The song verges on being a bit saccharine. But the end undercuts the sweetness just enough. It could have been the kind of song teens play at prom. Instead, we have a passionate testament to the fact that things don’t always work out.

SevenEightNine was a good album, in some ways a great album. It was more explicitly romantic than their debut—fewer allusions to sex or drugs. It still rocked, though. It had that driving rhythm section, those piercing riffs.

But “Honeycomb” was the clear standout. “Honeycomb” showed the world that The Six could put out a first-class pop song. It was a pivot, to be sure, but it’s the beginning of their rise to the top.

SevenEightNine was released on June 1, 1976. “Honeycomb” debuted at number 86 but was headed up the charts at a steady clip. The band, playing an unofficial residency of sorts at the Whisky, was gearing up to headline their own national tour.

GRAHAM: We hung out in L.A. for a while, perfecting our set. The songs were coming together onstage. I say that but I guess I don’t mean “Honeycomb.” Billy did a rendition of it without Daisy. He just lifted her half of it and sang it as he originally intended on the album. It was good, but you could feel a hole in it. It was missing something. The rest of the album was playing great, though. We were playing tight, every song, every note. We had it down. We were putting together a great show.

BILLY: We had the same people coming to see us two or three nights a week sometimes. And the crowds were growing the more we played.

ROD: Billy should have invited Daisy to some of those L.A. shows. I told him that. But it was in one ear out the other with him.

SIMONE: Daisy was frustrated they were excluding her. At least I got that impression, when we talked. Which wasn’t as often anymore, with all my touring. But I still made sure I knew what was going on with her. She did the same with me.

KAREN: Daisy knew everybody at the Whisky. She was more connected on the Strip than we were. So it was only a matter of time before she showed up.

DAISY: I wasn’t trying to crash anything. If Billy didn’t want to invite me to sing with them, that was fine. But I wasn’t going to stay away just because they were playing my single without me.

Also, I’d started sleeping with Hank, which wasn’t a great move on my part, but, to be blunt, I was drunk or high a lot of the time back then and it’s a bit hazy. I don’t even think I was attracted to Hank or even liked him all that much. He was a little short, had a square jaw, but he had a nice smile, I guess. Really, he just seemed to be there all the time.

Anyway, Hank and I had been out at the Rainbow and as we were walking, some of his friends were standing outside the Whisky, so we went in.

KAREN: Graham nodded at me and pointed with his eyes to where she was on the floor. And then we saw Billy spot her, too.

EDDIE: The whole time we were playing the Whisky back then, almost every night, Billy’d have some sort of note on how I was playing. He was such a control freak. But Daisy showing up, he couldn’t control that.

And man, she looked good. She had on a tiny little dress. Girls didn’t wear bras back then and it’s a crying shame that ever ended.

BILLY: What was I going to do? Not invite her to sing the song with me while she was standing right there? She forced my hand.

GRAHAM: Billy said, into the mike, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have Daisy Jones here tonight. What do you all say we sing a song called ‘Honeycomb’ for you?”

DAISY: I walked up to the mike as Billy was facing the audience, and I thought, Does Billy Dunne ever wear shirts that aren’t denim?

BILLY: She came on the stage barefoot and I just thought, What is this girl doing? Put some shoes on.

DAISY: The band all kicked in, and I stood at the mike, waiting. The first line is Billy’s so I just watched the people in the crowd as he started singing. I watched the way they watched him. He was a real showman.

I don’t know if he gets enough credit for that. People now talk about how good we were together but I’ve seen Billy when he’s just on his own and that man is talented. He was born to be in front of a crowd.

BILLY: When Daisy’s part came in, I turned and looked at her and watched her sing. We hadn’t rehearsed it, we had never sung together. I was half-expecting it to be a disaster. But after a second or two, I just watched her.

She really did have a dynamite voice. She smiled almost the entire time she was singing. I think you can tell that, when you’re listening. It comes through. That’s something Daisy was great at. You could hear her smile in her words.

