Picture Perfect

forward.
    By the time we were twelve, Cole and I were writing songs together. Two years ago, we were stunned when a private collector offered my dad two hundred thousand dollars for the notebook containing the lyrics from our pre-teen writing sessions after a photo of the book was included in an article about us in Rolling Stone. My dad keeps everything, and the offer didn't even turn his head. The notebook is still ensconced in his safe. He swears that he's just keeping it in case he needs "rainy day money." My dad’s a joker, because there is no way he’s ever letting that book go.
    Cole and I met our drummer, Gavin Wilde, in sixth grade. The three of us were hell on wheels, and I feel sorry for every teacher we ever had. In addition to rocking, we excelled in general bad-assery and practical jokes. Our formative years set a precedent for the debauchery that ensued once we hit the big time, of that there is no doubt.
    The final piece of the Renegade Saints puzzle came together when we met our bassist, Tyson Allen, in ninth grade. We knew fifteen minutes into our first jam session that we were meant to be a band, and we spent the next three years working on that. We spent so much time devoted to the band that it's really a wonder that the four of us graduated high school, but by the skin of our teeth, we managed it.
    Our drive to be heard has become the stuff of legend. We played anywhere and everywhere that we could, for anyone that was willing to listen… and even some who weren't. The four of us wrote songs by the dozen, completely devoted to the idea of our band. During our senior year, we bought a used moving truck for the dual purpose of hauling our gear to shows and hiring ourselves out as movers during the week to earn cash.
    Once we had enough money under our belts to pay for studio time, we picked what we considered our three tightest songs and went in to record. What we came out with was something we were all proud of, something we stood behind. Bands like The Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains, Cheap Trick, The Beatles, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and U2 heavily influenced us, and I think our first songs reflect that. Most people say that our music is unique and doesn't really reflect anyone that came before, but we're all about giving credit where credit is due. We were influenced for sure, whether people want to acknowledge it or not.
    Cole's dad passed our demo CD out to everyone he came into contact with at the studios. Within weeks, the local DJ for a morning rock show was playing our song, "Now the Rain" on heavy rotation, and when fans went crazy for it, other stations followed suit. Cole and I were nineteen and Gavin and Tyson were eighteen when we got signed. Our debut CD, "The Unknowns" dropped seven months later, and things went wild after that. To date the CD has sold twenty-one million copies and is one of the biggest selling albums of all time.
    A lot of shit went down in the years between the release of "The Unknowns" and now. As hard as it is to believe, it's been a decade. The first four years after the release of that album were brutal, and a lot of ridiculous shit happened to each of us. At some point, we all started coming undone, caught up in the race for more success, more parties, more sex, and more bullshit. We lost ourselves, plain and simple. Drugs, alcohol, near-death experiences, sex with strangers and bad behavior became part of lives in a way that none of us ever could have predicted, and it almost destroyed us all.
    You can come from the best family in the world, and millions of people can love you and sing your songs back to you word for word, but when you're in the machine, all you do is sell, sell, sell. People think its glamorous and that all your dreams have come true, but what they fail to understand is that it becomes a nightmare. The dream that’s held up as an ideal is just that- a dream. The reality if far from glamorous and involves taking a lot more shit than you would believe.
    Fame can be a form of torture, no matter what people think. Being on the road for years at a time, even with people you consider brothers, is one of the loneliest forms of life imaginable. For three hours a night you’re held up and loved by your fans and everything is great. When you’re on the stage it’s loud and in your face. Then you get off the stage and the silence is deafening. Security and safety concerns keep you in a bubble, and it’s very surreal. Everyone wants a piece of