Daisy Jones & The Six

“Billy Dunne was a rock star. You could just see it. He was very cocksure, knew who to play to in the crowd. There was an emotion that he brought to his stuff. There’s just a quality that some people have. If you took nine guys, plus Mick Jagger, and you put them in a lineup, someone who had never heard of the Rolling Stones before could still point to Jagger and say, ‘That’s the rock star.’ Billy had that.”

This characterization of Billy provided Rod, by The Six’s manager, is important for two reasons. One, it succinctly expresses the star quality that make Billy successful, sometimes makes his other band mates jealous, and makes him feel invincible in the music world. Secondly, this characterization is like the characterizations of Daisy as having a quality that could not be taught and that drew people to her. This is one of the first moments when the reader can see the parallelism between the two characters.

“Let me tell you the sweet spot for being in rock ’n’ roll. People think it’s when you’re at the top but no. That’s when you’ve got the pressure and the expectations. What’s good is when everybody thinks you’re headed somewhere fast, when you’re all potential.”

This insight from Warren is a crucial moment of foreshadowing in Chapter 2. When The Six achieve massive fame, their relationships start to crumble. Their fans may believe that fame is the goal and the most precious part of becoming a rock star, but here, Warren reveals the truth: that the rock star life pales in comparison to the years when people see your potential for fame. The potential brings the band members closer together, while fame tears them apart. In the “potential stage,” Warren and The Six can still enjoy the process of making music, but once they become famous the joy of music is replaced by the incessant attentions and pressures of fame.

“Me, I always knew kids weren’t in the cards for me. I think it’s a feeling you get. I think you have it in your heart or you don’t. And you can’t put it in your heart if it’s not there. And you can’t pull it out of your heart if it is.”

This confessional moment from Karen is an important recognition of the limitations of human desire explored throughout the novel. This quote demonstrates Karen’s sharp sense of self-understanding. It is also a statement that applies metaphorically to the novel as a whole: So much of what the characters are going through in their tortured selves, destructive relationships, and drug addictions is a search to pull out what is in their heart. Daisy and Billy spend most of the novel suppressing their true needs from themselves and from others. The characters in this novel try not to show what is in their heart, but Karen realizes that commitment to your authentic self will set you free.

“Look, as a man without a dad, you don’t have the foggiest idea what you’re supposed to do and you don’t have anyone to ask. […] Just the word Dad. This word that we equated with deadbeat, asshole, alcoholic. Now it described Billy, too. He was supposed to find a way to make that word fit onto him. At least, when I went through it, I had Billy to look up to.”

Graham’s reflection on Billy’s first foray into fatherhood is an important moment of characterization. The reader is invited to glimpse into Billy’s psyche and to see the seeds of his anxieties and fears. In this quote, Graham also reveals a key component to his own relative mental health compared to Billy: Billy had no one to raise him, but Graham had Billy. By giving Billy the opportunity to be the victim, Graham can explain his brother’s problems with empathy.

“It was a big lesson for me when I was young—being given things versus earning them. I was so used to being given things that I didn’t know how important it is for your soul to earn them.”

Chapter 5 provides a turning point for Daisy’s character development. Rather than rely on her looks and her charm to get what she wants, she learns from Teddy Price the value in working hard to earn respect. Daisy’s ego is checked by Teddy, and she becomes a more sympathetic artist moving forward. Daisy is the member of the band who checks in on everyone. She enjoys the challenge of breaking into such a tight-knit group, even with all of Billy’s push-back. Had it not been for this moment, when Daisy learned the value of hard work, she would not have become so dedicated to proving herself.

“It was a man’s world. The whole world was a man’s world but the recording industry…it wasn’t easy. You had to get some guy’s approval to do just about anything and it seemed like there were two ways to go about it. You either acted like one of the boys, which is the way I had found. Or you acted real girlie and flirty and batted your eyelashes. They liked that.”

