PART 2: Rock Legend

My childhood was shaped as much by my father as it was his infidelity. After discovering he was unfaithful to my mother when I was 12, I believed nothing would ever shock me again. But at 15, when I learned my dad had a son he barely knew outside my parents’ marriage, I realized I was wrong.

How could my father be such a good dad to me—the kind that made breakfast every morning, never yelled, drove me to school and always lets me DJ—and a stranger to my brother? How could I hate this fact but still love my father as fiercely as I did?

Below is a short excerpt from “Rock Legend,” a chapter from my forthcoming book Wild West Village, as well as a polaroid my dad took of me on the trip it chronicles. I am 16 and we were in Hurricane Mills, TN at Loretta Lynn’s Country Store, where we stopped en route to Graceland, because he knew how much I loved her.