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Chapter 12
Les Mis rehearsals stopped for New Years. Howie headed back to Florida, he had a previous commitment to keep, and Anne had to stay in New York. She hung out with MTV for New Years Eve, any exposure for her was good, she had a new single to come out in the early weeks of the new year. Anne finally got to meet Gwen Stefani, an addition to hearing No Doubt play again, she was walking on air. When the play opened Howie and Anne were greeted with good crowds and good reviews. On one of their Mondays off Anne took Howie to see Rent, he loved it.
"I'm telling you Howie, all of you could probably hack it as theatre kids."
"No. Are you sure?"
"Yes, completely.
You can sing, of course, and dance, plus all of you have
at least a little acting experience. I could see A.J. or Nick in Rent, easily,
especially A.J., he'd make a good Roger, but I think Nick could be a good Mark.
I see Brian in a more classic role, like Raoul in Phantom, or even something
in Les Mis, he could kick butt in Jekyll and Hyde, he's got the range. Unfortunately,
he would never do it because of the show is so dark, that's a real shame. A.J.
has the personality to be great in that show, but his voice is too low, he doesn't
have the high notes. Kevin, hmm, what could he do? He's a bari, maybe a high
bari, I'm not sure exactly where the tessatura of his parts are in relation
to his whole range. Perhaps Ragtime, I do love that show, yes, there is a part
or two in there he could pull off. Or I could see him playing Javert, in about
ten years, Kev's got the range, but he's too young, I rarely see a guy under
forty playing him. Oh listen to me go on, see what happens when you get me on
a topic I love?"
"Okay, the tessa-what of his parts?"
"Tessatura,
it means where most of the notes fall in the staff, sorry, I'll
stop throwing out all those fancy Italian technical terms."
"It's okay."
"We should check out that show, Ragtime, I mean. You'd like that one too."
"I like most shows I see."
Howie was called
away to Los Angeles one weekend during the play. The
American Music Awards, were that Monday, and since there was not a show that
night, he stayed in Los Angeles and represented the Backstreet clan who were
scattered about the county doing various things. He flew back to New York the
next day, and picked up right where he left off, in Wednesday night's show.
When Ryan returned from his honeymoon on the 22nd, he soon resumed his role. The last show Howie and Anne played together was a somber one. As she finished A Little Fall of Rain, she let her head fall limp against Howie's shoulder. A tear slipped down her cheek, she was sad they were going to be parted, it felt like they had just begun their run together. When they left the theatre, she glanced at an open program on the ground, this was the last night their names, Rose Gray, and Howard Dorough, would be listed together. Tomorrow Ryan would resume his role as Marius, Howie would fly to Los Angeles to do some work on the new album, and Anne would stay in New York, with Les Mis. She played her last show on February 5th. Now it was back to 'life as ususal,' touring. Her third single, a dance track, Hope, was charting well, although Anne knew it was not as strong as Stars, which had gone to number one, her first number one single of her career. Also she had been given one Grammy nomination for Stars, and was thrilled, and would take a few days off from the tour to attend. Jacob insisted any chance she had to get out into the spotlight, she take.
The Crossroads Tour, was all planned, Anne had no choice of where or when she played. She was off to Europe to play eighteen shows in almost a month, and then after a week off she would do a 25/25 tour in the US. Anne enjoyed her time off from being The Rose as best she could, although she never really had time off, she had too many things to do with the tour. Her major concern at this moment was finding a back up band. In all her previous touring she never had worry about it, she always borrowed the headliner's band, and most of the session musicians she recorded with seldom toured. She recruited Mickey without much effort, they had gotten along for years, and he loved touring, he considered it a cheap way to see the world. Mickey connected Anne to Tony Erickson, a bass player, and Will Parker, a keyboardist. She liked how they both played, when they auditioned for her. Now she had drums, bass, and keyboards, but lacked guitar, and back up vocals. It was now time to call in some favors. Anne had known Adam Stuart ever since they had gone to school together. He was very talented and happened to be at the right place at the right time, New York, running out of cash, and willing to play anywhere, the tour was an easy sell. Vocalists were easy to think of, tracking them down was another matter.
"You want me to what?" Angela Vincent, Anne's old friend asked. After Anne had finally managed to find her in Florida.
"Sing on tour with me."
"You're kidding right?"
"No, come on, why not? It'd be fun."
"Well I don't
know, I was just cast in this new show, I'm sure my director
would just be thrilled if I got out now, it's a good job," she said sarcastically.
"I understand. Think about it, will you? We'll be going to Europe, it's only for a month or so, plus it'd look really good on a bio sheet."
"You've got
a point, I'll talk to my director and I'll see what I can do.
It does sound like a blast."
With Angela on board, that only left one vocalist slot to fill. Anne knew who to call.
"Emily, it's Anne. I'm calling in that favor."
"I was wondering when you were going to do that, what's going on?"
"I want you to sing with me."
"Are you nuts? That means I have to be on stage."
"Yeah, so?"
"Anne, I'm a teacher, not a singer."
"Bullshit,
you're good, and you know it. Come on, what do you have to
lose. It'll be good money, you could get a head start on paying off those student
loans. And you wouldn't start teaching until next fall anyway. I got Angela,
and Adam Stuart, it's like a whole little HHS reunion."
"Okay I'll do it, I do owe you one, when do we start rehearsals?"
"The ninth."
"Of March?"
"February."
"Are you insane? That's in two days."
"I know, look,
it'll be easy, just get out here to New York, you'll take to
it, I promise."
"If you say so. I'll do it, exactly where are we going?"
"Europe."
