42 pages • 1-hour read
Daisy Jones & The Six
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Chapters 11-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “Then and Now (1979–Present)”
The story of the famous band Daisy Jones & The Six effectively ends on the night of July 12, 1979. The members of the band develop new lives for themselves, lives that are not as glamorous yet are more sustainable.
Daisy Jones leaves the music industry, gets sober, writes books, and adopts children. Daisy’s friend Simone retires from music, but her daughter becomes a musical hit, too. Pete marries Jenny, has children, and now owns an artificial turf installation company in Arizona. Warren marries actress Lisa Crowne and moves back to California, where they have children. Graham never stops thinking of Karen, but he does marry and has children. Karen remains in the music industry for 20 years, playing keyboard for touring bands. Rod moves to Denver and leaves the music management industry for the real estate industry. Eddie is a record producer and pleased with his new life. Billy continues to write music for other artists, a job that keeps his creative impulses exercised while allowing him to maintain a peaceful family life. Camila dies at 63 years old, but Billy maintains his sobriety and his family.
Chapter 12 Summary: “One Last Thing Before I Go (November 5, 2012)”
The author of the biography, Julia, finds a note from her mother shortly before she dies. In the note, Camila tells her daughters where to find Daisy Jones’s phone number and instructs them to make sure their father gets back in touch with Daisy.
The remainder of the chapter consists of the lyrics to Daisy Jones & The Six’s most famous songs.
Chapters 11-12 Analysis
In true biography style, the story of the band members at the peak of their fame ends with the break-up of the band in 1979, but the author speeds up time to reveal where they all are now. Al of the members live fulfilled lives, far safer than the ones they were living in the 1970s. Their reflection on the past is characteristic of the younger versions of their musician selves; Eddie, for example, is just as smug as the reader might expect after so many years of feeling excluded. Daisy reveals that after that night with Camila, she did go to rehab and get sober, proving that Camila is the thread of peace between Daisy and Billy. Graham and Karen continue to play the “what if?” game, but all these years later none of the band members express resentment or bitterness about the lives they left behind.
It is significant that the band ended in 1979, as rock music changed and a new decade was ushered in. The style that made Daisy Jones & The Six icons in the 1970s might not have worked so well on audiences of the 1980s, and the band is a symbol of the good that leaving at the height of one’s fame can do. Had the band continued to play together, it is doubtful whether Daisy would have survived, or if Billy’s marriage would have lasted.
The narration does not end neatly—a realistic replication of what happens in the non-fictional realm. Instead, the reader is invited to wonder if Billy gets back in touch with Daisy, and if the love they shared can be realized in a new, sober world. The inclusion of the lyrics to the band’s famous songs is an homage to the power of the music, because music is, after all, the motif that keeps the characters together throughout the entire novel. Without the music, none of the characters would have come together. Without the music, they could not have expressed the complexities of human emotions as they did.
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