Lina: "Now that one of all the songs we wrote caught me by surprise. I never expected it do that much."

After a three month tour of Baltimore, New York, and all the states along the eastern shore, The Kings & The Queens took off for a while, then came back into the scene a year later with the month long #1 song Peace of Mind to Be.

Zelgadis: "I came up with that tune in my head when we were at the movies one day and the crowd was so loud Lina yelled, 'Peace and quiet, would ya?!' After we went back to our rented apartment, I was at the computer jotting down stuff that had been flowing through my mind since she yelled that. What kind of peace do we really want? Do we want physical peace of quiet sound or do we want peace of mind? Granted, it isn't what I originally intended, but it made the money anyway, so I'm not going to complain."

And following up Peace of Mind To Be, the Slayers’ next hit came from the hands of Amelia and became known as It's Alright.

Lina: "Well now, since that one was all Amelia, I really ought to let her talk about it."

Amelia: "I was watching this really deep anime one day and it got me thinking a little while later about common sense and being known in the world and for what, that kind of thing. Eventually, I started hearing the sound in my head and I started hearing the words on my mouth, so I wrote it down and showed it to the guys the next day. Who would've guessed?"

With the band in overdrive, The Kings & The Queens were booked all over America, playing the biggest available halls in every state and packing in crowds young and old for miles to see, and on TV and even being asked to borrowed overseas. The struggle to still write their own songs and perform got harder and harder, but they managed somehow.

Gourry: "It was just crazy. We couldn't go anywhere without being mugged."

[picture of them performing on David Letterman; picture of them on Saturday Night Live; picture of them playing at Wembley Stadium; picture of them bowing to a fanatic crowd with Gourry picking Lina up off the ground]

And this group of kids who had lived the B- minus level life in the streets of Baltimore Maryland, found themselves to be filthy rich.

Lina: "I admit it, of us all I was the worst. I admit I like money and I couldn't stop myself from buying whatever caught my eye, be it food or clothes or cars or jewels. And whatever I decided I didn't need later on, I gave to Goodwill later anyway."

Amelia: "I gave some of my money to Daddy to help him fix up his club and make it a little nicer, and gave some of it to the Baltimore police department, the rest, well . . . I didn't know what to do with the rest."

Zel: "I finally got to buy that Harley Davison motorcycle I always wanted."

Gourry: "I bought one of the Outback Steakhouses."

But fame and fortune comes with a price, as these four would soon learn.

...commercial break...

Zelgadis was the first to suffer on the spotlight when a group of fangirls mauled him at a train stop and nearly pulled him to the floor for his autograph. They began stalking him wherever he went, and sometimes they tried to got on to the stage during the concerts to make him sign, not even waiting for after the concert. There was little to no escape for him, being a chimera with skin of blue stone that made him the easiest band member of all to spot.

Zel: "I shouldn't say bad things about the fans, because the fans pay our wages, but sometimes they just . . . don't think. They don't stop to think that we, their idols, are feeling creatures like them who need space to be their own selves."

After a month or so of this, when bodyguards weren't enough, he turned to alcohol.

Zel: "It got so bad . . . I was drinking before work, during work, after work . . . I was pouring beer on my cereal, for God's sake! I knew what alcohol could do and I had seen what it had done to others, but I . . . I didn't know what else to do, where else to go."

Only Amelia, however, seem to have any idea that something was really wrong.

Amelia: "We were rehearsing one day and I saw him downing a few cans and I asked him what was up, and he told me that beer helped him loosen up, made him feel like he was one with his music or something, and during the rehearsal I noticed his guitar playing was off. I told Lina, but she didn't think it was anything serious."

Lina: "We had all been working so hard I figured it was just the lack of rest that was wearing him down. I mean, my voice was a bit off that day, I think."

None of them, especially Zelgadis himself, realized just how bad it was until one night during a break in performance, Zelgadis disappeared backstage, rode off on his Harley and, 45 minutes later, was reported to have been in an accident, having swerved to off the rode into a ditch with his blood alcohol level above the legal limit. To keep the audience from discovering this until the later media frenzy, the band cleverly disguised things by staging a duel between Gourry and the guitarist formerly and once again today known as Zangulus, who had played the opening, and after being "defeated" picked up Zel's guitar and started wailing with the band.

