The Mighty Storm (The Storm 1)

Jake’s intensely private. He talks about his music when he has to for PR of course. But he never talks about himself outside of that.

Which is funny, considering how he lives his life - very publicly in many ways – the drinking, the drugs … the women.

Vicky shifts uncomfortably in her seat and grimaces slightly. “Well, it doesn’t matter how I got it – just that I did and you’re going to do the interview.”

“What?!” I almost reel backwards off my chair.

“Don’t look so surprised. You’re my best writer, Tru, and well … you’re my only music writer. And you have this huge connection with Jake, you grew up together for crying out loud! He’ll open up to you more than he would anyone else. You could land us an exclusive here.”

“Oh, no.” I’m shaking my head, rapidly. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

I might be a journo, but I do have this thing called morals. I’m not going to spread Jake’s guts all over the magazine in the name of news.

“It’s an excellent idea, and we need this, Tru.” Her normally smooth features furrow. “Sales are rubbish at the moment, and this exclusive with Jake Wethers will give us the boost we’ve been waiting for.”

Ugh. She’s right. It will be good for the magazine, no, scrap that, it will be amazing for the magazine.

All I need to do is get a great interview from Jake and keep my morals at the same time.

Holy fuck! Is this really happening? Am I really going to see Jake again after all this time?

A frisson of nervous energy passes through me.

He probably won’t even remember me. It’s been twelve years.

“Okay. I’m in.”

“That’s my girl.” Vicky smiles, clapping her hands together.

“When and where?”

“Tomorrow, 10am, at The Dorchester.”

“Tomorrow?” I feel another, much larger, shot of nerves rush through my blood.

“He’s only here in the UK for a few days. This is the only window we’ve got.”

“Okay … should I book Jim to go with me?” Jim is our photographer.

She shakes her head. “No pictures. We’re to use old press photos. You’re going in solo, gorgeous.”

Crap. I was hoping for the back-up.

I swallow down the nerves ramming up my throat and nod. “Okay.”

“Don’t look so nervous, you’ll do great, Tru. Oh, and here’s a review copy of the new album–” She picks a CD case up from her desk and peers down at it, reading. “– Creed … ahh,” she murmurs knowingly. “…anyway, have a listen before the interview, and it’s not released yet, so remember–”

“Guard it with my life.” I take the CD from her and start to walk away.

“I bet he’ll be delighted to see you,” she sings from behind me.

I look at her over my shoulder, pulling a face at her, I stick my tongue out.

She laughs. “Well maybe not with a face like that he won’t.”

I grin, and then with my new Mighty Storm CD, and the heavy weight of the interview on my shoulders, I amble out of her office.

I slump down in my chair at my desk and look at the CD in my hand.

Okay, so tomorrow, at 10am, I’m going to see Jake for the first time in twelve years.

Jake Wethers, the man who used to be the boy I loved.

Jake Wethers the biggest rock star, and most wanted man in the world, tomorrow will be sitting before me giving me an interview, and I haven’t got a bloody clue what I’m going to ask to him.

I put Jake’s album into the disc holder in my Mac, plug my headphones in and start to listen as the music flows into my ears.

I pull the insert booklet out and start to read through the track listings. Then I flick to the back page to read the dedications.

There’s one person I know, without doubt, who this album is dedicated too.

The person who co-wrote the album, and who it’s named after – Jonny Creed.

Jonny was Jake’s best-friend, lead guitarist in TMS, and his business partner, and he died in a car accident a little over a year ago.

Jonny’s car crashed through a barrier then rolled down a steep ravine in LA not far from where he lived.

I saw the pictures in the news the next day after it happened. His car was totalled.

He never stood a chance.

There were no other cars involved in the accident, and after the autopsy was done it was revealed that Jonny was way over the legal alcohol limit, and the level of drugs in his system was enough to take down a small horse, or so it had been reported.

The accident happened late at night, and the police said Jonny could have been swerving to avoid an animal in the road, or maybe, because of the alcohol and drugs, he could have fallen asleep at the wheel, though there’s no evidence to prove either to be the case.

The press have speculated that it was a suicide. But the bands spokespeople have vehemently denied it, and there was no evidence to show that Jonny was depressed in anyway at all.

His life was good. He was at the top of his game. He had everything to live for.

The band took his death badly. Jake even more so. And his pain was splashed all over the pages of the press for the world to see.

Jake upped his drinking and his drugs, and then fell in the worst possible way when on stage in Japan eight months after Jonny’s death.

It was the band’s first show since Jonny’s death. Jake was wrecked. He could barely talk, let alone sing. When the crowd got antsy at the poor show, he berated them. When they heckled, he unbuttoned his jeans and urinated on the stage.