This reflection from Karen on the patriarchy of the 1970s music industry is a key insight into the second-wave feminism Karen embodies throughout the novel. Karen identifies the issue of equality for women within the industry and expresses frustration at the survival skills needed to succeed. This quote also implies Daisy’s role. Daisy doesn’t act like one of the boys, but she also doesn’t flirt her way in. While Karen struggles to feel equal, Daisy transcends the gendered roles of the 1970s.

“You know how sometimes people will describe other people and say they make you feel like you’re the only one in the room? Billy and Daisy could both do that. But they somehow did it with each other. They each seemed like they thought the other one was the only person in the room. Like we were watching two people who didn’t realize thousands of people were watching them.” 

This quote characterizes the energy between Daisy and Billy. As parallel characters, Daisy and Billy essentially complete each other. When they play music together, they create their own world away from their problems, traumas, and pressures. In the other person, they find a spiritual equal, a relationship they can only express through music. This connection makes Daisy Jones & The Six such a success, but it also creates their lack of confidence in each other outside of music and ultimately helps to destroy the band’s trust.

“When someone’s presence gives you energy, when it riles up something in you—the way Daisy did for me—you can turn that energy into lust or love or hate. I was most comfortable hating her. It was my only choice.”

Billy’s reflection on his attitude towards Daisy gives the reader an important insight into Billy’s thoughts. He recognizes that Daisy has a profound effect on him, but he fears this effect because, ultimately, he fears himself. The journey of getting and staying sober is a daily job for Billy, and in Daisy he sees his worst but most exciting qualities mirrored. Allowing Daisy to be close to him would be a self-destructive decision. Billy needs to push Daisy far away, to protect himself and the calm life he craves. 

“I think people that are too similar…they don’t mix well. I used to think soul mates were two of the same…I don’t believe in soulmates anymore…But if I did believe in them, I’d believe your soul mate was somebody who had all the things you didn’t, that needed all the things you had. Not somebody who’s suffering from the same stuff you are.”

This quote from Karen provides the reader with a deeper understanding of the doomed parallelism between Daisy and Billy. Daisy and Billy have intense chemistry, which can be construed as its own type of love. Together, however, they cannot thrive in the world. Daisy and Billy are too similar—two halves that would clash if they tried to form one. Karen discovers how important it is to have a juxtaposed character in your life, a person who can temper and support you without enabling your worst habits and beliefs. 

“Which is what we all want from art, isn’t it? When someone pins down something that feels like it lives inside us? Takes a piece of your heart out and show it to you? It’s like they are introducing you to a part of yourself.”

This quote works as both a literal reflection of the musical relationship between Daisy and Billy and a larger metaphor for music. Daisy and Billy become musical icons because in one another they find an artist who knows how to express what is in the depths of their soul. Daisy and Billy are also doing this for other people; as much as the world seems to be created by Daisy and Billy when they’re performing together, Daisy and Billy create art that millions of people enjoy. The collaboration is powerful for the artist but equally as powerful for the fans.

“At first, I think you start getting high to dull your emotions, to escape from them. But after a while you realize that the drugs are what are making your life untenable, they are actually what are heightening every emotion you have. It’s making your heartbreak harder, your good times higher. So coming down really does start to feel like rediscovering sanity. And when you rediscover your sanity, it’s only a matter of time before you start to get an inkling of why you wanted to escape it in the first place.”

In this quote, Daisy reflect on the realities of drug addiction. This quote reveals to the reader the cyclical nature of drug abuse and, by implication, how desperately Daisy was trying to escape reality. Daisy stays high to avoid the crash, yet ironically the crash is the only solution to her problem. 

“But at some point, you have to recognize that you have no control over anybody and you have to step back and be ready to catch them when they fall and that’s all you can do. It feels like throwing yourself to sea. Or, maybe not that. Maybe it’s more like throwing someone you love out to sea and then praying they float on their own, knowing they might well drown and you’ll have to watch.”