Zel: "I was drunk through and through. I was drunk when we performed and I was drunk when I rode off. I didn't know or care where I was going, I was just going. Some part of me had to get away. But was it away from me, or was it away from them?"

Lina: "When the fangirls started screaming, 'Where's my Zel?!' I panicked, but we managed to get through the rest of the show."

Zelgadis spent six months in jail for drunk driving/riding, and after his release was immediately placed in the Betty Ford clinic to break his habit. During this time, Zangulus handled the guitar for the group's concerts.

Zel: "I almost didn't come back. So many people who overcome alcohol the first time immediately fall right back on it, but the gang, they made me feel like I could do it, so I decided to try. Amelia, bless her heart, must've visited me in the jail and at the rehab center more than anyone else."

Zelgadis made a successful comeback to rock 'n roll stardom with the band, much to the rejoicing of the fans, critics, and many others around the world. But trouble had already pegged it's next victim: Amelia.

...commercial break...

An outspoken supporter of the police departments and world peace, Amelia's unabashed openness of her opinions on these matters had rubbed some the wrong way, and some within the fanbases began flaming her with notes such as "little witch" and "little big brat", began flaming her fans as "stupid," and trashing her work within the band as "hackneyed" and "she just let Lina and Zel do all the work". At the concerts, these anti-Amelia-ites started booing when Amelia was introduced and threw bottles and bricks at her when not holding up their signs and hissing and ranting. Because of this, some of the concerts had to be cancelled. Soon hate mail against her began to pour in, and some via mail, e-mail, and phone calls threatened to kill her if she didn't leave the group (these were investigated, but nothing ever happened).

Amelia: "The things they wrote and the things they said were . . . so hurtful and so . . ." [starts to cry a little bit] "and so . . . I-I'm sorry."

[picture of one of the riots at a concert]

Zel: "I knew fans were opinionated, but my God."

One more thing to set fans off was when rumors started brewing in the media and tabloids, romantically linking Zelgadis with Amelia. She had been the most outspokenly supportive of him during his alcohol rehab, after all.

[Tabloid sheet: "K&Q guitarist Zel Greywards seen at Hoyts Cinema arm in arm with K&Q keyboarder Amelia Seyruun. And dig this, ladies and gentlemen: he kissed on top of her head!"—in the upper right hand corner of the paper: Nicole Kidman attacks ex-hubby Tom Cruise]

Amelia: "I had no idea."

Zel: "We're friends." [shifts uncomfortably in his chair like he's hiding something]

As usual, the media had a field day with it, and even bugged those close to the band for their opinions.

Filia: "They're just friends, really."

Phil: "Good man that Zelgadis. If he is going out with Amelia, I know him well enough that I need not object."

Xellos: "Whatever gets the creative juices flowing."

Tour bus driver: "If they aren't involved, then they're as close as close as friends can be without being involved."

Unidentified person: "Oh they've seeing some hot times together, oh yeah!"

While the media thought this was cute, the fans didn't think so. During a press conference that was covering Zel's recovery, Amelia was about to speak out and congratulate him when an unidentified fan hurled a brick at her and screamed, "Stop hanging all over our Zel you little piece of [BLEEP]!" The brick grazed Amelia's head and she was taken to the hospital and checked out; the fan was taken to jail and is serving time now for assault and seeing a psychiatrist. More hate-mail, more threats against her life if she didn't break up with Zel [though there are enough denials from most everyone that they were not having a torrid love affair], and then there was mail telling Lina to go out with Zel to save him from Amelia.

Lina: "It got insane. We were all like, 'What's wrong with these people?! Do they have no life at all?!' The things fans put their idols through."

Not that they were alone. Amelia still had enough of a fanbase that at some concerts those holding signs held signs that supported her and had many cheering for her to stay strong during the craziness of the unprovoked backlash. But it didn't take long for her fanbase to get into a war over the net with her anti-fanbase, with message boards and opinion pages that ranged from moderate to . . . perverse is the only word we can think of to describe it. After a year and a half of this, Amelia reached her breaking point and turned to prescription drugs to ease the pain, both physical and mental.

