Pin Mountain

"So, I have to tell you how I came up with this..."

Grace Cole was unusually nervous as she spoke to Joie Radical over the phone. For all the albums she had sold, for all the concerts she had sold out, for all the magazine covers she had appeared on, she still felt like an amateur speaking to a legend.

"I heard 'Can U Believe This' a few days ago in the car and got so inspired. The music was so beautiful, and I loved your lyrics-'Can U believe this love we share / Beyond imagination and beyond compare...'"

Joie laughed as he heard Grace sing his hit.

"After the song ended, all of a sudden I just starting hearing music in my head, and seeing lyrics. I had to head home quick and do a quick demo. I can play it for you if you have time..."

"Sure," Joie whispered.

Grace put her iPhone on speaker and began playing the demo to the song "Pink Mountain" from her laptop. When the song concluded, Joie yelled, "That's amazing!"

"You like it?"

"The music is lovely."

"I hope you liked the lyrics as well."

Joie flawlessly imitated her voice. "When you've got me naked I start flowing like a fountain / Love to feel your body as you go up my pink mountain..."

"So you do like it."

"I love it, honey."

Grace was blown away.

"So, what I wanted to ask you was...did you want to join me in the studio and play on it? I'd love to have you play an electric organ solo. I know you're very busy, but I'd be honored if you-"

"I'd love to do it, honey."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Just tell me when, and I'll be there."

--

Two weeks later, Grace was in Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California, awaiting Joie's arrival. She had heard that Joie sometimes liked to arrive "fashionably late" for recording sessions; some thirty minutes had passed before Grace saw Joie on a security monitor, pulling up to the studio parking lot in his black motorcycle.

A few minutes later, Joie walked into the studio, placing his helmet on a red chair and saying hi to Grace's producer, Allyson Taylor. "Sorry, mate," he said to Grace in a pitch-perfect imitation of a Western Australian accent; Grace, a native of Kalgoorlie, was quite impressed. She was also impressed with how he looked: tangled curly black hair, smooth chocolate skin, a gorgeous smile, and a muscular build almost bursting out of his black leather jacket, white silk shirt and black leather pants. She could feel herself getting turned on.

"Hope y'all weren't waiting too long," Joie whispered.

"It was worth it," Grace replied.

As she watched Joie walk to the Vox Continental, a part of Grace wasn't quite sure what she had gotten herself into. Joie had a reputation as a studio perfectionist, recording take after take from the early-afternoon to 1:00am in the morning, exhausting producers and sound engineers with his obsessiveness; Grace, on the other hand, famously never liked to do more than six takes of a song, featuring that too many takes would ruin the freshness and spontaneity of the song.

From the moment Grace saw Joie's fingers hit the Vox Continental, she was transfixed. Joie's command of the organ was flawless, powerful, arousing; as she watched him play, she imagined how those fingers would feel inside of her, the sensation of those fingers on her nipples, the caress of those fingers over her long, light-brown hair. Rolling Stone once wrote about Joie that "the kid from Cincinnati born Joseph Rollins has a level of talent Mozart and Beethoven would envy"; if his bedroom skills are anything like his musical skills, Grace thought, then he must truly be something remarkable.

"Hey, can I try it again?" Joie said after the first fabulous take.

"Sure," Allyson replied. "If you can improve upon perfection, go for it!"

Joie recorded three more takes of the organ solo, each seemingly even more magnificent than the last. By this point, Grace was in a state of full arousal, her nipples pressing against her light pink blouse, her tongue twitching as she imagined sucking him off right there in the studio. It was all she could do not to control herself. Grace glanced over at Allyson and smiled; thank goodness she's a married lesbian, Grace thought, or she'd be gushing over Joie too.

After the fourth take, Allyson told Joie that every single solo was phenomenal, and that it would be tough to decide which take would be on the final album version of "Pink Mountain." The producer reached out to shake the superstar's hand; as Joie shook it, he whispered, "My God." Then, he turned to Grace, who kissed him on the cheek and also shook his hand; he again whispered, "My God," before grabbing his helmet.

"Oh, by the way," he said before leaving. "Don't put my name on the credits-my label will freak out. Credit me by another name. The focus should be on you, anyway." He then left the studio, jumped back on his motorcycle, and drove away.

"Wow," said Allyson, "I guess that shit's true."

"What shit?"

"How he feels about women."

"What do you mean?"

"You never heard that story?"

"No."

"Remember the Rolling Stone piece that came out about him a year ago?"

"The one that compared him to Mozart and Beethoven?"

"Yeah, that one. There was a rumor that they asked him about his religious views, and he told Rolling Stone that he sees God in every woman. He literally believes that every woman in the world is a manifestation of God-that because women are the ones who give life, they are the embodiment of God on this Earth. So when he said 'My God' to both of us, it was like he was talking to God."

"What?!"

"Incredible, huh? Apparently, they cut it out of the interview before it was published, because his management didn't want people to think he was a weirdo."

"That is kinda weird."

"Tell me about it."

"So what a minute...I remember when I played him the demo, he said it was amazing."

Allyson laughed. "Amazing Grace."

The Australian singer shook her head. "I don't know about that guy. He's real sexy, though, I'll give him that."

Two months after the recording session, "Pink Mountain" was released as the lead single from Grace's album "Girl's Dream, Woman's Vision," and became an international #1 hit. Grace honored Joie's wish for anonymity; she listed the performer of the organ solo as "Heaven Knows."