Just The Music • • Robert Plant

ninth

April 1st 1970 •

Georgia fully dried and did her hair by the time the food arrived. She sat and ate with the band and a few roadies in John Paul's room. It seemed everybody got a huge amount of food to sustain them for the concert. All of the band members got at least two sandwiches each and a heap of fries. Bonzo let Georgia eat off of his fries, which all the boys joked about.

"Wow, he must really like you for that," said John Paul.

"Yeah, Bonzo never shares. One time I took a mozzarella stick from him and he threw a beer bottle at me," said Jimmy with a completely serious tone. Georgia hit Bonzo's arm telling him that wasn't very nice.

"They were mine and he had his own!" said Bonzo trying to justify himself.

"Whatever," said Georgia, rolling her eyes and sipping her beer. Another thing she was amazed of in rock n' roll life was how they constantly drink. Every. Single. Person. No matter if it was the band, manager or even the sound guy. All of them were pouring brandy in their coffee and drinking beers at brunch. Georgia kept thinking about how unhealthy all of them must be, especially Jimmy and Bonzo. Of course, both were notorious for their drinking habits but the food they ate was no where near nutritious. Georgia thought that she should start pushing them to eat more balanced food while she was there, no one wants a fatigued rocker.

After lunch, while everyone was over at the concert venue setting up, Georgia sat and sketched. She was sitting in the empty audience drawing the stage with a pencil. Sitting alone surrounded by a thousand chairs was somehow comforting to her. Knowing that soon all of them would be filled in less than five hours and that very moment, she was the only person lucky enough to be sitting there alone.

 She had gotten an outline of the stage, she added the drum set and guitar stands that were sitting about. Georgia was finishing the lines on the microphone when she saw Robert making his way down the aisle. She smiled at him and closed her sketchbook. He sat down next to her with a big sigh.

"What are you doing all the way out here?" He asked. 

"Just finding some peace and quiet," said Georgia.  She held tightly to her sketchbook, suddenly she felt embarrassed to be drawing. It was like having Leonardo Da Vinci sitting next to you while you painted. 

"Treasure it while it lasts, we don't get much of that around here," Robert held his hands in his lap and looked up at the stage. 

"To think you guys are going to be up there soon, with all these seats filled with adoring fans," Georgia trailed off her sentence, getting chills by looking out into the empty seats. 

"Another night, another nickel," said Robert turning to look at Georgia smiling. His nonchalant attitude towards the situation bewildered Georgia. She couldn't imaging going on that stage, especially after seeing how much larger it looked from the audience. She bet each audience member would be able to see the sweat from Robert's head. 

"I can't believe you're not nervous," said Georgia. She looked down at her sketchbook again, holding it closer. 

"Of course I'm nervous, love. Why do you think we do all those shots before a gig? After a while, you just get used to it," he said. Robert looked down at her lap and saw the sketchbook and asked her if she had any drawings in it. 

"Yeah, dozens probably," said Georgia. 

"Well do you have one of me?" Robert said in his cocky tone. Georgia shook her head and told him no with an emphasis on the "n" sound. 

"But if you'd like one you could pose for me one day," said Georgia trying to be playful to make the conversation less awkward. Robert just laughed. 

"I'll have to take you up on that offer," he said.