42 pages • 1-hour read
Daisy Jones & The Six
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Chapters 7-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Numbers Tour (1976–1977)”
The album SevenEightNine is released with enough success for The Six to continue performing. Daisy has returned to her life of partying, but now she is also sleeping with her manager, Hank. Although Daisy had intended to launch her music career free of the influence of men who sleep with her, “to be blunt, I was drunk or high a lot of the time back then and it’s a bit hazy. I don’t even think I was attracted to Hank or even liked him all that much” (100). One night, Daisy and Hank go to a music venue, where they see The Six perform. The band members notice Daisy’s presence and invite her onstage to sing “Honeycomb.”
While Daisy and Billy have not gotten along in person, everyone notices their intense chemistry. They still have differing views on how “Honeycomb” should be performed, but even so, “the way Billy would watch her as she sang…The way she’d watch him…It was intense” (101), says Karen. The connection between Daisy and Billy makes the song even better live, and the spectators know they’re watching something thrilling.
After the success of “Honeycomb,” Runner Records sends The Six on tour, with Daisy Jones as their opening act. While Billy is not happy with the decision, he resigns himself to it and focuses instead on his family. Camila joins the band for the first few cities of the tour, but because she is pregnant again (this time with twins), she cannot always be on the road with Billy. Camila is a calming and supportive presence for Billy, who is going on his first sober tour. Daisy and The Six have an incredible first night performing; as Billy recounts it, “I could feel my microphone vibrating as they screamed and stomped their feet and I thought, Holy shit, we’re rock stars” (106).
When Camila leaves, Billy must make one conscientious decision after another not to relapse. Before the band is set to tour Europe, Billy is offered an opportunity for The Six to extend their American tour after the European leg. He rejects the opportunity without speaking to anybody in the band, a move that highlights a difficult reality for The Six: The Six can’t perform without Billy, their star, but they also are bound by what their star wants.
Daisy has grown tired of Hank, whom she senses is becoming the controlling manager she feared. She continues to write her own music and is determined to make a second album of her songs, but Hank shuts her down and keeps her high. Karen notices Daisy’s reliance on mysterious pills she keeps in her pocket and consumes without counting, but Daisy pretends it is easy for her to quit. Daisy’s supply line to the drugs is Hank, but Daisy fires him, and he physically threatens Daisy. Billy watches the aftermath of the violent encounter and, for the first time, tentatively offers his help to Daisy. Daisy begins to see how much other people can see about her life that she cannot, and she “didn’t realize just how much of a wall Billy put up around himself when he was near me until that moment, when suddenly there was no wall” (114-15).
When Hank leaves, he brings Daisy’s back-up band with him, leaving Daisy with no one to perform her music on the night when a reporter from Rolling Stone magazine is in attendance. Rod sends Eddie out on stage with Daisy to perform acoustic renditions of her album, and although their dynamic is awkward because they have not rehearsed, Daisy is moved by her experience on stage. Backstage, Billy is transfixed by the performance, and just as Daisy is finishing her set with Eddie, Billy goes on stage to perform “Honeycomb.” Their performance together is, again, intense. Karen watches from backstage as Eddie and Daisy “each seemed like they thought the other one was the only person in the room” (121).
The band performs well for the reporter from Rolling Stone, but Eddie is getting more aggressive in his resentment of Billy’s bossiness, while Karen and Graham are hiding a newly blossomed relationship. Jonah Berg, of Rolling Stone, interviews the band after the show. Billy speaks with him for a while but strikes up a conversation with Daisy on the way back to the hotel to give the others a chance to talk with Jonah. Daisy invites Billy to continue the conversation inside, but Billy says no because of the temptation of Daisy’s drugs. Daisy misinterprets this rejection as a rejection of her hitting on him, which was not her intention. Billy goes to bed, as do the other band members, while Daisy seethes with humiliation. Daisy was happy to finally be getting along with Billy and “had thought for a moment that he and I could be friends, that Billy could see me as an equal” (130).
Jonah’s article for Rolling Stone magazine features Daisy Jones with the band The Six, arguing that The Six should incorporate Daisy as a permanent member to go from being good to being truly amazing. While some members of the band, such as Graham and Warren, are grateful for their newfound fame and success, Billy is angry that Daisy has become such a large part of The Six’s story. After some deliberation and discussion, Billy comes around to the idea of doing an album with Daisy. While discussions go on, Camila gives birth to Susana and Maria, Graham and Karen continue their secret relationship, and Daisy dives even deeper into drug and alcohol abuse.
Billy writes a new song in honor of Camila, called “Aurora.” The song moves Camila, and she knows that even though her husband feels triggered by Daisy, he needs Daisy on “Aurora” to give the song more depth. Billy finally accepts the idea that Daisy makes his songs better, realizing, “Before we even got back into the studio, I was writing for Daisy” (144). Back in the studio, tensions between Daisy and Billy resurface. Daisy is adamant that her own songs be included on the next album, and she tries to empower the other members of The Six to advocate for their own musical interpretations of Billy’s songs. They deliberate a new name to include Daisy, but the question of her permanence in the group is up for debate. Teddy helps them settle on the name Daisy Jones & The Six, and the chapter ends in compromise.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Aurora: 1977–1978”
The Six come together again in 1977 to record an album, and Teddy puts Daisy and Billy in charge of writing in his guest house. Daisy and Billy bicker over their songs: Daisy is bored that all of Billy’s songs are about Camila, and Billy is annoyed that all of Daisy’s songs are about drugs. They decide to scrap all the songs except for “Aurora” and write together from scratch. The band begins to record the songs Billy and Daisy write, and Billy tries to be more patient and open with their interpretations of his songs. The band members are excited to be a bigger part of the process, and Graham recognizes, “By having us all involved, we were evolving” (171).
