BITTERSWEET TRAGEDY-DAISY JONES AND THE SIX

003: the six

ARACELY: I continued to play with the band Karen was in. It gave me this fire that I craved. I won't lie, it was hard. Being a performer and a single mother. Luckily my sister; Marissa, stood by me. She was there at every performance watching Mara for me. I was so lucky and blessed to have her by my side.

MARISSA (the youngest Gonzalez's): I knew how much Aracely wanted this, how much she craved this. As much as I wanted to be an actress it wasn't working out. I thought maybe if I stick around with Aracely, maybe I could get a hand into the acting world.

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At the end of 1970, the Dunne Brothers played a show at the Pint in Baltimore where Rick Marks, lead singer for the Winters, was in attendance. Impressed with their raw sound and taking a liking to Billy, he offered them an opening spot on a few shows on their northeastern tour.
The Dunne Brothers joined the Winters and quickly became influenced by the Winters' sound and intrigued with their keyboardist, Karen Karen.

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KAREN: The first time I met the Dunne Brothers, Graham asked me,
"What's your name?" I said, "Karen." And he said, "What's your last name?" But I thought he said, "What's your name?" again, like he didn't hear me. So I said, "Karen." And he laughed and said, "Karen Karen?"
Everybody called me Karen Karen from then on. My last name is Sirko, for the record. But Karen Karen just stuck.

ARACELY: That was the second time I had seen Billy and the rest of the band. Except this time we actually spoke to each other. He was honestly such a great guy, and incredibly talented.

BILLY: Karen added this extra layer, a lushness, to what the Winters were doing. I started thinking maybe we needed something like that. While Aracely, her voice was incredible. It was the first time I had heard her sing, and I thought to myself—we need her.

GRAHAM: Billy and I were starting to think...maybe we don't need somebody like Karen. Maybe we need Karen, and maybe Aracely too. I mean she had a killer voice.

KAREN: I left the Winters because I was sick of everyone in the band trying to sleep with me. I wanted to just be a musician. And I liked Camila. She'd hang out after the shows sometimes, when she came up to visit Billy. I dug that Billy had her around sometimes or was always on the phone with her. It was a better vibe all around.

ARACELY: If Karen left, I left. That's just the way it was, even if they didn't want me I was going.

BILLY: I hadn't even told Aracely I wanted her to join us, she just approached me and said she is joining. It was like she didn't even care if I wanted her in it or not, she was definitely something.

ARACELY: I only had one suggestion when I joined the band, and that was to change the name. I sure as hell wasn't going to perform under the name 'Dunne Brothers', does it look like I'm someone's brother? I said we change it, to something that would make us look badass.

BILLY: There were six of us, so we just became the six. That's all there really is to it. 'The Six'; Graham, Warren, Eddie, Karen, Aracely, and I. It was a perfect band. Now the real question was, would we sound well together?

ARACELY: Billy was used to being in the spotlight. After all, he was the main attraction. People wanted to see Billy, the band was almost a background character.

BILLY: I've never heard her sing, so yeah, I was hesitant. I didn't want her to ruin what I worked so hard to build. But, after hearing her sing—hearing her perform, she was incredible. As much as I hated to share the spotlight, she was an amazing singer.

EDDIE: Aracely was incredible really, she was like this fire we were missing. Not only was she an amazing singer, but she learned to play bass in a matter of days. She was so naturally good at everything she attempted. Not to mention she was gorgeous. How can someone not be in awe of her.

ARACELY: I noticed Eddie right away, in fact I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. I guess he just had that charm around me.

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As just like that, the band quickly became the six. Aracely was more of a backup vocalist rather than the main attraction. She played the bass in the back with Eddie, while Billy was the main attraction.

Together they performed and slowly gathered more attention. Everyone wanted to hear 'the six'. After Aracely joined the band, Teddy supported her with every decision and choice she made.

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BILLY: We played that show in Philly as The Six and then we got an offer to do another show in town. Another in Harrisburg. Another in Allentown. We got asked to play New Year's Eve at this bar in Hartford.

CAMILA: Billy had charisma and I fell for all that. I always did. The smoldering, the brooding. A lot of my girlfriends were looking for guys that could afford a nice ring. But I wanted somebody fascinating.

ARACELY: Billy and Camila were so good together. I hadn't known them for that long, but just seeing them together, it made sense.

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GRAHAM: Around 'seventy-one, we booked a few shows in New York.

EDDIE: New York was...it was how you knew you were somebody.

GRAHAM: One night, we're playing a bar over in the Bowery and out on the street, smoking a cigarette, is a guy named Rod Reyes.

ROD REYES (manager, The Six): Billy Dunne was a rock star. You could just see it. He was very cocksure, and knew who to play to in the crowd. There was an emotion that he brought to his stuff. There's just a quality that some people have. If you took nine guys, plus Mick Jagger, and you put them in a lineup, someone who had never heard of the Rolling Stones before could still point to Jagger and say, "That's the rock star." Billy had that. And the band had a good sound.

ROD: When I started working with the band, I had some ideas. Some of which were well received and others... not so much.

GRAHAM: Rod told me I needed to cut out half of my solos. Said they were interesting for people that loved technical guitar work but boring for everyone else. I said, "Why would I play to people who don't care about good guitar?" He said, "If you want to be huge, you gotta be for everybody."

BILLY: Rod told me to stop writing about stuff I didn't know about. He said, "Don't reinvent the wheel. Write about your girl." Hands down, best career advice I ever got.

KAREN: Rod told me to wear low cut shirts and I said, "Dream on,' and that was about the end of that.

ARACELY: Rob told me to dye my hair brown, and start wearing low cut shirts as well. Who did he think he was?

EDDIE: Rod started getting us gigs all over the East Coast. Florida to Canada.

GRAHAM: The longer we were out on the road, the wilder we all got. And Billy wasn't exactly...Look, Billy liked attention. Especially from women. But, at least at that point, that's all it was. Just attention.

BILLY: It was a lot to balance. Loving somebody back home, being out on the road. Girls were coming backstage and I was the one they wanted to meet. I was...I didn't know what a relationship was supposed to look like.

ARACELY: They began to fight a lot, and it was affecting the way he performed. One night, while we were on the road he had just gotten off the phone with Camila. I was in my room, I had just hung up on the phone with Mara. Billy knocked on my door, it was the first time he spoke to me since I joined the band. He said 'I'm infatuated with you and I'm not sure why. I can't get you out of my head, when I'm with Camila..I see you.' And then he left.