Page 77 of The Final Deal

“I think I get how you feel about me and Kris now.”

I grab a tissue from a box on an end table in the living room to wipe my nose. “What d’you mean?”

“That was awful to watch and I want to throttle them both.”

“Yeah,” I laugh softly. “Maybe I didn’t do this the right way, but…” My face crumples. “They have to know how much I love them.”

Shannon takes my hand and squeezes reassuringly. “They still love you. And I know you’re mad, too, but you’ll always love ’em. I can’t fault them for bein’ upset; you haven’t been all that truthful to anyone.”

I search the ceiling listlessly with water teasing the brims of my eyes once more. “If I’m one hundred percent truthful, then y’all are gonna try to stop what I put in motion, and I can’t let any of you do that.”

He gives me an apprehensive look. “What’d you do?”

“I don’t want to tell you.” I wring my wrists. “I didn’t want to tell anyone because I don’t want y’all fucking anything up.”

He raises his hands. “You can tell me and I won’t mess with it.”

It’s my turn to return the apprehension. I didn’t tell Robbie the full truth because he would’ve tried to ruin the plan, too. But maybe with Shannon being a single dad now, with Kris being out of the picture…

“Promise me you won’t try to change my mind. The deal’s already been made; there’s no coming back from this.”

Shannon’s lips twist. “I don’t like the sound of this.”

I laugh with zero trace of humor. “Shan, if I had to give up my soul, I wanted it to count for something. Maybe I’ve always been the bad guy and this will make it all that much worse, but I did what I had to do for the ones I love most—the ones who have stuck with me through thick and thin and have done so much for me. If I tell you, I want you to promise me you’ll stay out of my way, even if you don’t like it.”

The sharp Adam’s apple bobs in his neck. “Steph…”

“Pinky promise me, or I’m keeping my mouth shut.”

His eyes draw upward to the ceiling. They close, and he sighs heavily. Then, he strides across the living room toward me and offers his pinky finger.

Chapter 30

Blue

–Savage Hands

A New Era Begins for New Year’s Ball

Tara Wade founded New Year’s Ball five years before Ozzfest, and the Wade family has become as synonymous to the rock world as the Osbournes. Instead of taking their dreams worldwide, Tara and David Wade kept their New Year’s rock music festival local.

“San Antonio has a fantastic metal scene,” Tara, the founder of NYB, said in an MMN interview back in 1992. “Metal is a worldwide phenomenon, but I wanted to bring attention to our great city and all the amazing musicians right in our backyard. Food, music, family—all of it is right here in my hometown, and I wanted a way to celebrate it every year.”

But the reign of the founders has come to an end as Tara and David pass on the family business to daughter, Stephani Wade,and son, Robbie Wade, both musicians in multiple Heavy Music Award-winning quintet, Timeless.

“I’m stoked to take the reins,” Stephani says. “Fresh blood and kickass musicians are going to make this year’s festival more memorable than the rest.”

Not only is Stephani taking over New Year’s Ball, but the guitarist is expanding the festival’s reach beyond the New Year by teaming up with Ty Blackburn of Dirty Peach Studios to open Devil’s House, a new venue specific for rock and metal shows.

If you guessed that the new venue is opening at the site of San Antonio’s macabre legend of the same name by the Stinson Airport, you would be correct.

“Steph and I go way back, so helping her keep NYB going past January 1 is a dream,” Ty says. “With how deep the festival’s roots go into San Antonio, we thought it’d be pretty cool (and metal) to buy up legendary property and put the new venue on it. Sick, right?”

When asked what his father Dave Blackburn, owner of Dirty Peach Studios, thought about him leaving the studio to do live sound for Devil’s House, Ty insisted he was thrilled about it.

“My dad and David [Wade] go way back, so I think they’re thrilled that we’re finally teaming up and doing something new to keep their legacies alive and going beyond the stage and studio,” he said.

But with Timeless at the top of their game and their estranged guitarist just rejoining the band, we wondered if this meant theband would be going on hiatus and when fans can expect the next album.

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