Millennium Festival 2003

“Bottom’s up!!” dad yelled. We clinked our shot glasses together but we felt devastated because as of today, dad is retiring from being our bassist. This show that we will play tomorrow is going to be his last gig with us and I couldn’t help but cry. Yeah, I may hang with the guys and everything but I’m a woman you know. I can’t help these emotions from coming especially at that time of the month.

“Oh God, Lzzy! Are you crying?” Damn it RJ. Can’t you be a little bit louder? I’m already embarrassed from crying in public and now you wanna rub the salt on my wound?

“Lzzy, don’t cry! I’m just getting old. I don’t wanna be in the way of you guys making it big.”

I pulled dad into an embrace and cried on his shoulder. Eventhough I’m the eldest but I can’t deny that when I’m with dad, I’m practically his baby daughter.

“Promise you will go on tour with us, if we ever get one?”

“Of course, darling.” He kissed my forehead and clinked his glass with mine.

“So, tonight do we have to sleep in the van again or what?” RJ asked, downing his shot in one go.

Yes, among the times we jumped from gig to gig, while waiting for Larry to hook us up with huge festival like this, we had to bunk in our crammed van filled with instruments and bags. Unless the show provided us a place to stay then we would be so content with it.

“Tonight I’ll book us a hotel. With a separate room for Lzzy so she doesn’t have to shower in public restroom anymore.”

I chuckled and rested my head on dad’s shoulder. “Thank you dad.”

~*.*~



My palms are sweaty as I checked myself in the backstage mirror. I wore a leather sleeveless jacket with my leather skirt and a pair of leather gloves on my arms. A rock star gotta wear leather stuff once in a while. It’s compulsory. Heh.

My Gibson SG strapped on my shoulder and I can feel butterflies roamed inside my belly already. Listening to the voices of the crowds, murmuring, yelling and screaming our names are like a shot of drug into my vein.

David fucking Ellefson was speaking on the stage about his achievement in founding Megadeth until now and I couldn’t wait to meet him face to face. I gotta take a picture with him. Or ask for his autograph on my Gibson or something. I threw a glance at dad. He was smiling listening to RJ and Joe’s argument about random things and my eyes pooled again.

This is the last gig I’ll have with dad. We are on our own after this.

“Hey Lzzy, you’re ready?”

I turned around and my eyes widened at the sight of Larry, our manager and Matt beside him. What the hell is he doing here?

“Hey Larry,” I hugged him briefly but my eyes still glared at Matt. “Yeah I guess I am. What are you doing here?”

“We’re here to check up on you.”

“Check up on us? Why, do you think we can’t make it?” Poor Larry, I was actually ranted it out on Matt.

“No, no. It’s the opposite. We wanna watch your awesome performance. It was Matt’s idea.”

I raised my eyebrows. Matt was blushing hard that his face just turned into a vivid red. He gritted his teeth and whispered into Larry’s ear but I can hear him.

“Damn it Larry. Why do you sell me out?”

Larry chuckled nervously and patted my shoulder, saying good luck before leaving us to head towards dad, RJ and Joe.

“I thought we suck so bad that you don’t wanna see us play?”



He blinked at me and fiddled with his cap. Now that I’ve noticed, he actually looked pretty good without that awful white powdered make up and dark eyeliners. He wore a cut off white tshirt that wrote Fuck Cancer and he removed his lip piercing. He looked really…normal. Except for those amazing sleeve tattoos down his huge biceps, he looked totally like himself.

“Yeah, I gotta see how far you’ve become. How many songs on the setlist?” he smirked proudly. Damn just when I was about to get on the good side of him!

“Just five.”

“Same songs from the EP? That One and Done?”

I was taken aback for two things. One, he mocked us for repeating our songs without new material to perform and two, he actually listened to our EP?

“Why, do you have a problem with our setlist?” I crossed my arms on my chest and glared at him but shit it didn’t affect him one fucking bit. Instead he mimicked my action and crossing his huge arms on his broad chest too.

“No, not at all. It’s just a little…redundant you know.”

