"Not as much as you were changing tune at the end of the set last night." The cocky smirk was back in full force. What good were bandmates if you couldn't rile them up a little between gigs, after all?

"My point stands, bro: people are dicks. Betcha the same internet tough guys who compared your singing to a dying cat and shit all over my impeccable bass skills," he added, with bluster calculated to induce an eyeroll or two, "are gonna be waiting in line to scream their lungs out on our next tour. Hell, maybe even at the next show. As long as the bucks keep rolling in, who cares what they think about how we actually play?"

That was what being a rock star was all about, right?