Born to Rock

Leo rides in the ambulance with Neb, who insists he broke his crotch. The doctors determine he has a hernia and take him in for surgery. It will be several weeks before Neb has recovered enough to rejoin the tour. While Neb is in surgery, Leo calls Bernie. Bernie is at an after party to scout a replacement guitarist. Leo can hear Bernie has a female friend close by. Bernie says he’ll send Cam to pick up Leo.

Leo waits at the hospital for hours. Finally, shortly after five in the morning, Cam shows up in a van with the other roadies. He wakes Leo, who is sleeping in the waiting room, by pouring beer over him. They’re all drunk. Leo drives them back to the hotel, which takes a while because no one knows the way. When they get back, Cam invites all the roadies to continue the party in the room he’s sharing with Leo. Leo is desperate for sleep, but he’s scared to make conflict. However, when Cam is about to pour another beer on Leo, Leo knocks the beer out of Cam’s hand angrily.

King Maggot knocks on the door, interrupting the tension. He wants to take Leo for breakfast, but when he realizes Leo needs sleep, King tells the other roadies to make sure Leo is taken care of. They all fall in line. Later, Cam asks how Leo is related to King, but Leo won’t reveal.

Leo flies with Purge on their private jet. It’s hard to spend time with King Maggot because of all his celebrity obligations. Purge’s drummer, Max, arrives at the airport with a standard poodle name Llama. His soon-to-be-ex-wife has left him in charge of the dog while she vacations with another man. The band has a meeting on the plane. They’ve replaced Neb with Pete Vukovich, another guitarist on the Concussed tour. Bernie lectures the band on making allowances for their age.

Protestors greet Purge at the hotel, spurred on by conservative media. Llama relieves himself on the sidewalk in front of the protestors, causing an uproar. King and Leo find this hilarious.

Leo has all the bad jobs as a junior roadie. He must lift heavy things, run late night errands, and endure taunts from the other groupies. The band members also ask him to do personal chores, though Leo doesn’t see King much. Cam criticizes Leo’s every move, complaining that having Leo around makes it hard to meet girls.

Leo checks his laptop and sees Melinda post about not trusting old friends. Leo worries she hates him for being King Maggot’s son. He realizes this means he has two dads to her zero—and one of Leo’s dads is her idol.

Cam saddles Leo with transporting Pete Vukovich from his first set at Concussed to the hotel to rest before he must go on again a few hours later with Purge—a job Bernie assigned Cam. When Leo stops for gas, Pete disappears into the bathroom for 20 minutes. Leo goes looking for him, and when he opens the door, the air blows away two lines of cocaine Pete has lain out. Pete tries to fight Leo, but Leo is stronger and manages to hold him off. He fears this conflict will be the end of his time on tour, but Pete calms down quickly.

Leo disturbs Bernie from a sexual encounter with woman to report the cocaine incident. Bernie is annoyed that Leo bothered him with such a thing; drugs have always been a part of this world. Leo realizes he’s just a tourist here and needs to be more accepting of the sex, drugs, and rock and roll parts of Concussed. When Bernie realizes that Cam fobbed off driving Pete around on Leo, Leo worries Cam will treat him even worse after getting in trouble with Bernie.

Leo wakes up to discover Cam has sabotaged the alarm. Leo was supposed to be at the airport, but now he’s been left behind and Purge is gone. Leo goes to the fairgrounds where Concussed took place, hoping to catch a ride with some crew, but then spies Owen among the die-hard punk fans.

Owen and Melinda are following the Concussed tour across the country. Leo explains why he’s working for Purge and asks for a ride. At the campsite, Melinda is sarcastic about Leo getting a job from “Daddy.” Leo tries to forgive her coldness. He asserts that it isn’t his fault that he’s King Maggot’s son.

On the way, Owen asks Leo all about life as a roadie and describes his and Melinda’s travels, joking that their lifestyle isn’t very Republican. Leo acknowledges that the life of a roadie isn’t Republican either. When they arrive in the next city, Leo discovers that one of his suitcases has fallen off the top of the car, but thanks them for the ride anyway.

