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So , when things started going not-so-great for them and in particular Evan Felker , I was in a position where I could cover them and tell their story just like a journalist would , with no conflicts of interest or other caveats .
I told the long version in the book , but the short version is , I interviewed the full band in late 2018 for the book , then wrote the book in 2019-20 , basically concurrent with their very public hiatus — it was not a breakup but you could be forgiven for feeling like it was .
Felker went through rehab and then went completely off the grid , and by the time this book was ready to come out , it had been 18 months since we had talked and his life had completely been overhauled . So I spent several months tracking him down , hoping I could find him and get him to update his own story . I finally succeeded with only a few days before the book was supposed to print . He called me , ran down his life , sobriety , songwriting , and generally everything he ’ d come around to feeling about himself and his life , and that made it in the book .
From my part , it was just journalism . I was trying to be fair to someone I was writing about . But I think , to Felker , it was a pretty important gesture to see from a journalist . He ’ d been dragged around social media and tabloids for nearly two years at that point , and here I was being pretty open and honest that all I wanted was to do right by him and his band . I think he appreciated that .
Fast-forward a little over a year , and I land the interview with the full band to announce their reunion , and I didn ’ t have to go through the motions of earning their trust . They ’ d seen me go to some great lengths to be fair to them , and they trusted me to do it again .
So that interview was , frankly , a blast to do . They were joking and cutting up , and every now and then , they ’ d stop and answer one of my questions . It was certainly a highlight in my career , and I think maybe they appreciated it too .
Stw : Speaking of big news , you ’ re also helping build NYT front pages during a time when people a long time from now might be looking back on them . Can you put into perspective what it ’ s like trying to decide what makes A1 ?
JC : The pressure is all about capturing a moment in time for the world . It ’ s real , and it can be overwhelming . We ’ re doing this interview a few weeks into the Ukraine invasion , and we ’ re just inundated with gripping accounts and heart-stopping photographs of what will probably be the most significant world conflict of my life , and I just want to make sure
STILLWATER OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE