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A special thank you to Elle Canada, Elizabeth Arden, and Girls' Night Out Wine for hosting a fantastic VIP evening at the Only One Gallery in Toronto for Taylor Jenkins Reid's newest book, Daisy Jones & The Six. Or for one night only, Daisy Jones IN The Six. Taylor was articulate, charming, and engaging as she spoke with Carli Whitwell from Elle Canada about her latest work.
This book is a fictional oral history of the rise and fall of a 70s rock band. They were the biggest band of that decade and this is a story of their break up as well as their rise to fame. At first Taylor thought she didn't have the authority to write this book because she is not a musician or musically inclined in any way, but she says that "authority is not a real thing." (Love that!)
Jenkins Reid is coming off the heels of the hugely successful The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. She loved the idea of continuing to write about Los Angeles, but moved (away from where Evelyn Hugo took place) to the Sunset Strip.
As mentioned, Daisy Jones & The Six is written as an oral history, which is a way that we tell non-fiction stories, but she used that format and structure to frame her narrative. Each character's name precedes their part—everyone is chiming in to tell their account. This is not a traditional narrative and sometimes their stories contradict.
The central relationship in the story is between the two main characters, the most obvious inspiration being Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac). Jenkins Reid also drew from other female/male partnerships like The Mamas and the Pappas, Johnny Cash and June Carter, even Beyoncé and Jay Z. There is a tension, and it is this tension that informs the music.
Inspiration for Daisy Jones & The Six
"I think part of it was that I just wanted to continue writing about famous people... When you think about it, every piece of our culture is selling us a story, and a piece of every story we're sold is true."
Taylor did her homework by extensively researching the 60s and 70s music scene, reading anything and everything she could get her hands on. The nostalgia is mythologized. She writes about spaces she wants to live in and brings her readers there.
A woman's perspective is hugely important to Taylor. She wants to make women feel seen and heard. Traditionally 70s rock is thought of as a male dominated space, but there were so many incredible women in that time period and she wanted to celebrate these women and their contributions. She LOVES Stevie Nicks and it would be a dream come true if Stevie knew about this book. Taylor wrote Daisy Jones & the Six in part because of her love for Nicks, but to be clear, it is a not a story about Fleetwood Mac.
Reese Witherspoon's production company, Hello Sunshine, is turning Daisy Jones & The Six into a TV show with Amazon Studios. Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber—the Oscar nominated duo behind (500) Days of Summer, The Fault In Our Stars, and The Disaster Artist—are writing and producing the series.
Fun fact: she named the drummer, Warren, after her father-in-law and said that he was the most fun character to write.
When asked about her writing process, Jenkins Reid said that she penned the story in the order it reads. She actually tried to write the songs before the book, but she needed to learn about the characters first, and then she could use them as the vehicle for the song. Basically, she had to get out of the way. Interestingly, Taylor has never written a song before. And no surprise, she is a natural.
Dispelling the perception that a writer's life is glamorous, Taylor admitted that she writes in sweats. But she does have a dedicated space in her home where it is quiet and had her "ergonomic mouse and gel pad" and that she couldn't write in a cafe because she needs to focus.
What is Taylor's advice to budding authors?
"If you've written something that you've earned the right to call yourself a writer." She also went on to say that "there are two parts to writing; the first part is doing it, the second part is sharing it" and that "the sharing can be scary, but it's an important piece."
She was pretty tight-lipped with details about casting for the Daisy Jones & The Six TV show. I guess we will just have to tune in to find out. Can't. Hardly. Wait.
Daisy Jones & The Six
Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.
Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.
Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.
Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
TAYLOR JENKINS REID is the author of the New York Times Bestselling novels Daisy Jones and the Six, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, as well as One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, After I Do, and Forever, Interrupted. Her books have been chosen by Reese’s Book Club, Indie Next, Best of Amazon, and Book of the Month. Her novel, Daisy Jones and The Six, is is currently being adapted by Hello Sunshine into a limited series for Amazon.
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter, and dog.
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