Zel: "You have to give her credit, she hung in there better than I did. I should've know, I should've seen it. I went through the exact same thing. I actually did see it, but I didn't want to believe it. I saw her taking four pills at rehearsals and concerts, and each one was a different brand, and she said she needed it for migraines. I just didn't want to believe it."

Amelia: "I tried not to. We all heard the stories of drug and alcohol abuse by other stars, but it never seems real till you try it for yourself. I had seen what alcohol had done to Zel and I swore that would never happen to me, but when almost everyone was against me, I . . . well . . . I cracked."

And cracked she did. After finishing their New Year's Eve performance of 1997, Amelia collapsed during their final bow from an overdose. She was rushed to a hospital and just barely made it.

Amelia: "I had had nightmares before that night. I had them for months after I started taking the drugs. I would dream of flowery hills, I would dream of the moon, being inside the earth, under the ocean. I dreamt I was drowning and that was kind of how I felt. I was in a corner and the world was against me. I didn't really feel like I had anywhere to go."

...commercial break...

Amelia was placed in drug rehab and was replaced by the female singing and instrumental icon Naga the White Serpent for keyboards, who later turned out to be a distant relative of Amelia's. Zangulus, who had left the group for Zel's return, was also asked back to help fill kind of a void, and he brought with him his friend Vrumugun. The band still played and cranked out new music, but serious tension was beginning to mount. Lina didn't get along well with Naga, and she was becoming more and more combative with Zelgadis, whether over material or over Amelia's departure.

Zel: "She acted like nothing had ever happened, like Amelia had never existed or been part of the group at all. She wasn't making enough time aside to visit her like they did for me and that pissed me off."

Lina: "I felt bad, but I had to keep my attention on the group. Worrying about Amelia wasn't going to help me or us and would only hurt the band as it kept going forward. Amelia was in rehab getting help and there really wasn't much else we could do. I wish I had visited and written her more, but there was never enough time. Naga was a pain to readjust with because, well, she was full of herself and hard to work with and she wanted to cut in on my vocals and my handling of our songs. These were my songs, God damn it. I wrote them, they were mine to sing."

If there was tension mounting, the music certainly didn't reflect it. As hard as it was to deal with Naga, she did make some great contributions to the music and to the group. A fan of Motown and 70s rock, it was her idea to do a redux on Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" and on various songs by the Supremes like "Can't Hurry Love" and "My World is Empty without you". [Naga did not comment for the interviews.]
The idea became infectious. Zel wanted to do reduxes of "Break On Through", "Touch Me", "Riders on the Storm" and "The End", by a band that had been a childhood favorite of his, The Doors. Lina, however, would not allow him this. Gourry, on the other hand, was allowed to do a redux on "My Girl" by the Temptations.

Gourry: "I'm not much of a singer, but I wanted to take a stab at it just so I could say I did. I felt bad about Zelgadis, though."

Zel: "Nothing against Gourry, but I was mad. I too just wanted to experiment."

Lina: "I didn't want us to turn into a band that redid other people's songs. That seemed reasonable to me at the time."

Soon enough, though, the tension spilled out into the public eye when Lina and Naga were spotted in a catfight at a restaurant and were jailed for it. Later on, Lina was reported to be having screaming matches at rehearsals and they were eventually spotted fighting in public. Just before the band was supposed to go on tour for the summer of 1999, Zel quit the group.

Zel: "To me, by that point it was all over. There was no more band. There was no more Kings & the Queens. I missed Amelia. I was tired of Lina and I was tired of all the fangirls and I was tired of the fights. Lina had turned into a control freak, so working with her was no longer high on my wish list. We played one last Baltimore hall, and between shows I left the stage and took my guitar with me. I didn't come back."

...commercial break...

It seemed as though it was the end of The Kings & The Queens. Zel had left the group. Amelia wasn't healthy enough to come back. Lina and Naga were trying to tear each other's throats out. Albums were still selling but #1 hits were disappearing. On November 3 of 1999, Lina was wrongly arrested for shop lifting and, after it was all settled, she came back and found that there was no band left to come back to.

