birthday. I told her that I was doing promotional stuff for the second part of the tour.

I rang Jerry's doorbell. He greeted me with a smile and a handshake. His house was pretty cool. It was a big, yet older house. Jerry led me to a music room. A guitar was sitting on the desk. It was a Gibson SG, red and white.

"Wow this is nice," I said.

"That guitar was Layne's. He didn't get a chance to play it much live. We stopped performing and playing shortly after he got it."

"Lily's gonna love this," I said, thinking about the guitar I'd destroyed and still felt guilty about.

Jerry signaled his hands over to a large collection of vinyl. I flipped through it as Jerry kept talking.

"I just got this stuff a few days ago. These records were Layne's too. She probably remembers a lot of them."

"You JUST got these? Where were they?" I questioned.

Jerry sighed.

"Sorry for asking," I said.

He smiled again. "Bruno don't worry about it, seriously. We had some issues with Layne's mom, mostly with the rights to music and everything, especially songwriting. You know a thing or two about that," he grinned.

"Yep."

"We're still having issues...there's still a lawsuit. The biggest thing that happened was what happened the day Layne died..."

Jerry got extremely serious and I had no idea what was coming. He sighed again.

"A couple days before he was found, Layne's mom, Nancy, knocked on his door. There was no answer, so she left. Layne was very stubborn and private the last few months. But on the day he was found, Nancy really screwed up and we had a huge fight. I barely could look at her."

I was shocked. What did she do?

"Nancy brought the police with her he next time she visited a couple of days later. No one had heard from him in two weeks. She brought Lily with her."

My chest suddenly felt heavy.

"Lily snuck in the house before Nancy and the police officer did. She was the one who actually first found him. She was just a kid. It's not fair that she had to see that. We all knew Layne was dying, even Layne knew. Hell, Lily even knew. It was hard for her to lose him the way she did...but I mean, the fact that she found him and was the first one...just...it just made everything that much more terrible."

______________________________________________

Bruno threw me a birthday party that year with our friends and family. When mostly everyone left, it was just Jerry, Bruno, and me. They started grinning at each other.

"Alright," I sighed, smiling. "What are you two up to?"'

"Stay here," Jerry said, as the two of them went outside. I heard a car trunk slam.

When they came back, Jerry was holding a giant cardboard box and Bruno was holding a guitar case.

"These are presents from the both of us," Jerry said.

Their relationship change a lot in that past year. I took the box over to the coffee table as we all sat down around it. Inside there were records, tons of them. On top was a signed Suicidal Tendencies album. My jaw dropped as I sifted through a few more.

"No way," I gasped, looking at the two of them. "Dad's?" I asked, looking at Jerry.

"Yep. Bruno and I went through all of them. We cleaned them up and tested every single one. They all still sound great."

Jerry moved the box to another chair so Bruno could lay the guitar case down. He opened it. It was beautiful. It was a red and white Gibson SG.

"This is so cool!" I said excitedly, putting my hands on my cheeks.

"Lily. This guitar was your dad's too," Bruno said, winking. "We didn't change much...just cleaned it up a bit."

I could feel my eyes starting to well up.

"Awww," Jerry said, pulling me in close. "Don't cry. You deserve it. I'm so proud of you."

He finally said it; he was proud of me.

"And," Jerry said, "Your Dad's proud of you too. He's so proud of what you've done and that you're so happy."

"I know," I nodded into his chest.

I turned to Bruno and gave him a hug too, and a kiss.

"You guys are the best. This is so great," I smiled, feeling the soft material inside the guitar case, and then the body of the guitar.