Simone’s frustrations at not being able to help Daisy out of her drug addiction provide a larger metaphor for the novel. All the characters throw themselves out to sea at some point—it’s part of the nature of chasing fame. Whether or not Daisy Jones and the members of The Six will be able to find their way out of chaos is ultimately up to them. No matter how much Billy leans on Camila for support, it is Billy’s choice to stay sober. No matter how badly Simone wants Daisy to get better, it is up to Daisy to decide when to get help. No matter how much Graham loves Karen, he cannot convince her to love in a way she cannot. 

“It killed me. To look at him look at her. I can’t think of any two things that make you quite as self-absorbed as addiction and heartbreak. I had a selfish heart. I didn’t care about anyone or anything but my own pain. My own need. My own aching. I’d have made anyone hurt if it could have taken some of mine away. It’s just how sick I was.”

Daisy’s reflection on her selfishness at the time is an important moment in Chapter 10. As interesting as Daisy has been for the duration of the novel, her bandmates have always found her self-absorbed. Karen often comments on how little Daisy cared about what others thought of her. That quality makes Daisy tough, but it also makes her seem like she doesn’t care about anyone else’s space or thoughts. This quote is the first time the reader sees Daisy acknowledge how single-minded she was within her addiction. It marks a key difference between Daisy and Billy: Billy does think deeply about how his actions affect others, such as his family.

“It’s sometimes difficult to say what I knew and when I knew it. It’s…it’s all a mess in my memory. It’s hard to parse out, I guess. What happened when or why I did what I did. Hindsight bias.”

Here, Billy recognizes the difficulty of telling a personal story so many years after the fact. This quote captures the narrative bias that informs the entire novel. Oral histories are notoriously unreliable, and the characters in this novel are not only varied in their attitudes about what happened, but also much older. Add to these narrative realities the fact that most of the characters were high or drunk for the majority of the central story, and the reader is presented with many layers of storytelling to navigate. 

“Those lyrics. That small gesture. For one moment, Daisy didn’t remind me that I might fail. She sang the song like she knew I’d succeed. Daisy did that. Daisy. I didn’t know how much I needed it until she gave it to me. And it should have just made me feel better but it hurt, too.”

Chapter 10 is a crescendo and denouement of emotions, captured in this quote by Billy. For months, he and Daisy were battling through their emotions for one another and about themselves. Too similar, they triggered one another’s deepest insecurities. By Chapter 10, Billy can finally see how much he needed his other half to validate his strengths, instead of triggering his weaknesses. This recognition propels the beginning of the end for Billy and rock music, as his acknowledgement of Daisy’s power over him causes Billy to rethink his love for Camila.

“I fell in love with the wrong guy who was exactly the right guy. And I had made decisions time and time again that made it worse and never made it better. And I’d finally pushed myself right over the edge.”

In this quote, the reader sees how deeply Daisy recognizes the complicated relationship between her and Billy. Because the two characters pose a parallel for one another, it is expected that they could fall in love, seeing themselves reflected in another person. However, this similarity also introduces chaos and potential destruction. This quote highlights just how sad this story is: Billy and Daisy are perfect for each other, and yet they cannot be together. This quote also culminates the cycle of Daisy’s self-destruction: Finally, she has hit her rock bottom and can therefore move on. Chapter 10 is, in a sense, a catharsis for Daisy.

“I remember feeling really relieved. That she could see through me. That she wasn’t going to leave. She sat down next to me. And she didn’t mince words. She knew exactly what was happening. Exactly what she wanted to say. I was…unnerved. I felt so out of control and Camila was so in control.”

When Camila and Daisy finally interact in a deep way, the author shows just how juxtaposed the two women are. Daisy recognizes and is in awe of Camila’s ability to control her life. This recognition, that Camila has a power that Daisy does not due to addiction and an attraction to chaos, soothes Daisy. She is happy to have the attention of Camila. In her need for Camila’s attention and aid, Daisy and Billy are paralleled yet again.

