Chaired by Johanna Thomas-Corr, held at Toppings & Co Bath – In conversation with Taylor Jenkins Reid
So, if you haven’t heard of Daisy Jones or Taylor Jenkins Reid lately, you must have been hiding under a rock. Its
Taylor knew from an early age she wanted to go to Hollywood, and eventually got there by attending University there and an early career break took her into casting – she cast Robert Downey Jnr as Iron Man – but it was a meeting with Jennifer Aniston that led her into writing, DJ&T6 is her 6th novel and by Jove,
My Review:
I for one am shouting from the rooftops that you need to read it, and now. The hype is real – it really is that good.
Yes, it mentions drug use, the trials of addiction, rehab, sex, and of course music – but its more than that, its friendship, coming of age, siblings, dominance, forgiveness, family, love, rivalry, justification and truce.
Daisy grows up in LA, with parents that are too busy with their own lives to worry about Daisy, so it’s not long before shes hanging out in bars, having sex and taking drugs with rock stars. She’s hungry for fame, fortune, and adulation but doesn’t know it all (despite what she believes) and won’t get it by being a groupie. She effortlessly talented and can sing. But she doesn’t want to just sing anything, not covers or other people songs, she wants to sing her own songs – but isn’t that great at writing them, yet. But she looks amazing, knows how to handle any situation and looks older than her years.
And this is where Billy, Graham, Pete, Karen, Warren, and Eddie come in. Having already become The Six. They started out as a garage band and quickly evolve as the new hot young Band to have heard about. This brings about its own problems, being the 70’s drugs were rife, anything goes on tour and this basically brought about Billy going to rehab – under instruction from his beloved wife and mother of his chilren Camila.
The Six being at the same Record company, Runner Records, as Daisy – they soon get paired up and become ‘Daisy Jones and The Six’ – so, Seven really.
Pretty soon they have a hit album, written by Daisy and Billy together. This means more touring and time on the road. Daisy hits rock bottom and need to shake herself out of it, and asks Billy to help her. But a turn for the worst happens and instead of making them, it breaks them.
I absolutely love Daisy Jones and The Six – Its 70’s Rock n’ Roll heaven, I honestly was left with a feeling of sadness when I finished because, as many have said, you start believing that the band and Daisy are real, you wonder what they are doing now, you want to hear the music, buy the album, that’s how well TJR has written this oral history.
DJ&T6 has been written with a sense of drive and determination, it sings its own praises and if you haven’t read it – Order it now, because you should. You’ll be left with a sense of friendship, equality, and warmth, that will stay with you and empower you. I loved how it ended and without any spoilers how it felt like it was molded by certain characters.
Book Talk, Q&A & Meeting Taylor Jenkins Reid:
And so, it was off to Bath on the train, 1/2 an hours journey from sunny Swindon for me. Bath is a beautiful city and Topping & Company Booksellers shop is well worth a visit if you are in the area, you
Chaired by Johanna Thomas-Corr, Journalist and book critic. Johanna escorts Taylor through how she got the idea and wrote it, so seamlessly.
Taylor said she grew up listening to one of my favorite bands – ‘Gun N’ Roses and had pet parakeets named Axl & Slash” not the 70’s music you imagine shes written so passionately about it DJ&T6. Which meant a lot of research for Taylor, watching documentaries and listening to music she hadn’t before, such a The Eagles – how they hated each other – but on stage they were a band, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Linda Ronstadt – one band spiraled into another. Having formed this idea from seeing Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac, their stage presence and how you could see that they were a couple in love, despite what might be going on in the rest of the band.
The book does pay homage to some real living characters that were around at the time – Bowie, Mick Jagger – but Taylor said she “would never put words in living people mouths” and is precious about referencing them.
Taylor said she felt intimidated writing the music for the book and her Husband Alex, her Father in law and her brother helped her with the more technical musical terminology, being musicians. Taylor narrated the characters. She thought carefully about their names and how their personalities would work together, how they would speak, who would swear – “both Billy and Daisy are wounded and crave approval , they’re hungry and are both very similar, no group of friends can get along all the time, everyone has different opinions and had they been real characters, they would have forgotten the real story because it was 40 years ago and they were all so high!”
Taylor said she’s not cool, she’s not cool enough to hang out with rock stars – I beg to differ, Taylor oozes cool and I’d be more than happy to hang out with her and Daisy Jones and The Six, any day.
Having read about TJR and listened to interviews, I’d heard that Taylor was keen to try all things foodie where ever she is – so, being in Bath, I took her a Sally Lunn Bun – a traditional semi-sweet bun dating back to Victorian times. Talyor said she’d heard of these, and was interested to try it. I think I will now forever be the
Her publicists Laura and Jocasta are also incredibly welcoming and I’d like to thank them both – Jocaster for sending me the ARC in the first place – and wearing the most fabulous 70s vibe styled outfit, and Laura for the kind gift of a Daisy bag – I love it! It was so great to meet you both after countless tweets.
If you’d like to buy #DaisyJonesandTheSix https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Taylor-Jenkins-Reid/Daisy-Jones-and-The-Six–2019s-first-pop-culture-sensation—Telegraph/23094948
Daisy Jones and the Six is being made into a 13 part Series for Amazon, directed by Reece Witherspoon, Taylor
@tjenkinsreid @laurabrooke59 @jocastahamilton @penguinrandom @HutchinsonBooks #DaisyJonesandTheSix
