Whether you’ve read the book and anticipated the show or are just learning about Dasiy Jones and The Six through the limited series, you’ve likely wondered why a band with five people is called The Six in the adaptation of the popular novel. On the surface the answer is simple: they’re a group of five because a bandmate from the book, Pete Loving, isn’t in the show. However, there’s a little more to it than that, so I’ve broken it down between why there are six members in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s book and why there turned the band into a group of five in one of this year’s highly anticipated book-to-screen adaptations.
Why There Are Six Members Of The Six In The Book
In the book, the band that becomes The Six starts out with Billy and Graham Dunne, and they’re called The Dunne Brothers. Then they recruited Warren Rhodes, the drummer, Pete Loving, the bassist and Chuck Williams, the rhythm guitarist. However, Chuck was drafted to serve during the Vietnam War, and the band brought on Pete’s little brother Eddie to play rhythm guitar. The last member to join the band was Karen, making them a crew of six, hence the eventual name The Six.
At first, the crew is called The Dunne Brothers, however, when Karen joins the band in the book, officially making them a group of six, she’s insistent that they change their name. They couldn’t decide on a name in the book Daisy Jones and The Six, so Pete -- who again, is not in the show -- said, according to Eddie:
Pete said, ‘You’re never going to get six people to agree on this.’ and I said, ‘What about The Six?’
Then when Karen was on the phone with a booker, she called the group The Six rather than The Dunne Brothers, and that was that. There were six members of The Six, and then when Daisy Jones joined the band they go their full name: Daisy Jones and The Six.
In the show, the meaning of the band's name is not nearly as straightforward, especially considering the fact that there are only five members before Daisy joins.
Why There Are Five Members Of The Six In The Show
In the show, Billy (lead singer) and Graham Dunne (guitar), Warren Rojas (drums), Chuck Loving (bass), and Eddie Roundtree (rhythm guitar) start the band. As EW’s article about differences in the show points out, there is no Chuck and Pete, they get morphed into one character in the show named Chuck Loving. This new Chuck is not the unquoted bassist who is related to Eddie in the book, and he does not get sent to war. So, when he leaves the band to become a dentist, the band is down to four.
Billy then forces Eddie to move over to bass, and he takes over playing rhythm guitar and singing lead vocals, which plays into another big change from the books regarding Josh Whitehouse’s character.
The four boys and Camila, Billy’s soon-to-be wife, then travel to Los Angeles to pursue their career in music. Karen, who they met in Pittsburgh, comes back into the picture in LA, making them a band of five.
Like the book, Karen is the one to insist that the band change its name. Billy then said, as Pete does in the book:
The six of us will never agree on a name.
The six he’s referring to is himself, Graham, Warren, Eddie, Karen and Camila. Then Karen said:
What about The Six?
Eddie notes what we’re all thinking: there are five of them, not six, however, Warren says they can’t be The Five. So, it’s implied that Camila is like the sixth member of the crew, even though on stage there are five of them before Daisy joins.
There you have it, that’s why Daisy Jones and The Six is a group of five in the show, even though they’re a band of six in the book.
Despite this change and a few others, people are really loving Daisy Jones and The Six, and as a fan of the book, I’m also enjoying this adaptation that stays true to the characters we know and love from Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel.
To see these changes for yourself, you can stream the first six episodes of Daisy Jones and The Six with an Amazon Prime subscription, and new episodes air every Friday on the 2023 TV schedule.