“It tasted like comfort and freedom. That’s how it gets you—what it feels like is the opposite of what it is. But my whole body went slack, from the relief of it being on the tip of my tongue.”

In Chapter 10, Billy also gets his moment of relief. In succumbing to his addiction, Billy releases the part of him that has been repressed for so many years. Although the self-control not to drink was a good thing, this quote highlights how complicated addiction truly is. Billy knows that drinking again has the potential to derail his life, but he can’t help but crave the feeling of freedom. Here, drinking is also a metaphor for Billy’s understandings about his entire life; Billy doesn’t see himself as free because he sets so many rules and boundaries for himself. Though these boundaries are crucial to his health and success, they are still a binding job.

“I care about you because when I see you, I see an incredible writer—who suffers from the very thing that the man I love suffers from. The two of you think you’re lost souls, but you’re what everybody is looking for.”

The reader doesn’t hear much from Camila for the majority of the book, partly because Camila dies while Julia is conducting interviews. Through Daisy’s memory, Camila’s words come back to life. This quote demonstrates Camila’s understanding of the parallels between Daisy and Billy. Rather than embracing anger over the connection between her husband and Daisy, Camila feels sad for Daisy, and she wants to care for Daisy the way she does her husband. This desire highlights Camila’s juxtaposition with these characters, and how badly both Daisy and Billy needed an opposite in their lives. 

“It’s the ones who never loved you enough that come to you when you can’t sleep. You always wonder what the future might have held and you’ll never know. Maybe you don’t want to know.”

In reminiscing about Karen, Graham speaks to a larger idea that arises out of oral history. Characters in this novel are reflecting on the past, but the ripple effects of the past continue. Graham will never stop thinking of Karen, and by implication, Graham is informing the reader that there is no escaping what has happened. This means that Billy and Daisy must still think of each other, and that Eddie still thinks of his early resentment. In the confessional interviews, Daisy Jones & The Six can relive and rediscover their history fraught with pain and joy.

“Maybe if I was of the younger generation, marriage would have been more attractive to me. I see the way a lot of younger marriages are these days, truly egalitarian, nobody serving anybody else. But that wasn’t the mold I saw.” 

This quote captures Karen’s struggle with the sexist gender roles of the 1970s, contributing to the overall theme of second-wave feminism. The author prompts us to contemplate the possibility that Karen and Graham could have worked out as a couple, if only Karen weren’t facing a list of societal standards for women in marriage. Karen and Graham perhaps missed a lifetime of happiness because Karen valiantly fights against the box women were forced into during the 1970s. The sacrifice Karen made might have been unnecessary if society had been fairer to women and more equal.

“Somebody said the other day that I gave up my career for my family. And I suppose I did, though I think that makes it sound like it was more noble than it was. It was just a man hitting his limit. Not sure how much nobility there really is in that.”

In his final reflection, Billy presents the reader with a more authentic reality: leaving fame for yourself. While the reader sees Billy struggle to keep his sobriety intact throughout the novel, Billy’s narration suggests he is doing it for his family. In the first half of the book, Billy says that his commitment to his rehabilitation is for the good of his daughter. While this is not wholly untrue, Billy finally admits that so much of his musical journey was trying to find himself. When he didn’t like the self that could have been, he walked away. This confession humanizes Billy, making him a more accessible character who struggles with others because he struggles first and foremost with himself.

“Life’s coming to me in flashes/ Wearing my bruises like badges/Don’t know when I learned to play with matches/ Must want it all to end in ashes.”

These lyrics from the song “Chasing the Night” capture the theme of self-destruction. They express what Daisy suspects about herself the entire novel: that she craves the destruction of her life. Whether that desire began because of or before the drug use is up for discussion, but it is a truth Daisy tries to run away from. Here in the songs, Daisy’s reflection on the chaos of her life is clear. The sense of clarity in “Chasing the Night” highlights the motif of music as a symbol for the characters’ inner lives.