Jeff and I drove to his Los Angeles home immediately to get started with ideas before it all hit me.
I had nothing and only a couple days to make something happen.
"We don't even have a studio," I said to my good friend, "yours is in London."
"You know who has a studio we can use," he then said looking at me.
My brain felt like scrambled eggs, I couldn't even think at all, let alone read his mind.
"Who?" I asked him.
"Bob Dylan," he said excitedly.
Bob has been a good friend of mine for over two decades. The only friends I've had longer than him were my previous band mates.
We called him immediately to which I was surprised he even answered. He was usually hard to get a hole of. He told us he was actually in the studio in his garage working on his own new projects with Roy Orbison.
My heart skipped a beat. This was turning into fate.
Roy and Bob were legends and my good friends. I knew between the four of us musicians we could get a song, one worthy of being a single, knocked out in no time.
"We're doing this," Jeff said excitedly as we began to drive toward Malibu to Bob's home.
"My guitar," I then sat up straight in the passenger seat as Jeff drove.
"Bob has plenty," he laughed at the absurdity.
"It's my good luck charm," I told him.
"We could go get it, and bring Tom along," he suggested. We weren't too far from there.
"Tom should be there too," I agreed.
"He could be the 5th Beatle," Jeff made a joke.
After a moment of silence we both broke out in laughter. This was starting to feel like we were creating a band with all the talent we were bringing together.
When we got to Tom my guitar was finished and he and Lauren were sitting on his patio watching Ethan play out in the yard.
"You're back!" Lauren said excitedly, "how did things go?"
"How's the groom and the best man doing?" Tom made sure to bring up the fact that we had just gotten remarried without his knowledge and that Jeff was there with us.
"About that," I laughed now wishing Lauren hadn't told him. I didn't want him to be upset right now. I needed his talents to help write a song.
I then filled them in on what happened today and where Jeff and I were headed. Tom immediately got some things together to join Jeff and I and Lauren decided to stay back while we all went to make some music.
"We won't be back for hours," I told her and she assured me she would be fine.
When we finally got to Bob's studio we all sat around talking about our projects and the guys were all determined to help me out.
"Do you have any ideas?" Bob asked me out right, "a love song, a rock ballad, a sad song... upbeat?"
That pretty much summed up the kind of songs I write. I just didn't know what I wanted. Most of the other songs on this album were songs about my life.
"Well George and Lauren are newly married again maybe something about their relationship," Tom said.
He wasted no time spilling the beans.
"Finally!" Bob said and then Roy started playing Tom's song American Girl on the piano in my wife's honor.
We all laughed. Lauren has many songs written about her.
From Tom, from Fleetwood Mac, from Paul and from myself.
"What about something about her beauty, we can do like how you miss her when she's not around," Bob said.
"I don't want a straight up love song with this one," I decided out loud and everyone went back to the drawing board and we all played around with guitar riffs.
Tom started playing his own music and then he looked like he saw a ghost.
"I have an idea!" He said finally.
"Well get on with it, then," I encouraged him to tell us all.
"Going through the motions, we all need someone to lean on. It's Lauren for you. Well and all of us are there for you but you need somebody, her body to lean on."
In that moment I was grateful for Tom's friendship and his genius. He was a brilliant songwriter, and thinker, for that matter.
Bob started playing a tune to this idea and after a moment he sang the words,
"Everybody's got somebody to lean on; put your body close to mine and dream on..."
I immediately picked up on the tune he was playing and we all started coming up with more ideas around this. Around going through the motions.
"Stuck in meetings hypnotized; being overexposed and commercialized," I sang as I played the tune.
Everyone had a newfound hope and excitement for this song as we began writing the lyrics. That's when I stared off into space at a box in the corner of the garage studio.
"What is that?" I said out loud and Bob met my gaze.
"Oh there's some equipment in there I had sent from New York."
I didn't care what was in the box but what was written on the side of it.
"Handle with Care," I said out loud, "handle me with care."
Everyone had smiles plastered across their faces and we wrote the best lyrics I think I have ever written. Just me and four of my best mates making music and coming up with a song to bring to my producers.
It was late when I finally got back to Lauren to tell her of the exciting news I had.
"You seem very very happy," she smiled as I kissed my wife passionately.
"The guys are all meeting back up tomorrow to record the song. Everyone wants to be a part of this with me," I told her.
"I'm glad, this is such a happy moment in time," she said just as happy as I was.
Ethan was asleep in the next room and Lauren and I decided to just stay at Tom's for the night since we had our bags with us and didn't want to wake up Ethan.
I shut the door to the guest bedroom behind us and I kissed my wife once more.
I knew we had to be quiet but I needed to show her how much I loved and appreciated her and needed her body close to mine.
She accepted whole heartedly and we made love for a while before then falling asleep in each others arms.
With each other in this life we will never ever know what it is to be lonely ever again.
....
The very next day I brought Lauren and Ethan with to watch us record the song.
"So you are all playing and singing?" She asked the group in amazement.
"It's going to be the biggest single that's ever been released," I said excitedly. I was so happy all of my friends were being so selfless with their time and talents in order to help me impress Mo and the other execs.
We did a few run throughs and then we pressed record. I was singing and I noticed Lauren beginning to cry over on the sofa in the corner. Ethan was sitting quietly beside her and she couldn't hold it in.
I thought briefly that maybe she was upset with some memory the song brought out but then I realized what being in a studio meant to her. Glyn was the best there was at the craft of recording music and she misses him everyday. This of course was going to be hard for her.
I let the happiness we have been feeling blind me from the fact that she shouldn't have been here.
After we finished recording I told Tom to watch Ethan and I brought Lauren outside for some fresh air.
"The song is amazing," she said smiling at me and hiding the fact she was trying not to cry a few minutes ago.
"I can see that you miss him," I said to her, "it almost makes me want to cry myself thinking about it; about him. About how Ethan will never get to see how great of a man Glyn was."
The waterworks then began to fall from her eyes. And she sprung into my arms for me to hold her tight.
"I was thinking of how he would have been here with you all, he would have been so happy at the sight of the five of you."
"Let's do something while we are here; to honor him."
She nodded happily, as if she had just the idea.