The hero, if you can call him that, of Dead Park Records is a hapless, aspiring musician who is offered a devil’s deal. Chuck’s friend, a concert promoter, introduces him to a recording executive who will make his rock n roll dream come true. All Chuck has to do is murder a girl he’s never met – no questions asked.
While there’s no one person who inspired the character of Chuck, the idea behind the story came from my old friend Stephanie. Stephanie and I met through a church group, and we spent a lot of time going to the movies when she was home from college. We watched a lot of teen comedies in the late 90s and early 2000s. I’m pretty sure Get Over It, one of my favorite of the genre, was one of them.
One night, Steph told me about a friend of hers who had a job fulfilling the rider agreements for concert artists. If you’re not familiar, the rider is a secondary contract that all artists require and all concert promoters must follow to the letter.
Rider agreements are a necessary evil, giving artists some control over the food and accommodations at every stop. Some have special dietary needs, for example, and no one wants to eat the same thing (pizza again??) at every stop. But the bigger the artist becomes, the more demanding and extravagant the demands can be: new carpeting, new furniture, fresh flowers, an endless variety of food, and a ridiculous amount of booze.
Stephanie’s friend told her that many artists also had unwritten requests that had to be fulfilled. Items that couldn’t be put in writing because, well, they’re illegal. You can guess what those special requests might include.
It was that conversation that inspired a screenplay called “The Rider.” The screenplay went through several drafts over the years, but it finally say the light of day more than two decades later. That’s when I adapted the story into the Dead Park universe.
While all the other books in the Dead Park series are a compilation of multiple short stories, Dead Park Records tells one single story. It felt fitting to let this story, once a film script, stand on its own. Perhaps one day it’ll be adapted back into film. Until then, you can enjoy the Dead Park version of the story, complete with boy bands, a cappella groups, and more all hell-bent on committing murder – just to get a recording contract.