Sao Paulo was a proud day for Max. After an explosion of a show, it was important to Max to present Zyon to the crowd, to his people, to his country. He took him from the side of the stage and carried him to the front. 40,000 crazy fans going wild, and Zyon never flinched. He just soaked it all up and filed it in his fresh brain. As Max held Zyon, a Brazilian flag was thrown up on the stage. Max picked it up, raised it and then turned around and left the stage. I joined him, as usual and we went towards the dressing room. Or, so we thought...
At the bottom of the stairs, the MTV cameras and lights turned on, and there, next to MTV, were the police, waiting to arrest Max! They advised us to get into the van that had conveniently pulled up. Max, Zyon and I were shuffled off to the police station and Max was under arrest. For what, we did not know.
At the station, the atmosphere turned light after Max was questioned about the flag. Apparently someone at the concert protested loudly and quickly, "Max peed on the flag, stomped on it, on the stage and walked off!" In no time at all, thanks to the arrangements of MTV, the news spread like wildfire, through every possible microphone, fax machine, phone call and carrier pigeon in the country. Most likely also at every beer and cup of coffee shared in Brazil, for the next week to come! We were detained for quite some time at the police station. When the Cop Shop Talk turned to soccer, I quit worrying. After the Police Chief arrived, Max was released and all was well...until morning.
Max flipped from being the Max everyone loved, to the Max everyone shunned, all in a matter hours. Every news channel, radio station and magazine was spreading and stretching the story, inch by inch. A simple presentation of Zyon, with the flag of Brazil, had turned and twisted and arrived at Max, basically shatting on the flag on stage, in front of 40,000 people, while holding Zyon. Ok. Every talk show was talking, and every mouth was judging. We even heard a Brazilian rock star say Max should be lynched! One of the biggest political magazines had Max in the political cartoon of the week, with the President! We couldn't leave our hotel room. Everywhere we went people glared at him. Paranoia and despair set in. Poison took it differently and said "You are taking all the press!" Max didn't want it.
Before Max left the country, for other planetary dates, he wrote a short statement, from his heart, and it too, spread like melted butter. Everything and everyone cooled down. I am sure there are some little homes, in some little villages, where the news stayed put and Max will forever be the Flag Destroyer. It was all part of our Journey.
Class dismissed....