The Rich Boy in a Rock Band

Epilogue ♪ I Love How We Rock N Roll

The Best Rock Band of Our Time

A short article by Ellen Young for Teen Stars Magazine

Hi, guys! It's so great to meet you and be able to take a few minutes of your packed agenda to just have a nice chat.

Quinn: It's really great to meet you as well.
Vera: Your articles are wonderful, we're so lucky you decided to choose us for a feature, really.

Thank you so much! It feels surreal to get praise from the #1 hard rock band of the year.

Ashton: It's not praise when it's pure facts, you know? We read your articles while we're on tour, it's humbling to read about people who are doing greater things for society.
Ellen: You're going to make me blush.

We've all followed your development from your early Youtube days, but how was it for you, personally, to be high school students and suddenly be propelled to international fame?

Madison: I always knew I was destined for greatness — ow, guys! Stop hitting me. I was just joking.
Link: What she means to say is that it was a roller coaster ride. One second we're wannabes, just teens playing at rockstars, and the next second we were being recognized in the streets. It was so weird and for a while it went to our heads too much. Especially this one here.
Madison: Hey!
Vera: For me it was terrifying. I was used to being a total wallflower, and it was embarrassing as hell to suddenly be in the public eye. I guess a lot of people dream of fame, but fame also means scrutiny and the loss of privacy. One wrong move, no matter how small, could even be the end of our dreams. I thought I was going to be freer by pursuing what I wanted to do instead of what society demanded of me, but instead I had to be even more careful.
Ellen: That makes sense. But what do you mean you were a total wallflower? I can't possibly believe that!
Ashton: She's a looker.
Madison: A total babe.
Quinn: I agree.
Link: She's alright.
Vera: Gee, stop y'all.

How was it like to sign with Fueled by Udon and be label mates with bands that you grew up admiring, and then beating them at awards in the same categories?

Ashton: Absolutely and unequivocally flabbergasting. Not even in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that happening. I think I cried the day we signed our contract with the label.
Link: You think? You wept like a babe.
Madison: And I have pictures to prove it.
Ellen: Can I see any?
Madison: Let me see if I have some on my phone... Hah, there we go. Look at him, all sorts of things running down his face.
Ellen: Aw, but that's the face of utter happiness right there.
Quinn: That's the face of someone who has worked harder than anybody else at making his dream come true, and the second when it does. I think Ash was by far the most affected of us that night.

Did you all have a dream of making it big in the music industry?

Quinn: To be honest, no. That was all Ashton and Lincoln's deal from the get go. I was seriously gunning for the MLB, actually.
Ellen: Really? One of my best friends is a junior coach in the MLB and her boyfriend is a pro baller.
Quinn: Oh yeah! I've seen them on your articles.
Ellen: What about you, ladies?
Vera: I was just determined to go to college. I didn't even know what to study. All I wanted was to get as far away from where I grew up as possible and what do you know, life gave me precisely that down a completely different path!
Madison: I was pretty adrift in my life back then. It's no secret that some of us come from families with large fortunes, but being the embodiment of a living porcelain doll and marrying a rich man was not really the life I wanted for myself. My parents and I got into a lot of fights about it and I almost got disowned when I dyed my hair black, and then again when I chopped it all off into a pixie cut. To them appearance really had been all that mattered. But then we started being successful commercially and suddenly they were proud of me. That was rough, and it still is, but I'm happy with my newfound purpose of being the best goddamn bassist in the industry, regardless of how feminine or not I may be perceived as.