This guy. Can I smash his pretty face now?

“Don’t be so cocky, Shadows. Your screamings are bad. It will do you no good if you keep it up. You won’t go far.”

“Wow, what does your setlist have to do with my screaming?”

“Nothing and so does you. So just shut the fuck up and mind your own fucking business alright?!”

His eyebrows elevated, but somehow he smiled. That made my anger rose up so much.

“Heh, you think I’m hot, Lzzy.”

I did not expect that at all. Seriously. What? That…that stupid game happened like several months ago! What was the name of their drummer again?! I’m gonna kick his ass once I meet him. I don’t care where.

Matt drew closer to me until the distance between us was separated by my Gibson SG trembling under my angry fingers. “You think I’m so hot that you actually like hearing me scream didn’t you? You hoped I’ll be screaming your name instead?”

I tilted my head up, my eyes dark from repulsiveness against his words. “Get a fucking grip, Shadows. I hope you scream for mercy once I’m done with you.”

“Ohh, I like where this is going.”

“Shut up! What I meant was I’m going to beat you up like a piece of shit and leave you in the alley somewhere to let you be eaten by the mice and bats.”

“That’s…sexy.”

“Sexy? I’ll show you sexy!” I raised my hand to slap him across his face but he caught it so fast that I flinched under his touch. His palm was cold. Yeah what do you expect? We were standing right underneath the air conditioner.

“Why does this turn me on so much?” he whispered. Oh my God! This sick, sick bastard! I wriggled my arm away from him and backed away. I heard David announced our name and I gave a last middle finger to Matt, but he was smiling.

Son of a bitch.

~*,*~

We were starstruck as hell, meeting the legendary founder of Megadeth, David Ellefson and handed our EP into his legendary hands!

“Thank you. I will listen to it in my car, at my home, in the studio, everywhere.”

Me and RJ jumped in glee hearing those words from him. “Thank you, Dave. You’re the best! We really appreciate it!”

“No problem. You guys are amazing anyways. Got any record deal yet?”

“Um, we’re heading that way. Still searching for the right one.”

“Really? So no full album yet? Strange. It’s been…how many years have you guys been in a band?”

“Seven. But just three years ago we got ourselves a new guitarist. Long before that it was only me and my brother here.”

RJ waved, still starstruck seeing David face to face. David laughed and patted his back. He became even more ecstatic.

“Look, don’t give up. You guys are definitely on the right track. Your voice is amazing Lzzy. Don’t let people tell you the opposite. About the record deal, I’ll see what I can do about it.”

WHAT?! Seriously David is gonna…?!!! Wow!! This day couldn’t get any better than this!!

“Hey, uncle Dave. We better head back. Mom is gonna kill me if we’re home late.” Suddenly came towards us, a tall man, with a straight facial expression but he was pretty good looking. And his lean body bent from behind the stage curtain to call Dave from behind. Dave looked at him and immediately introduced him to us.

“This is my nephew, Josh. Josh, meet Halestorm.”




Josh came out entirely from behind the curtain. Wow, he’s pretty gorgeous from up close. Especially when he smiled, that thin lips of his just curved up into a sharp killer smile when he shook each of our hands. When he took my hand, he brought it to his lips and kissed the back of my palm.

I felt a grip tightened on my shoulder and I looked to my left. It was Joe. He gave me a bitter smile and stared menacingly at Josh. I know how protective Joe can be towards me. He was like an older brother to me.

“Josh here, plays bass too. Just like me.” Dave explained and my jaw dropped as I gasped loudly.

“Really? Dude, that’s awesome! We gotta see your band play someday!”

Josh pulled out two tickets from his wallet and shoved it to me. I read the venue; Palladium Theatre, LA.

“We’re gonna play there next week. Opening for Metallica.”

“Shit, really?”

“Yeah, us and some other bands too. Come check us out.”

“Oh we should!”

Oh too bad. I was gonna ask him to be our bassist but he already in a band. After that we said goodbye to Dave and Josh and headed back to our hotel.

Notes