CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 19

DYLAN BORNSTORM

THOSE THREE YEARS SEEMED A HUNDRED TO HIM.

Dylan had aged a lot because of drugs and drinking, but he wanted to be on stage, no matter what, if it was to end his career, he would give it his all in those three years.

He went out with most of the fans, he was never the type of star who lived surrounded by security and police escort, Dylan hung out with people, frequented the same places they did, many of them went to his house, and Dylan to their house, it was a very close friendship.

Dylan never wanted to buy a car because of that, his life was indifferent to what others thought. He loved to ride the bus and train, it was something pleasant for him to be simple, he couldn't even say for sure if these fans were the fruit of his imagination, or if they were real fans, maybe, many of them were real, and many of them just an illusion, but Dylan knew he lived through very special days.

Dylan was always busy — or busy. When it wasn't the shows, it was interviews for magazines and television shows. When it wasn't the studios, it was awards parties, if not, parties with friends. At that time, what he did most were friends, he became a new Billy, who helped everyone around him.

The band invited a very famous guitarist to compose the band — Johan White — the guy was a phenomenon on guitar, much better than Billy — he was also just as crazy. He went to live in his apartment as well — as Billy left his apartment to Dylan in his will because he vehemently hated his family's butchers.

Everyone in the band was very happy and we decided to continue playing instead of stopping.

Dylan started teaching Johan the same things Billy had taught him — it didn't take him long to learn...

After all, wrong things are learned a lot easier — he wasn't as insecure as I was...

Then the good old life came back, Dylan had someone who took care of him again, who wouldn't let him sink into his illusions again.

It took a while, but little by little, one by one, the illusions went away.

Dylan started to ease into drugs, but even so, the tour had been a real success.

DYLAN AND JOHAN STARTED writing the new album, it was a true masterpiece. In the morning, they wrote the songs, in the afternoon, they rehearsed the songs and at night we played the shows, they stayed that way throughout the tour. When they least expected it, Jon and Paul said they were invited to be part of Brooke's new band, she was going to pay them double what they were making playing with them — it felt like the world had come crashing down on Dylan again — maybe if Johan hadn't been on his side, he would surely have killed himself.

Dylan decided to continue with the band — just the two of them — they played some shows with guitar and voice, saying it was a new project, but the truth is that they didn't have a bassist and drummer, but they couldn't leave the audience talking alone.

At that time, the best songs they could write in all of history came out and they made another live/acoustic album, because they knew they would depend on the support of the public to stand at that moment.

They were the covers of all the band magazines announcing the end of our band, but we knew it wasn't the end...

It was just the beginning...

Yet another fresh start for Dylan and the name he'd helped make. Maybe he should stop, he already had enough money for twenty peaceful lives.

When everything seemed to be working out for everyone, after all, both Dylan and David were having an absurd success. David had just released a phenomenal song called A Lifetime Love.

It was a little after eight in the morning when the phone rang, it was Paul desperate on the phone saying that David was on television in trouble.

DYLAN WAS WATCHING TELEVISION and he couldn't believe everything he saw, the camera focused right on the passenger of the speeding vehicle, it was David in the car, it was indisputable, the whole country had stopped to see the outcome of that cinematic scene.

When the car flipped, as Dylan remembers, it was the first time in his life he had prayed for someone.

DYLAN WANTED TO GIVE new flights to his career. As soon as they released the acoustic album, they were once again a worldwide success. They won several awards with the album.

That time, yes, they traveled all over the world promoting their work, they were no longer a rock band, they were a pop band, we played on all the radios, they had countless fan clubs around the world and I made a point of getting to know one by one where we were going. Maybe that was our secret, I was never an artist inside me, I knew I was a normal human being, but I also knew that the new crowd was like that too, they didn't play for money or for success, they played because they liked what they did.

Suddenly, playing was as pleasurable as the first time Dylan sang at his brother's wedding.

