The Freebies

One of the former bands of protagonist and reformed musician and partier Tim Mason from the 2007 novel The Abstinence Teacher.

Jerry and I stayed together for eight years, played in five different bands. We even put out a couple of records in our early twenties."

"Anything I might have heard?"
"I doubt it. We called ourselves The Freebies. There were a couple college stations that played our stuff."
"You must've been pretty serious."
"Jerry more than me," he said. He really wanted it, and he had the talent. He kept changing and trying new things, and I kinda went along for the ride."
"So what happened to him? Did he make it big?"
Tim looked at the table. "He died when we were twenty-five. Choked on his own vomit. Just like Jimi Hendrix, that's what we used to tell ourselves. As if that made it okay."
"That's terrible."
"Coulda been me," he said.