"Okay, let me rephrase that, where in Europe?"
"Um, Paris,
Berlin, Rome, Milan, Barcelona, London, Dublin, there are
others but I can't think of them right now."
"Well it sounds like fun."
"Oh it will be."
"I'll see you in a few days."
"Okay, bye, Em."
"Bye Anne."
After Anne hung
up the phone she had a minor revelation. "Shit, I need to
score out the harmonies for Ang, and Em to learn. Oh man, I'm dead, stupid time
crunch."
The crew assembled in a Manhattan studio, on the ninth. No one spoke, except for Anne and Mickey, going on the road was a new experience for everyone.
"Well," Anne said. "I guess I'd better get everything started. You all know me, I'm Anne, except when I'm on stage, then I'm Rose. You can call me whatever you like, but when I'm out in public, Anne, does not exist. It sucks, but it's the way things have to be. You're all talented, or you wouldn't be here, if we can pull this off this will be the sweetest tour. I'm just going to quick introduce everyone since most of you are just meeting for the first time," she said. She noticed Emily, Angela, and Adam were all standing together, a little apart from Will and Tony, and Mickey was standing out by himself. "Okay this will be short and painless," Anne began, listing off the people gathered around her in the circle. "Mickey Shumaker, drums, Will Parker, keyboards, Tony Erickson, bass, Adam Stuart, guitar, Emily Hunter and Angela Vincent, vocals."
The band now complete, they got ready to work, there was a positive vibe in the room. Everyone got along well, Will was the oldest at thirty-two, then came Mickey at twenty-six, Adam was twenty-five, Anne and Angela were both twenty-four, Emily at twenty-three, and Tony was the baby, at twenty-one.
"Okay so how did she get you?" Angela asked Emily.
"She got me BSB tickets for when they come to Breslin in March. You?"
"She slipped
Steph and me backstage passes when we were at their Detroit
show this fall."
"That's cool."
The band worked
well together, and was ready to go before their deadline.
They were supposed to ship out on the sixteenth, Anne decided before she left
to go surprise Howie with a visit on Valentines Day. Security let her into the
venue easily, people still remembered her. Anne quietly made her way to the
stage door, a MIS she did not recognize stopped her.
"Where do you think you are going?"
"I'm Rose, I was going to go backstage to surprise the guys."
"Right," he sarcastically said. "Do you have a pass?"
"Well no,
I didn't think I needed one, this was sort of a spontaneous
thing."
"Sorry without a pass, you can't get backstage."
"But I'm Rose,
I don't think I really need a pass, I toured with these guys
for months."
"I'm sure you're Rose, but sorry I can't let you backstage."
Anne was frustrated,
she could not believe this was happening. She looked
through the door and saw a glimmer of hope. "Jimmy," she called out,
another MIS came up.
"Well hello there, Rosie, it's great to see you again, what are you doing out there?"
"This guy won't let me backstage."
"Really? Sean,
I know you're new, but there are some things you need to
understand. Some people do not need passes. Do you know who this is? Miss Rose
is Mr. Dorough's girlfriend. Good rule of thumb, if they are related to the
Boys, or are dating one of the Boys, they do not need a pass. Can you please
try and get that through your head?" Jimmy scolded, Sean. "Come with
me Rosie," Jimmy escorted Anne through the door.
"Thank you, Jimmy, I owe you one."
"Don't mention it, you always made my life easy."
"Jimmy, I'm
heading off to Europe Wednesday, and I could use a bodyguard.
Wanna job?"
"Sure, that would be great, I was only on loan to these guys for a few weeks." Jimmy went back to being on fan patrol, and Anne did her best to find Howie. She did not see him, so decided to try and stay out of sight, in case he did show up. She wanted to surprise him.
"Bonjourno Principessa," Anne heard echo from behind her, the voice brought a smile to her face.
"Hi Howie," she said, and then noticed the other four guys were also there. "Alight, which one of you let him watch Life Is Beautiful on the tour bus again?" she asked. All the guys guiltily looked away and Brian quietly started whistling. "Okay, stop."
"Well, we...a have to be going, now, so we'll see you later, Anne," Brian said, he and the other guys started to leave. Nick did not really move, Brian nudged him with his elbow.
"Oh, uh yeah, I'll see you later, bye."
"God I've
missed all of you guys," she told Howie who had his arm around
her. "Happy Valentines Day, I come and try and surprise you, and you end
up being the one who surprises me."
"It's no big deal, I'm glad you came," he said, he was smiling.
"What are
you grinning at?" she asked him. "What's going on, you know
something?"
"Kristin's here."
"No way, I haven't seen her in so long, I would love to talk to her."
"Kevin bought her a ring."
"Well that's sweet, it is Valentines and all."
"No, one of those rings."
"You don't
mean...he's going to? Oh my God, that is so cool," Anne said,
very excited.
After the show, Anne caught a plane to New York, the next evening the entire crew would fly to Europe. The next afternoon she was watching TRL, while packing the last of her things in her suitcase. When John Norris came up to do the news, which was concerning the Backstreet Boys, Carson made the comment about not shooting the messenger. This worried Anne, with the way they prefaced the story she assumed it must be a bad thing. "Okay, who got hurt she wondered?" The video cut to an interview they guys gave. 'See, I'm engaged now...' Kevin said. Anne screamed out of pure excitement, she started jumping around her room and doing a happy dance. "Oh yes he's getting married, oh yeah she said yes, Kevin's getting married," Anne half sung as she danced. After she finished packing up she was off to the airport. The flight was long as always, but smooth. After one brief incident with the press, who always seem to be around, in Europe, things got underway.
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