Then they started to invite them to do specials on television, realities shows, it was great to have the approach to the public. They had already gotten used to being on the covers of magazines, each week with a different girl, I couldn't have a friend and that's it, there they were stamping the main music and fashion magazines...

Dylan Bornstorm and new affair...

But Dylan never cared about that, the important thing was that this time everything was different for him.

Johan started dating a model — Jill Stratty — and had solo projects too, he already played with several singers and had an extremely solid career outside the group.

At the same time, Dylan began to do a television show on a music channel, talking about the life of an artist, what day— to— day life was like. It was a relative success, because at that point in their career, they no longer needed to play every day of the week to publicize the band's name, or even to earn money, they already had it all.

When Johan married Jill, then everything was different in the band, he skipped concerts, never answered calls for rehearsals, that's when Dylan thought...

Okay... here we go again...

It was a very stressful tour that one. He missed at least seventy percent of all the shows the band played — it was a total disregard — I always had to play in his place, and each day I gave the audience a different excuse, while the next morning I was in the papers. the real reason Johan didn't come to play with us.

He was arrested numerous times for illegal possession of drugs and trafficking — all because of Jill, who always managed to get away with it because her father was a strong politician in the country, but Johan always got it wrong and ends up taking over everything to protect his beloved.. Until the day he asked to be released from the band, as he didn't want to tarnish the band's image even more...

Okay... there was another guitarist, one who dies, and the other because he wanted to kill himself...

At first Dylan didn't want to accept the idea of the band breaking up, but Doug Irwin and Claus Bay — the musicians who replaced the former bassist and drummer also decided to leave — so Dylan was alone again and announced the end of the band., because we were at the height of our careers and it was better that way, because that way people would have a good impression of the band.

Everyone wanted Dylan to go solo. Dylan didn't say no or yes, but he was open to proposals, as he had some good songs on paper, but now I had to work on them alone and it would be complicated for me, maybe impossible.

Dylan received a lot of encouragement from fan clubs around the world.

He had to finish the whole tour by himself, over a hundred shows with an improvised band.

Dylan never saw any of his old teammates again, both from the old formation and the new formation... mainly because of a completely unexpected fact, the sudden death of David.

Dylan decided to take a vacation, a year to relax and to be able to make a new album peacefully...

But this time alone...

DAVID'S DEATH brought him a new perception of life, life was full of ups and downs, he had already done all kinds of crazy things in life and he was alive, David who was the exemplary son, didn't smoke, didn't drink, was dead.

The wake was chaotic, David's parents were suffering a lot, Dylan didn't have the courage to get close to them, and it was already complicated, because in addition to David being the biggest music star at that moment, which already caused a certain furor, he was also a music star, and he was also causing quite a bit.

When Dylan arrived at his house, cried like he hadn't cried in a long time, called his mother and talked for hours with her, he didn't know exactly what had changed between them, it shouldn't just be the fact that she had separated from her father for his cause, but he did not even go into the merits of the matter.

Trying to talk to his father was shooting himself in the foot, Dylan figured the old man must be too happy to pay attention to anyone other than himself.

FIRST, DYLAN worked on the fan club idea, to do a special with the best songs on an acoustic, so he would have more time to work on something new. Dylan was just traveling on this one-year vacation, away from everything and everyone.

Dylan got to know wonderful places like Rio de Janeiro, Constantinople, Rome and many places he didn't "know-yet" because in many places, he would go down from the airport directly to the stadium to do the show, and as soon as he was done he would go straight to the hotel to rest. or get drugged.

Took a cruise through Greece which was wonderful and relaxing.

Dylan got to know new musical rhythms, even played in restaurants that admired his work, but playing for the pleasure of picking up an instrument and making a sound — like people did around a campfire — because he didn't have the privilege of doing that when was a child or teenager for being too closed to the new and exciting things that life can bring us.

He knew that no matter what happened, life would never be the same after that vacation.