gold dust woman | daisy jones & the six

01

Cameron: I first met the band in 1971, they were still 'The Dunne Brothers' at the time. I was playing a gig at some shitty bar, it was pretty packed that night. After I finished my set, I was backstage packing my things and smoking a cigarette, I smoked a lot back then.

"Hey, you sounded really great up there,"

Warren Rojas (drummer, Daisy Jones & The Six): When I first met Cameron, she was wearing this red, low cut romper and these tall white heels. But what I liked most was her jacket. She had on this huge, white, fur coat. That damn jacket, man.

Cameron [smiles]: And that's how I met Warren.

"Oh, thanks man,"

"You gonna stick around for this next set?" He asked.

"Maybe next time."

That should've been the end of it, but it wasn't. Before I left the bar, something in the back of my mind was telling me to stay. So, I stayed. I won't lie, they were pretty good.

Warren: About halfway through our set, I glanced out into the crowd. Cameron was there, she stayed.

After we finished up, I tried to find her, but she had already left.

Cameron: The next morning I got a call from Billy Dunne. I'm still not really sure how they even got my number.

"Who is this?" I asked, answering the phone.

"Billy Dunne, The Dunne Brothers. You saw-"

"I know who you are," I said, cutting Billy off.

He stayed silent for another moment, "What do you think about being in a band?"

"You guys big?" Was the first thing I asked.

"We're going to be the biggest band in the fucking world." Billy replied.

That's what I liked, they had confidence. I told Billy yes.

Billy Dunne (lead singer, Daisy Jones & The Six): We were going to leave for California as soon as we could, and now we had a new member.

Cameron: My dad always wanted me to follow my dreams, he was my biggest supporter. Did he expect me to move from Pittsburgh to California right after I graduated high school? Definitely not, but he didn't discourage me either. It was hard to leave, I had lived in Pittsburgh my whole life. I felt bad for leaving my dad also, he would be alone now, but this was everything I had ever dreamed of. Now I was moving across the country with four guys, who were pretty much strangers at the time.

Interviewer: Do you regret it?

Cameron [smiles]: No.

I showed up to the van with all my bags, Warren helped me pack them up.

There was another girl there, I figured she was Billy's girlfriend.

"You must be Cameron," She said, giving me a hug. I was never one for hugs, so it was strange. "I'm Camila, Billy's girlfriend".

"Camila," I whispered, smiling. From that very first moment we met, I knew we'd be best friends. Camila was the best of all of us.

Camila Dunne (wife of Billy Dunne): Cameron was exactly what this band needed. And I don't just mean talent wise, she completed the group. She made it feel more like... well, a family. Her and Warren-

Interviewer: Wait, you knew about them?

Camila: It was obvious. Everyone knew it, except for those two. I'd known Warren for quite some time and I'd never seen him look at someone that way before. As for Cameron, she just didn't want to admit it. That's how she was, always hiding her feelings.

Eddie Roundtree (bassist, Daisy Jones & The Six): Cameron was impossible to not fall in love with. Both her and Camila. Cameron had this great personality, it made her even more attractive.

Cameron: The ride to California was god awful. I was eighteen years old in a van with four twenty year old men, needless to say, it wasn't going to be enjoyable. Thank god for Camila.

We showed up to this house. [laughs] It was a real shit hole. The smell was awful, don't even get me started on the decorations. But, hey, it was what we had, and we made it work.

We got on the phone with Karen Sirko too. Billy started talking to her, inviting her to join the band. It was Camila who got her to come out to California.

"I wouldn't be here if they weren't," Is what I remember Camila saying.

Karen Sirko (keyboardist, Daisy Jones & The Six): First impressions were not the greatest. Graham, Warren, and Eddie were playing some sort of role play game I think. Eddie was in one of Camila's dresses, Warren was dressed as a pirate, and Graham was almost completely naked.

"Karen! You made it!" Camila exclaimed, coming from the kitchen. There was another girl with her.

"I'm Cameron," she introduced herself to me.

"Karen," I replied, shaking her hand.

When they first called me, I didn't know Cameron was in the band. It was a relief to see I wouldn't be the only woman in this band.

"This is your room, all the guys have been avoiding this one," Camila said, showing me to my room.

"Is it haunted or something?" I asked.

"Only by bad taste," Cameron mumbled, getting a laugh out of me.

Cameron: Once Karen arrived, the band was really the band.