Back in Spring of 2007, I was putting on my socks and shoes to catch an overnight bus from London to Edinburgh with some friends for the weekend.

We arrived at the bus and decide to claim the back row. The only seat left on the bus was between myself and my friend Paul - the back row aisle seat. The bus was getting ready to leave when the final person boarded. He was tall, skinny, had big hair and was wearing a fur coat… and he sat down in the vacant seat next to me.

We introduced ourselves, he helped us pop open our bottles of wine for the 7+ hour overnight ride and we got to talking about life, love, music etc.

Finally Paul said “Hey, Frankie… you look like a rock star.”

“I am. Well, I was… sort of a story”

We spent the next 40 minutes or so trying to figure out what band Frankie was in. He refused to flat-out tell us. I think he liked the game of us trying to guess it.

Finally, as I was curled up under his fur coat (a trade for him using my book bag as a foot stool), we realized this was Frankie Poullain. This was Frankie from The Darkness. He was fresh out of rehab and heading home to visit his brother who just had another daughter… Zoey. Bus was the cheapest way to travel and he was our back row bus buddy.

We talked a bit more about life, literature, his self-help book that was in the works  and then fell asleep only to arrive safely in Edinburgh the next morning where we hugged and said our goodbyes before parting ways. No pictures. No autographs. Just one really laid-back bus ride with a rock star that I will never forget.