He was arrested for public indecency.

I saw the clips of the show after it happened. It burned my heart to watch.

He was so far from the Jake I had seen over the years in the press, and even further from the Jake I remembered and once loved.

He was lost to grief, trying to bury it with drugs and drink. And for that one moment he lost control.

It could have ruined his career.

Luckily for him it didn’t. If anything, it only catapulted his status higher and the world’s obsession with him further.

He is the ultimate bad boy of rock.

Jake was fined for his behaviour in Japan and thrown out of the country. Soon afterwards he went into rehab.

He’s spent four months in rehab and has been out for the last four weeks, and is still maintaining a low profile.

But I know that’s soon to change, hence the interview, as the band has the album, which Jake and Jonny wrote together, to release and promote.

For a while there was a worry among the fans that the band wouldn’t go on when Jonny died, but from the press release that TMS put out a month ago, shortly after Jake got out of rehab, they said the band was Jonny's life and love, and that this album, his last and now his legacy, was his best to date. And also that if they didn’t put the album out, Jonny would more than likely come back to kick their asses for quitting now.

And this is not me being cynical, I just understand the music business, and well … basically the band is what keeps the music label riding high, and you see Jake owns the label that TMS are signed to; if it’s possible to sign the band you are in.

But basically, if the label falls because the band quits, then that’s an awful lot of people out of work.

When TMS first started out they were signed to a small label, ‘Rally Records’, but as the band rapidly grew, becoming one of the fastest growing bands ever and breaking sales records worldwide, basically becoming a phenomena, Jake grew too. And him and the guys soon outgrew the small label they were signed to.

It’s well documented that Jake is a shrewd businessman for his young age, and a serious professional, barring his drug and alcohol addiction, and the pissing on the crowd incident. It's also widely reported that he is notoriously difficult to work with.

Apparently, he was once quoted in the press as saying, ‘When you’re the best like I am, and give only the best, why is it so wrong to expect the same in return.’

That, I can believe. Because that reminds me a lot of the Jake I knew. Never one to mince his words or hold back from sharing his thoughts.

So when the band felt they were too big for Rally anymore, they walked away from the label, buying themselves out of their contract.

The figure has never been reported. But I’m in no doubt they could have afforded it.

Jake is rumoured to be worth around $300 million and growing, they say he earned $90 million in the last year alone.

So when they left Rally, Jake and Jonny set up ‘TMS Records’ together, put the band onto the label and have been signing other growing bands and musicians to the label ever since.

Well, until Jonny died that is.

When Jonny died his half of the label naturally went to his parents. It was reported that Jake bought them out, as per their wishes, because it was too painful for them to have any involvement with the label after losing Jonny.

So now Jake runs TMS alone. And even in rehab, he had maintained running it from what I’ve heard in the business news.

But even with Jake’s combination of music and business talent, it is sadly not what he spends most of his time in the news for.

Pissing on the stage in Japan aside, Jake was already tabloid fodder for his drinking, partying, and women. He works hard, and plays harder. He goes through women like most people go through loose change. He has dated some of the most beautiful women in the world. Actresses, models, singers, the list goes on and on.

More recently, he’s been quiet on that front, obviously from being in rehab. But now he’s back, clean and ready to reclaim his place in the news, and the charts.

Maybe that’s how Vicky got the interview.

Jake will be keen to show he’s back and means business. If anything, surprisingly, Jake and TMS’s popularity has increased since the Japan incident.

The fans love his outlandish behaviour. Men want to be him, woman want to screw him … most wanting to be the one to tame the untameable Jake Wethers.

All Jake did that night in Japan was immortalise himself as the rock god people always believe him capable to be, putting him among the ranks at the young age of twenty-six.

It’s crazy, he left the UK when he was fourteen and then four years later the band was signed, and they were hitting the big time when he was twenty.

Such a fast rise. And I wonder, if he can achieve what he has in only eight years in the music industry, just imagine what he’ll be able to do in twenty.

But all of this aside, ignoring all the gloss and the money, all I see when I look at pictures of him is my old best friend, Jake Wethers. The guy I used to have movie and pizza night with. The guy who helped me bury Fudge, my pet rabbit when he died. And sat with me holding my hand all day while I cried over his loss.

It’s just been so long and we’ve been apart so long, our lives taking such different paths, what will we even have to say to each other? Anything at all? Will he even remember me?

My phone starts to ring, breaking my reverie. I pull my earphones out and answer the phone.

“Trudy Bennett.”

“Hey gorgeous.”

My heart melts a little. It’s my very lovely, very gorgeous blonde haired, blued-eyed, smart boyfriend, Will.