Leo gets backstage passes for Melinda and Owen to thank them. Melinda is enchanted by the scene and especially by seeing King Maggot up close. Max carefully supervises Leo and Cam around his drum kit, all the while ranting about his divorce. A reporter backstage keeps getting in the way. When he tries to talk to King before the set, King punches the man, breaking his nose. Bernie immediately calls it a case of heat stroke before summoning paramedics. Melinda gushes silently.

Leo thinks Purge sounds better with their new guitarist, but he knows King is Purge’s heart and soul. He admires King as a dynamic performer. The set ends early when cops storm the stage. Melinda leaps on the back of one officer, trying to defend King, but Leo and Owen drag her away before she can get hurt or arrested.

Bernie assures Leo that everything will be fine. He’s already spoken to a lawyer. Leo wants to go to the station with King, but Bernie says to leave it alone. Leo struggles to sleep that night, so he calls Bernie again, interrupting him with a different woman, but Bernie again tells Leo to go to bed and leave him alone. When Leo sees a headline on the news saying King Maggot could face seven years in prison for assault, Leo camps outside the courtroom until the morning, when King has his hearing.

Before and after the hearing, King doesn’t see Leo through the swarm of media and security. King is let off without jailtime. Leo is upset he waited all night to make sure King is okay only to be ignored. He dozes off and is awoken by King Maggot, who spotted him once the reporters dispersed. Bernie tells King how Leo spent the night waiting for him. King explains that he and Bernie have been through this a lot and there’s nothing to worry about, but he is touched that Leo cares so much about him. When Bernie comments about how nice Leo is, Leo worries what they’d think if they knew he was just after tuition money.

When Leo returns to the hotel, Cam tells Leo that a woman called, using a derogatory gendered insult. Cam told her Leo was in jail with King Maggot. Leo realizes it was his mom and calls her back. Leo’s mom is besides herself with worry, but Leo explains that no one is getting jailtime. Leo’s mom wants Leo to come home, but he refuses. Concussed is the first real world experience he’s had outside of high school.

On a blog post, Melinda writes about her experience with the police and Purge. She defends Leo—referred to as “a Republican”—from criticism in the comments, saying he has a good heart.

Leo notices King Maggot doesn’t party like everyone else. He’s never out at clubs or lounging with the others in their off time. In Denver, Pete takes everyone besides King Maggot to a dance club built inside a former pretzel factory. Max brings Llama. Bernie quickly notices how much attention Llama attracts from the women at the club, so he offers to watch the dog.

Leo briefly gets locked out of the club after fetching Pepto for Zach. When he finally gets inside, Max is unconscious while Bernie is occupied with a new woman. No one has Llama. Leo spots the dog on the conveyor belt eating pretzel dough headed for the oven. Leo throws a table in his panic to block the dog’s path. Pete’s entourage decides that Leo is being rowdy so they join in, and a brawl breaks out. The fire alarm goes off, and the place clears out.

On the way back, Leo realizes they don’t still have Llama. Most of the band members are unconscious. Leo tries to notify Bernie about the dog, but Bernie doesn’t care. Leo gets mad at Bernie for not caring about Max, who is dealing with his divorce, but Bernie yells at Leo to get lost. Leo realizes the only person who can help is King Maggot.

Leo calls King’s hotel room, waking him, and explains the situation with Llama. He doesn’t expect King to care, but King gets out of bed to help. Leo drives them back to the former pretzel factory, but no one has seen the dog. They are all starstruck by King. When the bouncer mentions how Leo threw the table, King jokes that property destruction runs in the family. Leo feels touched by this fatherly moment.

When calling out for Llama, King teaches Leo how to let out a deep, guttural scream. Leo succeeds and King is impressed. King explains that punk music is about having something to care about. King has a hard time getting as angry as he used to, but he could get riled up if he cared greatly about something again. Leo realizes all of Purge’s outrageous behavior comes from a good place. King confesses to searching Leo’s name online and finding the Young Republicans webpage. Leo explains what happened with Owen, omitting the information about Harvard. King remarks that Leo standing up to the assistant principal isn’t very Republican.

They spot an animal control truck parked outside a diner with a standard poodle inside. Leo grabs the poodle and they get away just as the Animal Control Officer emerges. When they return to the hotel, they find Max feeding bits of waffle to Llama, who reappeared at the valet a few hours before—Leo and King have the wrong dog. Leo apologizes, but it’s the most fun King’s had in years.