Eddie continues to be more vocal about his anger with Billy and his overall frustration with being a member of The Six, so puts out quiet calls for guitarists. While the tension with Eddie continues, Daisy pushes her drug abuse to a new limit. Instead of showing up for recording one night, Daisy invites some friends over, and the gathering at her house turns into a drug-filled party. Rod and Billy go to her house to see if she is okay, but Billy leaves quickly as he realizes how intoxicated he is by the seduction of the drugs. Billy then writes a song called “Impossible Woman,” which everyone believes is about Daisy. Billy welcomes Daisy to sing her whole heart into the song, creating more musical magic. As the band continues to record, it becomes evident to producers that this is not just The Six’s best album yet, but an album that could potentially define the era of rock ’n’ roll.
While writing songs, Daisy and Billy almost kiss, but Billy draws back, and Daisy is dejected. Daisy writes an epic song about the encounter, and the band loves it, while Billy knows it’s about him. The tension between Billy and Daisy is visible in the cover art for the album. The photographer can see an attraction between the two lead artists even though they’re trying very hard to ignore one another. The photograph captures their tension perfectly—he notes “it was masculine and feminine at the same time” (228)—and the marketing of the album is as provocative as the content. While Billy and the producers mix the album, the rest of the band goes on break. Daisy goes to Thailand on vacation, where she meets an Italian prince who feeds all her worst instincts. She runs off to Italy with him and gets married. The band comes back together to rehearse for their tour, and everyone can sense that Niccolo (Nicky) is bad news.
Jonah returns for an interview for Rolling Stone, and while Billy is at home with Camila, Daisy gets high and tells Jonah everything about Billy’s past. To prevent the publication of his personal story, Billy in turn gives Jonah the story about him and Daisy not getting along. The album drops and is a smash hit.
Chapters 7-8 Analysis
Chapters 7 and 8 are the longest chapters of the novel and mark the mid-point of the story. The sheer length of these chapters in comparison to the first six and last four chapters demonstrates a structural emphasis on the turning point for the novel. Chapters 7 and 8 articulate the rise of Daisy Jones & The Six while simultaneously providing the groundwork for the deterioration of the band.
Chapter 7, “The Numbers Tour,” is a turning point in the plot. When Daisy and Billy sing on stage for the first time in Nashville, their parallel character development finally meets to produce two characters with one distinct world. When other characters see Daisy and Billy perform, words such as “mesmerizing,” “intense,” and “magical” describe an impression of their connection from the outside. In fact, what is going on creatively and emotionally between Daisy and Billy is far more complex than magic. Billy sees his worst qualities in Daisy’s drug addiction, and he is both seduced by her lifestyle and terrified of her influence. Billy’s self-control around Daisy comes across as mean, and Daisy is at first confused by his hot-and-cold attitude towards her. While Billy sees a crucial piece of himself reflected in Daisy, Daisy also recognizes Billy’s frustration whenever he loses his control over the music. Daisy wants musicians to be empowered and make the best music possible, while Billy is consumed with self-doubt.
Arguably, Daisy’s drug addiction quells many of her emotions, as well as most of her decision-making processes. Sober Billy is uptight, whereas high and drunk Daisy is too loose. In one another, they see their worst fears while also recognizing a familiar soul. The parallelism between the two characters heightens in Chapter 7, when Billy realizes that Daisy brings out some of his best music. The quality that Billy fears in Daisy cannot be divorced from the qualities that make her a great artist. Daisy and Billy threaten one another’s characterizations, but they also complete one another’s characterizations. Within the interview-style structure of the narrative, Daisy and Billy seem to recognize this paradox of their identities, but Reid presents so many examples of their simultaneous need and rejection of one another that the developments between Daisy and Billy come across as dramatic irony.
Chapter 8, “Aurora,” is an extension of Chapter 7 and continues the turning point of the plot. Billy makes more of an effort to improve his character, but the reader is shown Eddie’s vitriolic opinions about Billy. Billy seems largely unaware of or unimpressed by the tension building in his band, because Billy is fixated solely on Daisy and the music they are writing. Eddie presents a challenge to Billy’s ego, and key moments in Chapter 8 foreshadow the future combustion of Eddie and The Six. When Warren compares what happened with Eddie to a nuclear bomb going off, and when the reader learns that Rod has started to explore the possibilities of hiring another guitarist should Eddie quit, the author again creates dramatic irony around the fact that Eddie believes he is not heard. What Eddie doesn’t see is that people are in fact noticing him and growing concerned.
In Chapters 7 and 8, the music Daisy and Billy perform serves as a motif. The music is a symbol of personal vindication in Billy and Daisy’s ability to freely express their true selves and thoughts. The music is also a symbol of the collaboration between Daisy and Billy, which persists and thrives despite their fears and tensions. The music ties Daisy and Billy together, solidifying the parallelism in their character development.
In Chapter 8, the introduction of Niccolo, Daisy’s husband, creates a foil to Billy and a juxtaposition with Camila. While Billy has found a partner in love and life who settles his anxieties and calms his chaos, Daisy has found a partner who accentuates and enables her worst, most self-destructive habits. Niccolo adds more chaos to Daisy’s unstructured world, making him the stark opposite of Camila. In Niccolo, the author shows what Billy could have been had he fallen into the seduction of the beauty- and drug-filled life in which Daisy exists. Niccolo is the exact type of man Billy is worried he is at heart and could become again: irresponsible, abusive, destructive to the spaces and people around him.
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