D.M.S.R. (BOOK 1) || PRN

(10) Studio Secrets

It had been an entire two days since my album was released and things were going well... Sort of. I had not done any interviews, any shows, nothing. But I did see a lot of billboards and pages in magazines or newspapers. I refused to look at the chart placement because I was far too nervous. I sat back, eyes closed and fingers crossed, hoping it was doing good.

I recall one particular day where I was in rehearsals in preparation for my first show. It started in Illinois and went out deep into the country from that point. I stood on the stage, microphone in hand, going through the choreography for hours upon hours. "And five, six, seven, and eight." We repeated the count with our every move over and over and over. I'd been stumbling on the same move all day. Eventually, my foot fumbled and I fell straight to the floor. "Fuck!"

"Watch your damn mouth!" Uncle Dorian was walking in and of course he made his grand entrance. Lenetta laughed from the edge of the stage. She was sitting with her feet swinging. I, still not fully recovered, sat on the floor, glaring up at my uncle and my janky 3/4 of a team. "Good news and bad news. Which do you want first?"

"Bad." Bad news is always best to pick first because then you can cheer yourself up with the good news. Uncle Dorian wasted no time talking,

"Although, we've already scheduled the dates an arena double booked you in Iowa it was either you or Michael Jackson..." He scratched the back of his neck. "You know how that one went." I sighed. It was shitty in the moment but it could have been worse.

The funniest thing about that ordeal is that every time Michael and I talk about it, he has not a single recollection of that. He was already in the realm of not knowing what day it was. It took me a while to understand but once you do, it becomes all you know.

"Gag me with a spoon," I sighed as I lied down flat on the stage, still looking at my uncle from the floor. "Okay, what's the good news?"

"Uh, well, I thought I'd come up with a lie by now..." He looked around in an awkward manner. Glaring, groaning, grumbling, doing it all, I rolled over until I could pull myself up and carried on trying to figure how to manipulate my body into understanding the simple choreography given to me.

My attitude was obvious and very disrespectful at this point,  "Anything else you need to say?"

Uncle Dorian shook his pants leg to get lint off of his suit, I'm assuming. He sat next to me on the edge of the stage with a face that tells me more bad news is to come. "Uhhhh..." He stalled a little harder. "Due to this inconvenience, you'll have to stay in Minnesota for an extra two days, one of those being a show, then the Iowa show is rescheduled to the end of the tour!" He gave me an optimistic grin but I'm wasn't in the mood. It was rude but I was annoyed. I remember how I just sat there looking around, completely freaking out and stressed until he spoke up again. "Smile, Cupcake! It's gone be alright... Don't stress over the small things. We're easy breezy." I nodded, trying to force his advice to seep into my brain. He pulled me into a quick bear hug and before his release, he said to me, "Now get your ass up there and learn that shit."

With that being said, I pushed him off of me and laughed. Uncle Dorian went off somewhere outside. Lenetta was now sitting in the front row seat and ready about to tell me how the show looked as we did a run through. "Alright, Tee, we're taking this baby straight from the top!" I yelled up to the stage manager, Terry. He remained my stage manager for another three tours. Terry ran over to a huge board and I just did my best not to fall again.

Sometimes I still struggle to remember my setlist from that first tour because it was such a blur but when I think hard enough, I remember that I can simply ask around. According to Lenetta and an old tour program in my home, the set list went in this exact order out of the songs on the album.