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CHAPTER 1 EXCERPTS
KENNETH (67) & GINA (68)…One-Hit Wonders No More
VICTORIA (65)…Not a Scared Spectator Anymore
KLAUS & HENRIETTA (both 70)…Alaskan Adventure
GILBERT (35) & MARLENE (70)…May & December
MAXIMILLIAN (74)…The Professor
PETER & LI (both 67)…Eastern Horizons
DOROTHY (71)…Perfect Ten
LEROY (67) & JUANITA (69)…Different Cultures
IRENE (68)…Hidden No More
HERBERT (81) and IRMA (77)…Shooting Stars
A Final Note: Your Own Seasoned Romance Questionnaire


Plus, Your Own Seasoned Romance Questionnaire
and an Invitation to Participate in this ongoing Book Series
Seasoned Romance™ Book Two. Copyright 2013 by DeLeeuw Research Group. International Copyright Secured.
All Rights Reserved. Seasoned Romance™ is a trademark of DeLeeuw Research Group, and may appear throughout
this book with or without the ™ symbol. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior written
permission from the editors of:
    DeLeeuw Research Group
    PO Box 610231
    Dallas, Texas 75261


GINA
Let’s face it—you’ve got to have a huge ego or you wouldn’t even think about getting up in front of
complete strangers and trying to wow them with your singing.

Especially back then the money was pretty pitiful compared to today, even if you hit the top of the charts
as we both did. There were so many lawyers and agents and managers and hangers-on getting their cut
long before the scraps got down to you.

We didn’t know any different. Both Kenny and I and all the people in both of our groups were from poor
backgrounds, so anything we made was a bushel-full more than we would have been making working in
cotton fields, flipping burgers or doing some other low-end job back home.

The really sad part is that when it really starts happening for you and the money and good times start rolling in, you get caught up
in everything and actually start thinking the gravy train will never end. Every day is a party! You gotta keep the party going or
people will think your career is sliding.

It gets crazy!

Suddenly, you are running from one concert tour to television appearances and radio interviews. Everyone, it seems, wants your
autograph and more. By the time you reach the top, you literally have your soul sucked out to the point that you see yourself in a
mirror and don’t even recognize the stranger reflected back at you.

Then the next record doesn’t go as high on the charts, and you become yesterday’s news. Somebody else rushes to the head of
the line, and you are suddenly a washed-out warm-up group for the brand-new headliners.

Worse, the bills on the Cadillacs and houses don’t get paid. Checks start bouncing and bill collectors come calling. All those
hangers-on and fat cats split, leaving you looking at a career on the downhill slide and the IRS and debtors wondering where all
their money is from the money everybody around you has been partying on.

Maybe it’s better today, but you still hear many of the same stories in so many different types of entertainment. If anything, with so
many entertainment programs on TV and celebrity blogs on the Internet, people see the “big star declares bankruptcy” and “hit-
maker hits the slides” stories. It  will probably keep happening as long as there are hangers-on who see newly rich showbiz people
as easy pickings.



KENNETH
At the lowest, I would begin to understand that my purpose in life wasn’t over, but during the darkest days I really didn’t see a way
out. I just figured that it would eventually end for me like it had for some of the big names I had run around with not many years
ago. They had finally reached the point when they apparently couldn’t hear those childhood sermons in their memories anymore,
and they crossed the line to become just another “Former Star Found Dead…Suicide Suspected” headline for everyone to read
and then quickly forget.

When Gina and I got back together, I’m not sure why she stuck around. I was certainly no prize. Still, she did stay with me. For that
I will forever be thankful to God. She helped me get it back together, even as she worked to get her life back under control.
I want to think that I helped her at the same time. We forged a true friendship that was built totally on the most basic kind of
survival. It certainly wasn’t about sex anymore. It wasn’t about gold records. It wasn’t about performing before packed houses and
hearing the deafening roar of the crowds and signing autographs backstage. It wasn’t about drugs or drinking or partying
anymore. It was just staying alive another day, trying to get sober and making better choices together, one day after the next.


GINA
Today, sex is more about building trust and enjoying all the moments, not just looking for the next hot and heavy experience.
But since you asked how special sex could be at our age, let me share something that happened recently and you can decide if it
fits the bill or not.

Kenneth and I were asked to be part of a big nostalgia show at a major arena in the Midwest. It was a big television special that
would be shown internationally. A lot of our friends from the early years were there. We saw some of the old group members for
the first time in years, and it was great catching up with everyone in the dressing rooms and Green Room as everyone took their
turns practicing then doing the actual show.

The night was smoking! The famous arena was packed, and the packed crowd was really into it. It felt awesome as Kenneth and I
both performed with some of the members of our original groups. The band was hot! People throughout the audience were
singing the words along with us—all of us enjoying the memories that the songs brought back from when we were younger. It was
one of those special times when it’s so apparent that the words and music had been such an important part of our lives.

Then all the performers came onstage at the end to do a big final number. There was such a connection between the stars
onstage because of all the memories we shared, and that musical bond was also so strong between us and the people in the
audience. There was just so much déjà vu sweeping through the arena that it was hard not to keep from letting it overwhelm you.
I was standing stage right with the members of my group, and Kenneth was standing almost all the way stage left with members of
his group, with lots of household names standing between us—people we had known through thick and thin.

I looked at some of the people onstage and thought about the little dives we had played together in our younger years, the bus
rides through the night as we did whatever it took to reach for the brass ring, and the times when we actually got to see each other’
s names on the hit parade charts and marquees. We had held each other’s hands through the bad times and patted each other
on the backs through the good times. We had partied together and cried together and made love when nothing else made sense.
There were just so many memories rolled into that moment as we sang the final song together.

At one particular moment, just as we were going into the big finish, Kenneth and I looked at each other. He had a big ole grin on
his face. Mine undoubtedly matched his.

Then it hit me—“Who could believe it could be this good again?” I was flooded with such great memories, yet we were enjoying
this moment with no booze or drugs involved. Afterward, I knew I would be going to be going to the hotel with a husband whom I
love more than life itself!

All fear was gone. All the pain was in the past. All the things I hated about myself and tried so hard to make better by becoming a
big star forgotten.

At that exact moment, I was overwhelmed with such a feeling of clarity and gratefulness for the fact that I had survived it all to live
another day and to enjoy singing onstage with my husband and so many of our friends.

There were so many times I never thought I would make it through the dark nights, much less to be performing again at that level
with Kenneth on the same stage.

In terms of an interview about seasoned romance, to use your phrase, I guess it would make a great story if Kenneth and I ran
back to the hotel where we were staying, jumped in the sack and had the greatest sex of our lives. Truth is, after all the practice
and emotions and after-show autograph signing, photos and conversations, we just hit that sack and fell fast asleep.

So much for the wild and crazy showbiz life, right?
EXCERPTS FROM CHAPTER 1