And while the only serious talent in the whole ensemble was Mackey, the rest of them loved playing so much, worked so hard at it-at new songs, at being better every time out of the gate-that they’d managed to be on Billboard’s Top Ten more weeks than not in the last nine years. The venue wasn’t too big-about ten thousand seats, when they often played twenty-five-but the stadium was packed.īehind Blake and Kell, Jefferson Sanders played bass guitar and Stevie Harris played the drums. Blake’s long-buried crush on his bandmate had since morphed into what it always should have been-brotherhood. Once upon a time, Blake might have interpreted that look as hopeful, but Kell had been married for eight years now and had two kids. Kell Sanders, Mackey’s older brother and first lead guitar, played a rocking riff, preplanned, as his answer.īlake played up his guitar riff and winked at Kell, knowing the big screen would take the bro-flirt for what it was when Kell winked back.

The crowd roared, and Mackey turned to his band. “So everybody out there feeling good?” Mackey whooped. His bleached-blond hair teased big around his gamine face, his eyeliner extending to a mask around his eyes, Mackey looked naughty and sexy and wicked.Īnd it didn’t hurt that he sang like a whiskey-soaked angel. Mackey Sanders, the lead singer, was on fire. Blake played second lead guitar, which meant that in some ways, he was superfluous-but not when he was onstage, soaked in sweat, singing backup harmonies he’d helped write, making music with the men he considered his brothers. And to my dad, who will never read this, because you taught me to love rock and roll.īLAKE MANNING loved playing with his band, and Outbreak Monkey was on a roll tonight. Can they find the magic of coming absolute first with each other? Childhood abuse and a suicide attempt left Cheever on the edge of survival-a place Blake knows all too well.īoth men have to make peace with being second banana in the public eye. So hearing that Cheever is blowing through Outbreak Monkey’s hard-earned money in an epic stretch of partying pisses him off.īlake shows up at Cheever’s nonstop orgy to enforce some rules, but instead of a jaded punk, he finds a lost boy as talented at painting as Mackey is at song-making, and terrified to let anybody see the real him.

He got this gig on luck and love, not talent.

He’s tired of living in their shadow.īlake Manning has been one of Outbreak Monkey’s lead guitarists for ten years. Readers love Beneath the Stain by Amy LaneĮverybody thinks Mackey Sanders’s Outbreak Monkey is the last coming of Rock ’n’ Roll Jesus, but Cheever Sanders can’t wait to make a name for himself where nobody expects him to fill his famous brothers’ shoes.

Beneath the stain amy lane