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  "Cookie was partying and drinking a lot, probably doing some drugs too, though it never interfered with her performance. She was taking a whole lot of the spotlight, despite the fact that she couldn’t play a note and that I was the creative force of the band. She started buying into her hype and playing the star. She wanted more front vocals and she wanted to be the only star, something that wasn’t about to happen with me in the band.

  "She was deluding herself badly. She didn’t have the charisma or the talent to carry a show by herself. I was the leader and she and I had a good banter, but as time grew on I started to depend more on Trip and Teri for the comic bits. Cookie was making herself less and less needed by becoming more and more difficult. By the beginning of 1986 the tours had ended and it was just about time to hit the studio and record again.

  "Cookie was invited to the sessions, but she chose not to show up. The band had pretty well closed ranks against her by this point. I was her only remaining defender and her conduct was starting to put me off. We started recording tracks, figuring that I’d have to get her into the studio to sing after the music was laid down. I started singing on tracks that normally I’d shunt over to Cookie for her smooth and sexy vocals.

  "What surprised me is how good some of them came out, especially when I took my time and sang without playing an instrument. The sessions were half way over when it came towards Grammy time in 1986, and we were up for a snootful of them. Best song, Best Album, I was up for best production and a whole bunch of other technical awards. Cookie started showing up again and was making some waves about wanting to go solo, but being stuck in a contract with me prevented her from doing so. Her conduct was starting to piss me off and I had had just about enough.

  "She and I had a major fight a week before the Grammys. She said that if she were allowed to she would go solo. I wasn’t willing to go that far, but I told her that if she wanted out she would be released from her contract. The only way I was going to let her out intact at that time was if she waited six months to release any new material and that she relinquishes all claims to the Cole’s Inquisition material."

  "She agreed to that?" Amy asked incredulously, "I’d have told you to bugger off."

  "She wanted out," Mike said simply, "And I was pissed off. She had pushed my buttons for too long and I knew that I could complete the new album without her. By the end of the day she was released from her contract and out of Cole’s Inquisition.

  "We held off on telling the world for a while. I was originally going to let the Grammys be her send off, but the band was totally against it. They wanted to be rid of her then and there. Trip, who’d known her longest, and Teri, who loathed her the most, both threatened to not play in the Grammy Telecast if Cookie was to be allowed into the show.

  "I spent a day or so thinking about it, and decided that Cookie could really make us look bad if she sang. Not to mention, while I could play all of the instruments of the band, I couldn’t play all four of them at once. I let it ride until the night of the Grammy awards and told them not to admit Cookie for the rehearsals, as she would not be playing that night. It took a while, but I finally figured out how to sing Red Lines and play the guitar. Mainly I slowed down the guitar line and let Trip add some more bass to it. Teri was able to take the dead time with the additional keyboard lines. Teri had become a very good rock and roll keyboardist by this point.

  "Cookie was extremely offended by the betrayal of the band, despite the fact that she had been released from it seven days earlier. She was allowed to come up on stage to collect awards with us, it would have been unseemly if we didn’t give her that much, but when it came time to do Red Lines she sat there in the audience red in the face with rage."

  "I think I remember what comes next," I mumbled in recollection of 1986.

  "Shhh," Amy said, "Let him tell it his way."

  I nodded and looked down at the cooler. We were down to our last two cokes. Both Amy and Mike were empty, so we took this interruption as a chance to use the restrooms and stand up for a few minutes. I went inside the store, which Myrna had closed up a couple hours before, grabbed a fresh bag of ice and another case of coke. I brought it out and dumped both into their cooler. I figured it was the least I could do.

  Mike came back from the camper and sat back down into his chair. He fired up another cigarette and offered the pack around. I passed, remembering how lousy the ultra lights were, but surprisingly Amy took one and lit it with a twig she pushed into the fire. I looked at her and she shrugged with her best ‘If you can’t beat em, Join em’ grin.

  "Where was I?" Mike asked.

  "Doing Red Lines at the Grammys," Amy prompted him.

  "Oh yeah," Mike remembered, "She was truly pissed. I think the thing that pissed her off the most was that I did the song better than she had been doing it for the past few months. There were three more awards that night. Best male vocalist, best song, and record of the year. We were nominated in all three. I lost male vocalist to Don Henley, which still pisses me off 'cause I hate that SOB. I won song of the year, but collected alone because that award goes to the songwriter, not the performing band. The last award was the one we really coveted, because it was the one that meant career independence for me, guaranteed. I won it, and the entire band, including Cookie, came up to collect it.

  "I made the first speech, thanking the rest of the band, including a specific thanks for Cookie to keep up appearances. Trip followed, saying a few short words thanking his family and me. Teri made a dramatic speech with absolutely nothing about Cookie. Ron thanked his family and me, and then it finally became Cookie’s turn at the mic.

  "Cookie started out good, but just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, she thanked her family, her friends and stated that quote Justin Cole can kiss my ass unquote. I was shocked that she would say that on national television. At least she had the decorum to walk offstage before she flipped us the bird, though that was caught on film for later use.

