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Summary
The Numbers Tour, 1976-1977, Chapters 1-2
The Numbers Tour, 1976-1977
The Six continue to perform in L.A. while they prepare for a tour and their album gains popularity. Daisy runs into the band at a venue they frequently play, the Whisky, when she’s out with her manager Hank, whom she had started dating. Billy feels as though Daisy has intentionally forced his hand by showing up at the venue, and he invites her to sing with the band. They perform “Honeycomb,” and the crowd goes wild.
Chapter 1
The Six goes on an international tour for SevenEightNine, and despite Billy’s protests to Runner execs, Daisy joins them as the opening act. Billy struggles to remain sober while on tour, so he has Camila and Julia join him. But because Camila is pregnant with twins, she is only able to stay for the beginning of the tour. Daisy does a good job of warming up the crowds for The Six and the stadiums are packed, filled with adoring fans of both The Six and Daisy. “Honeycomb” hits the top 10, and the band heads to the European leg of their tour. Now six months pregnant, Camila stays home with Julia. Daisy starts to gain more buzz and is eager to get her own songs recorded, especially one called “When You Fly Low.”
Karen and Graham start a relationship that they keep a secret from the rest of the band. Daisy starts hiding her drug use from Karen after Karen calls her out on taking too many pills on their flight out of Stockholm. The interaction leads Daisy to seek more drugs from Hank, who supplies them readily. Daisy knows Hank isn’t good for her and breaks up with him the night before a major concert. When Hank takes Daisy’s backup band out of spite, Daisy performs her original song solo and the crowd loves it. Billy joins her on stage and the two perform “Honeycomb” a cappella into the same mic. Billy is impressed by how easy it is to work with Daisy even as he makes changes to the tempo as they perform. Karen says both Billy and Daisy make it seem like the other person is the only one in the room while they sing together. Daisy stays onstage for The Six’s set and Jonah Berg, rock journalist for Rolling Stone, sees the performance.
Meanwhile, Eddie is furious with Billy for taking control of the band, borrowing his guitar during Eddie’s opener with Daisy, and making a unilateral decision not to extend the tour. Eddie feels like his vision for a rock ‘n’ roll band isn’t living up to Billy’s direction. Billy is oblivious to Eddie’s feelings and simply says that he has to get home to Camila to be there for the twins’ birth
Chapter 2
After the show ends, Jonah hangs out with the band, and Billy and Daisy end up singing on top of the piano while Karen plays. Karen, who thinks that everyone is putting on an act to impress Jonah, wonders if Billy would have sung with Daisy if the reporter wasn’t there. Billy and Daisy begin to feel a genuine connection and have a great conversation, and Daisy invites him back to her room so that they can continue talking. Billy, who knows that Daisy has coke and fears that their burgeoning relationship might put his sobriety at risk, declines, leaving Daisy feeling rejected and embarrassed. Billy decides that going forward, it will be safer for him to hate Daisy than to love her. Jonah writes an article entitled “The Six That Should Be Seven”, and Billy is upset by Jonah’s claim that Daisy should officially join the band.
Analysis
Throughout the novel, Daisy goes barefoot, symbolizing both her uniqueness and her role as a subversive force. When she takes the stage for the first time with Billy, she’s not wearing any shoes, suggesting that she is a free spirit who doesn’t care about the conventions of the world. In a sense, Daisy is often bare to the world, choosing to dress however she wants, even if she’s not wearing much, because that’s how she’s most comfortable. Daisy gives little thought to how her attire affects other people, and her devil-may-care attitude both garners a lot of attention, such as when she captivates the audience at a show, and rubs a lot of people the wrong way. For example, when Daisy takes the stage, Billy thinks that she should put some shoes on, and his initial response to her lack of shoes is a sense of judgment. In a way, as Billy pursues a more traditional path of sobriety, marriage, and fatherhood, Daisy’s hedonistic, artistic persona, embodied in her bare feet, feels like a threat to him.
As Daisy and Billy begin to mirror each other’s best and worst impulses, Billy chooses to distance himself from her as a means of self-preservation. After their first successful performance, Daisy and Billy begin to connect for the first time, talking about the music they both love. They share a love for the art that saved them both, and this conversation marks the very beginning of their intense artistic collaboration. Their connection is thwarted, however, by a confusing mix of sexual and narcotic temptation. Daisy thinks that Billy has rejected a perceived romantic advance, perhaps foreshadowing their future romantic entanglement. This points to her fraught relationship with intimacy and to Billy’s previous struggles with infidelity. In reality, however, Billy avoids Daisy because of the cocaine in her hand, reflefcting both of their struggles with substance use. Though their artistic connection is profound, generative, and successful, the mix of temptations that mark their relationship is dangerous for them both. Recognizing the intensity of their connection, Billy chooses to hate Daisy and distances himself from her in order to protect himself.
In the early days of the band, the media is not only reporting about the formation of Daisy Jones & The Six but is co-creating it. When Jonah observes Daisy, Billy, and the rest of the band, they all behave differently than they normally would, suggesting that the very act of being observed by the media changes them. Billy and Daisy get along better than they might have otherwise, and Karen wonders if Billy would’ve even performed with her on top of the piano if the reporter hadn’t been there watching. It proves difficult to tell what is real during this early part of the band’s success, especially when the band is being scrutinized by the press. When Jonah’s article comes out, he mirrors the band’s performance back to them, which means, in essence, he mirrors back an idealized version of themselves. He also suggests that Daisy join the band officially By suggesting this in the public forum of Rolling Stone, Jonah changes the trajectory of the band forever. In this way, the media both reflects the band’s idealized makeup and permanently shapes the band’s history.