DAISY: I thought about changing the lyrics back, on the second reprise. I knew Billy hated the way I had changed it to the questions. But just before I was about to start singing those lines I thought, I’m not here to make Billy like me. I’m here to do my job, and I sang it the way it was on the track.

BILLY: I cringed as I heard her sing it.

KAREN: Daisy and Billy were standing right next to each other, singing into the same mike. And…the way Billy would watch her as she sang…The way she’d watch him…It was intense.

DAISY: We harmonized at the end together. It wasn’t that way on the record. It just sort of happened that way.

BILLY: I could tell, as we were singing it, that we had everybody. When the song finished, the crowd started screaming. I mean actually screaming.

DAISY: I just knew, at that show, that we had something special. Just knew it.

And it didn’t matter how much of an asshole I thought Billy was. When you can sing like that with someone, there’s a small part of you that feels connected to them. That sort of thing that gets under your skin and doesn’t easily come out.

Billy was like a splinter. That’s exactly what he was like.

On the heels of their thrilling performance at the Whisky, Runner announced that Daisy Jones would be the opening act on The Six’s world tour, dubbed the Numbers Tour.

Billy appealed to Rod, Teddy, and Rich Palentino to change their minds and drop Daisy from the ticket, but he was finally forced to agree to the billing when Teddy showed him that ticket sales were climbing rapidly. Holdover dates were being added to the itinerary.

As the band and Daisy set out on tour, “Honeycomb” had just hit the Top 20.

BILLY: I wasn’t focused on who was opening for us. I was focused on how to stay sober on the tour. It was my first time out on the road since rehab.

CAMILA: Billy was telling me how he was going to call me three times a day and keep a journal of everything he did and I explained to him that I didn’t want him proving himself to me. That would just add more pressure, which was the last thing he needed. He needed to know that I believed in him. I said, “Tell me what I can do to make it easier, not harder.”

BILLY: I decided to bring Camila and Julia out on the road with me. Camila was about two months pregnant with the twins by that point. We knew that, once she got further along, she wasn’t going to be able to be there as much. But I wanted her there to start off on the right foot.

DAISY: I was excited to get out on the road. I’d never toured before. My album was doing all right. I was getting some good attention. And “Honeycomb” was helping my album sell a bit better, too.

GRAHAM: We were all happy to have Daisy with us. Daisy could do the hang. Daisy was a cool chick.

We were in that period of time when you’re doing radio spots and photo shoots and your song just keeps climbing higher and higher, selling better and better. I got recognized a few times. People had been recognizing Billy for a while but now they were starting to know me and Karen a bit, too. I’d be walking down the street and see somebody with a Six shirt on.

So I didn’t care who they put me out on tour with as long as things kept going the way they were going.

BILLY: We played our first show in Nashville at the Exit/In. And my attitude was to include Daisy as I would include anybody else that was opening for us. We were used to being the opening band and now we were the headliner. So I wanted to be as inclusive to her as other bands had been to us. Personal feelings aside.

KAREN: We were all backstage before our first show, before Daisy’s supposed to go out there. And Daisy’s snorting a few lines. Warren’s getting a massage from some groupie that somehow worked her way back with us. Eddie and Pete are doing whatever. Billy’s off by himself. Graham and I are talking. I think it was that show…Graham had trimmed his beard and you could see how handsome he was underneath all that scruff.

And then there’s a knock at the door and it’s Camila and Julia. They had come to say good night to Billy.

The second Daisy sees Camila and Julia, she puts the dope in a drawer, cleans her nose, puts down her glass of brandy or whiskey or whatever she’s drinking. It was the first time I saw any awareness from her. Like maybe she didn’t live on another planet. She shook Camila’s hand and she waved at Julia. I remember she called her “chickadee.”

And then it was time for Daisy to go on and she said, “Wish me luck!”

Everyone else was too busy doing their own thing to even pay attention but not Camila. She wished her luck and she was so sincere about it.

CAMILA: The first time I met Daisy Jones, I did not know what to think of her. She seemed really scattered but also very sweet. I knew Billy didn’t like her, but I also didn’t think his opinion meant I couldn’t have my own.