  "There was absolutely nothing I could do about her conduct, as she’d been released officially a week before. It turned out to be the singularly dumbest thing she could have done, as it pretty well destroyed any chance she had for a solo career. None of the studios wanted her, especially when the press caught wind of what she’d pulled on us during the previous months."

  "Shot herself in the foot, eh?" I said, "Sounds like another casualty of letting your head get too big for the door."

  "That’s the truth," Mike said with a sigh, "It was also the last time Cookie darkened the band’s door. It thoroughly destroyed any chance of a reunion at a later date. When I released her I figured I’d let her go on her own for a while and if she crashed and burned I’d try to work her back into the fold. She lost any and all chances for that.

  "The work on the new album continued with renewed vigor, as we were determined to top the success that we had had with the first one. We designed the master for the new digital format, figuring that it would take over eventually. The cassette version had two incidental tracks removed to even out the sides. The LP version contained the whole album on two LP disks, which allowed us to remain a double unit.

  "The album was finished by the end of May and I had it packaged and ready to go by the end of June. They wanted some advance press on it, so they slated the release for the second Tuesday in August. The fans were impatient and I suggested releasing an advance single, both on CD and Cassette single, featuring the title track That Was Then, This is Now, two album cuts that were not being considered for singles, and the six leftover cuts from the sessions for the two albums. They loved the idea and that LP was put together in a marathon session of the entire band trying to smooth out the rough edges, especially Teri’s keyboard on the leftovers from the first album.

  "That Was Then, This is Now, the maxisingle debuted at #4 on the charts and rode on the top ten for about six weeks. Not the magic we’d had with Red Lines and Timing for Jenny
, but for a maxisingle priced at eight bucks for the cassette and twelve for the CD, it was phenomenal. It wasn’t really meant to break records, but to be a gift to the fans who’d been waiting for new material.

  "The album was received eagerly by the public. I never felt it was as strong as the other albums, and by the end of 1986 I had begun to loathe most of it, especially the synthesizer overloaded songs that really date the album. The second single, the first one released after the full album hit shelves, was a song that I would truly learn to despise. It was entitled Does Love Exist? and was done in a manic twelve hour stretch with Teri and me doing all the instruments. It was mostly synthesizer and it was one of the worst examples of 80’s synth pop to date.

  "I think the thing that pissed me off the most about DLE was the fact that the song shot straight to number one. I had second thoughts about releasing it, but the record company prevailed upon me. And to be honest, it did make me one hell of a lot of money.

  "We had hit the touring trail again, this time as a quartet, just after album sessions had ended and we’d figured out how to do some of the major songs without Cookie’s presence. Trip and Teri seamlessly filled in the banter gap that she should have left. The shows were a lot more fluid, and we were previewing a lot of material for an eager public.

  "The tour was becoming arduous, as the singles that we were required to play every show started to piss me off. That was Then got really old after playing it four nights a week, and I had all I could do not to spit when I sang the words to DLE. Some of the other singles hit me better, but none of them were as popular as DLE was. I realized at this point I was finally beginning to burn out."

  It was also at this point that the sky decided to pour out above us. The storytelling for the night was over with, as Mike and Amy moved the cooler under the camper and bade me a goodnight. I told them that if they wanted to do it tomorrow night the dinner was on me, provided Amy would prepare it again. They enthusiastically agreed, as they seemed to enjoy my company as much as I did theirs.

  I went into the trailer behind the store where I lived and just laid down to sleep on the couch. I didn’t even bother trying to go to my bed. I wasn’t in the mood for dealing with my wife that night. I hit the pillow and was asleep almost instantly. Those late nights were not something I was used to anymore.

  Chapter 5

  I had a slight reprieve in the morning, seeing the note that Myrna had decided to go off and visit with her brother for the next two days. That was just fine with me, despite the fact that it meant that I was stuck with the store for the time being too. Not that we got a whole lot of customers anyway. I got up and got myself cleaned up and actually put on something respectable.

  I went out to the store to take care of the morning rush, mainly campers who had run out of toothpaste or were running low on food. Not to mention the few locals who find our little store more convenient than the supermarket about ten miles away. I took the morning deliveries and after seeing they were put away, I did my morning rounds around the grounds.

  Surprisingly, everything was going well, we hadn’t had anyone check in or out for a couple days and I was expecting a few of them to go today. I saw Amy sitting outside reading a book when I walked past their lot. She waved and said hello. I asked where Mike had run off to, and she said that he was still sleeping, probably would be up around the store in a few hours though. I told her I’d be there, seeing as Myrna stuck me with it for the day.

  She smiled, and boy that smile would be enough to send any man’s heart a flutter. I nodded my head to her and made my way back to the store, unlocked and sat down behind the counter to greet customers and take Myrna’s place. I didn’t mind too much though, I had planned on providing the dinner for tonight’s get together and this would make it a mite easier to get something good.