Lina: "It all disappeared in those few weeks I was away in court. Naga had had it with me, and I with her. Zel wouldn't talk to me and Zang, V, well, they decided they wanted to work elsewhere. The only one left when I got done was Gourry. Not that there's anything wrong with that."

But Zelgadis wasn't done quite yet. After The Kings & The Queens "demise" he joined forces with Zangulus, Vrumugun, Zolf, and Rodimus to produce a few solo albums—Man Of Stone, I Am A Rock I Am An Island, and All I Need. He finally got to do his reduxes, and while none of them hit #1 they broke top 10. After the third album, though, he announced he was retired indefinitely, meaning he might come back in a few years or not.

Zel: "I needed a break, an extended vacation. I had to spend my money on all things that weren't alcoholic beverages."

During his vacation he visited Amelia in rehab, and went about sight-seeing in New York, California, Florida, and Colorado.
Despite all the goings-on, the only member who had managed not to get into trouble with the media and the law was drummer Gourry Gabriev. Wherever you go to this day, you can't find a fan or non-fan or critic or reporter who have anything bad to say about him (rumor that he is an oaf notwithstanding).

Gourry: "I'm just lucky I guess."

Sylphiel: "Really, Gourry dear, you must have some secret or some method to avoid all this controversy nonsense. Something you can share, anything at all, with the fans."

Gourry: "I guess the secret to my success is that I don't cause trouble. I don't really go out of my way to make a scene or to stir up crowds. I'm just really well behaved, I guess."

Sylphiel: "Does it hurt you that people say you have an IQ that makes Keanu Reeves seem like Albert Einstein?"

Gourry: "Not really. I never met Keanu Reeves, but I hear he's an okay guy. I have a job and I manage to make money and I manage to have money ready for taxes on time, so that says something."

Sylphiel: "What did you think of the disbanding of the band and Lina's arrest?"

Gourry: "Let me answer #2 first. I knew Lina was innocent, and I knew they'd sort it out. As for the disbanding, well, I guess it was time for us to split and take a break from being rock stars. I was tired of rocking and rolling, but I never said much of anything because Lina wouldn't have it. But considering that things were kind of beyond her control at that point, I convinced her it was time for a break."

And so it was for the next few months: Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev went on their own sight-seeing tour of the USA, and when they were done with the USA, they traveled Europe and Japan, indulging in their other passion: anime. They were so inseparable during their little vacation that soon media reports swarmed that they too were having a torrid love affair.

Lina: "Not true. We're just friends, really." [Lina shifts uncomfortable in her chair like she's hiding something] "Friends who just happen to live together."

Sylphiel: "I see."

...commercial break...

By late 2000 early 2001, Amelia wil tesla Seyruun had recovered from her drug addictions and returned home to Baltimore to be with her father. Upon hearing of her recovery, Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev came by Prince Phil's nightclub to have a drink to celebrate with her. Zelgadis Greywards also arrived to congratulate her.

Zelgadis: "If it hadn't been for Amelia, me and Lina may very well have killed each other. Instead, we talked."

Lina: "I apologized for being pig-headed and not more there for Amelia, and after a while it was all cool. Then more talking."

Gourry: "I should've known they would discuss rebanding and going back out on tour."

Amelia: "It had been hell, but I was eager to give it another go."

In mid 2001, The Kings & The Queens rocked charts once again with the #1song Breeze. Soon they were touring again and making money again and all was as it had been before, even having guest appearances by Naga, Zangulus, Vrumugun, and even a collaboration with The Trouble Shooters (lead singer and guitarist Kane Blueriver, Drums Millennium "Millie" Nocturn and keyboards by Canal). On January 1st 2002 they finally released their best of album: The Kings & The Queens: Simply The Best.
Currently Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev are on vacation in Hawaii, Amelia is breaking in Baltimore and Zel is in Chicago. "It's been a hard day's night", jokes the reunited band, "and we've been working like dogs. This time, moderation will be the chain that binds us."

The End

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