The 1970s resurgence you’ve been waiting for is finally here, and it’s pure rock and roll. The “Daisy Jones & the Six” miniseries embodies every essence of true rockstars.
Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company and Amazon Prime Video have joined forces to adapt Taylor Jenkins Reid’s idolized novel, “Daisy Jones & the Six,” for streaming on March 3.
The limited series is based on the New York Times best-seller, following the whirlwind rise and precipitous fall of an iconic (but fictional) 1970s rock group and their hit album, “Aurora.” With influences from the legendary stories of Fleetwood Mac, the adaptation is expected to be strikingly good.
Prime Studios describes how the series will detail the journey when, “Daisy Jones & the Six were on top of the world. Fronted by two charismatic lead singers, Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne, the band had risen from obscurity to fame. And then, after a sold-out show at Chicago’s Soldier Field, they called it quits. Now, decades later, the band members finally agree to reveal the truth.”
After the release of “Daisy Jones & the Six” in 2019, the book has become wildly successful.
Its notable achievements include winning the 2019 Goodreads Choice Award for historical fiction, the 2020 Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award and being recognized as a national best-seller. It’s one of those books that makes you wonder if the band was real and if the characters actually existed because you’re so convinced it was true.
“Daisy Jones & the Six” is an easy book to fall in love with, which makes the transformation from pages to TV that much more exciting.
The process of making this miniseries was anything but easy. Just as shooting was about to begin, the COVID-19 pandemic locked down the entire world. However, between that time and when they finally got to shooting last year, the cast became a real band.
Riley Keough stars as Daisy Jones alongside Sam Claflin, who co-stars as Billy Dunne, the lead and founder of the rock band, the Six. Will Harrison, Suki Waterhouse, Sebastian Chacon and Josh Whitehouse form the rest of the group. Camila Morrone also joins the cast as Camila Dunne, Billy’s wife, with Nabiyah Be starring as Simone Jackson, a famous disco singer and best friend of Daisy Jones.
Without much musical training, the cast decided to use this time to transform from actors pretending to be in a famous band into a professional band. They were thrown into “band camp,” and learned to play all their own instruments in the show.
Keough, who also happens to be the granddaughter of Elvis Presley, had her own difficulties before she became Daisy Jones.
“I sounded so bad that I started crying,” Keough told Vanity Fair. “I was like, ‘I can’t do it,’ and when I can’t do something, it lights a fire in me to be able to do it. I was like, ‘I have to do it.’”
If you read the book, you know this sounds uncannily similar to a defining moment her character has in the novel, so maybe life really does imitate art. Even producer, Scott Neustadterm, describes Keough as “the whole aura of the character.”
In addition to a 10 episode limited series, 25 original songs have been written, and 11 of those songs make up their album “Aurora,” which Atlantic Records plans to release on March 3. Their first song, “Regret Me,” launched late January and in little over a month has over 2.5 million streams on Spotify.
Even their second track, “Look at Us Now (Honeycomb),” dropped Feb. 15, and is nearly at half a million listens. There have also been rumors of a possible tour.
“Aurora represents the pinnacle of a short-lived recording career,” Blake Mill, writer and producer of “Aurora” album, told Rolling Stone. “It also serves as proof — for both the fictional band and the real one who dreamed this up together — that pouring your heart and soul into something you believe in can have a profound effect on the rest of your life.”
The ‘70s dream doesn’t stop there. It’s evident that even from the Daisy Jones & the Six Official Trailer, rock boho glamor is coming back. The unmistakable setting of Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip paired with the stunning fashion of the 1970s has you wishing you could travel back in time. It’s magical, captivating and goosebump worthy. It’s safe to say a year of denim on denim, fringe, bell bottoms, penny lane coats and platform boots are upon us.
With this in mind, read the book. Listen to the album. Wear gold bangles. Watch the show. “Daisy Jones & the Six” has the potential to be legendary.