  Mike breezed into the store around two in the afternoon, tossing his cigarette into the gravel as he entered. He sat down on one of the stools and I pulled out a couple cokes. We talked for a while about current events, marveling at just how well informed he was. I guess he must have either access to the internet or a TV satellite.

  At the end of the conversation I told him I’d be closing up the shop around six or so and would join him then. He said that was fine and that he looked forward to it. Then he was gone again. I sat the rest of the afternoon and waited on a few more customers. At six, I picked out a good size roast from the meat cooler and wrapped it up. I brought out the last of the vegetables, knowing we’d be required to toss them the next day anyway. I also grabbed a bottle of the special seasoning that the guy down the road gives us to sell for him.

  I put a sign on the store directing people to Coleman’s lot if they needed emergency service during the night and went on over. I handed Amy the bag with the roast and vegetables. I put down the heavy bag with the sodas and ice and Mike went ahead and prepared the cooler, emptying out the old water and dumping in the new sodas and ice.

  Amy went inside and came out about 30 minutes later with three foil wrapped packages, which she placed in the fire that Mike and I had built by this point. We then sat down to our now customary positions while the food cooked in the fire. Mike lit his first cigarette of the evening and put his feet up on the block of wood he had set up for this purpose.

  "Where did I get to last night before the rain started?" he asked us, "I can’t even remember."

  "You were starting to burn out from the constant touring, I believe in the first part of 1987," I reminded him, eager to get him talking again.

  "Oh yes," he said as he exhaled some smoke, "In the start of 1987 we took a touring break, despite the fact we still had singles on the chart. It was then I made a fateful mistake."

  "What was that?" Amy asked.

  "Going right back into the studio," he continued, "I had some ideas and they were as far away from the previous album as I could get away with. The first track, which I had written after seeing a war torn area of Asia, was called No God and was a complete attack on the religious systems of the day. I had banned both drum machines and the synth sound from the previous album. Ron was pleased, but Teri wasn’t. That rift started to grow and by the end of the first week of sessions, Teri and I were no longer romantically entangled. She stayed with the band, she knew her meal ticket better than Cookie did, but it was a tense time.

  "We did our usual work, but it was more cantankerous in the studio. I became more dictatorial to keep the sessions under control. It took us only a month to finish the sessions, but took me a further two to make a coherent album out of the mess. I often had to jump into the studio to rerecord an instrument track that didn’t sound right. Trip and Teri considered this an insult, though Ron was used to it and I didn’t have to do much to his work.

  "I finally got the album, which I named after the song No God, ready in April. I even directed the video myself. The first part has me, dressed in military garb, swinging through a stained glass window, the glass shattering over Trip and Teri. I proceeded to land and sing the song. Of course, the whole thing had blasphemous overtones and when it was released earned me a nice shit storm from the religious right.

  "MTV wasn’t ready for that controversy yet, Madonna’s Like a Prayer video was still a good two years away. They pulled the video from its rotation, a move that served to really piss me off. The album was musically better than any of its predecessors, yet was receiving a critical beating just because it was different than the previous one."

  "What did you do after the MTV ban?" Amy asked.

  "I told them to go fuck themselves," Mike said simply, "I released no further singles from the album. The relationship between the rest of the band and myself had deteriorated and a tour would have just destroyed us all. The last studio session we had in the 1980’s occurred in July 1987, when we recorded the title track for that year’s James Bond movie."

  "That was you?" I asked, "I always liked that one. It was the o
ne with Timothy Dalton, wasn’t it?"

  "Yep," Coleman affirmed, "And that movie would change my life for the next couple years, to be honest. By the time that movie came out I had officially placed Cole’s Inquisition on a hiatus. Trip formed his own band and Teri was off doing session work, having become quite good at the keyboards by this time. Ron played drums for the Grateful Dead while their original drummer was too ill to play.

  "At the premier for that Bond film I met a young actress who played a small part in it. She and I got along really well, starting a relationship that would last for several years. She also got me into acting for the first time. I started with a couple small parts at the end of 87 and the beginning of 88. When producers found out that I could really act, they decided to use my name recognition and cast me in starring roles.

  "I did about fifteen movies during the period from 1987 to 1991. A couple of them were action blockbusters that I still find amusing to watch. I also found time in between films to produce other people’s albums again. A few of the projects included Debbie Gibson’s follow up album, one of Mojo Nixon’s albums and a few tracks for Tom Petty. I think the Nixon album was my favorite, because I spent more time laughing than producing."

  "Did you have any further contact with Cookie Thomas during this period?" Amy asked him, "I thought you worked with her again."

  "Surprisingly enough I did," Mike said, "I forgave her for the Grammys and agreed to produce a comeback album for her. The sessions started in early 1989, but folded quickly because she became difficult again. She was also heavily addicted to cocaine by this point, something which I refused to tolerate. The record company pulled the plug after two weeks, mainly giving me an out that I couldn’t be blamed for.

  "Cookie started deteriorating rapidly at that point. My girlfriend and I saw her fairly regularly, as Cookie was well known on the party circuit. She was known for sleeping with anyone who would have her and doing as much alcohol and coke as she could stand."