Three Part Harmony (The Road to Rocktoberfest 2024)

Prologue

Mike

And from there the story would begin……..

My mother told me the best place to begin a story is at the beginning and to never gloss over the details because sometimes even the smallest and most insignificant facts can be critical to good storytelling. I’ve also heard it said that everyone has a story to tell, but up until recently I never felt like I had much to say that would interest a lot of people. My life has been pretty simplistic. I’ve had the same struggles with money, career, and love as everyone else I know. My life story isn’t unique or special, and therefore, I felt it lacked the right ingredients for the kind of ‘good storytelling’ my mother encouraged.

Until recently, when everything changed.

Now, not only do I finally feel like I have something to say, I can’t wait to share it because as wild and at times unbelievable as this may be, it’s also exciting as hell for me because I lived it. For the first time, I’m eager to face the future, and I’m fucking content in a way I wasn’t aware was achievable. But before I spill the beautiful details, I want to back up and start at the point when things began to change for me.

My name is Mike Emory and I’m one quarter of the band Chaos, which was founded by me and my best friend, Fletch—otherwise known as Harrison Fletcher. We’ve been best friends almost since birth, or so it seems. It’s hard to remember a time when he wasn’t part of my life. It was music that drew us together and from then on we just clicked. Best mates for life, through thick and thin, and everything that comes along with that.

We were in high school when we created our first band called Brainwashed. It wasn’t much more than a pipe dream but slowly our self-taught skills improved and we got serious about what we were doing. We did lose a couple of players in those early days which caused the demise of Brainwashed, but soon after our second band, Chaos, was born.

Right from the beginning Chaos felt special, like if we had half a chance of making it in this business it would be with Chaos. The gigs trickled in for house party performances and far too many dive bars to remember. Back then, I think our egos grew faster than our following but we didn’t see it that way. It’s amusing to me when I look back at our early days and how damn hard we were trying to find our identities. We were convinced we’d be the biggest act to hit the stage since Metallica, or maybe M?tley Crüe, since both bands were dirty and gritty like we were—or aspired to be.

Truth was, in those early days we sucked. But doesn’t every band at that point in their careers?

Separately, we had what you’d call raw talent but we had no idea how to play as a band. We each wanted to be the focal point during performances. We overplayed every song as if we were individual musicians playing solos, but we quickly figured out four solo artists don’t make a band. What we sorely lacked in talent we more than made up for in attitude and confidence. It’s hard to believe we had such conviction on where we were going because listening to those early recordings of the band is difficult. We were exactly as the name implied: Chaos. That was us in a nutshell.

We needed to learn how to play as a unit—four talented performers creating a unified and cohesive sound—together. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds. We were just arrogant and naive enough to think we knew what we were doing and that’s a dangerous thing to be in the entertainment business. We absolutely did not have any concept of what we were doing or trying to do, but this is where the magic of our journey begins.

Although many believe success was handed to us, I prefer to think of it as divine intervention kicking us in the ass and then slapping the stupid off our faces. An even better visual: the rock gods looked down upon us and sprinkled their special brand of fairy dust onto our heads at just the right moment in time.

Well, one rock god in particular—who just happens to be the biggest one the music business has seen in a very long time. Who am I talking about?

Dagger Drummond, the founder and lead singer/guitarist for the notorious rock band, Black Ice. They have been a force in the music world for over two decades and continue to stay at the top of the charts year after year. To say their resume is long and impressive is putting it mildly.

How did the infamous Dagger Drummond find his way into our lives?

Get comfortable, and I’ll tell you.