He was going to be on the front page of NME, all puffed up hair and ear piercings. He was going to turn down Top of the Pops and only do Later... He was going to see the world and try every drug at least twice.
He definitely wasn't planning on still living in a high rise and working 36 hours a week on till in Superdrug. I mean, bloody Superdrug, it was hardly the most macho of stores, the pay was crap and the benefits worse. Even the uniform was obviously designed by a woman; most probably a 30 year old woman still perving on the teenage boys who worked there.
On the plus side some talent came in, looking at lip glosses and talking about Nivea. Not that he could do anything about it, not with Tash and Keyleigh at home.
Yeah, Jimmy Stones – he was going to be famous. He thought.
His ex now travelled the world, occasionally Mickey down the garage would go on about how she was now in Egypt or some place he could barely pronounce. Mickey was almost as thick as he was, and they both shared the status of being the ex of Miss Tyler. (and notice the Miss, because being an ex of Mrs Tyler was just plain wrong.)
Rose thought he was stupid, that much was clear. He was stupid for turning down that recording contract because he thought Satan Has The Internet would be in a position to pick and choose. Rose wasn't the only one to think he was stupid for turning them down - it seemed the rest of the band had far more modest expectations than them of Mr. Stones.
So they broke up, she took her stuff from his flat in black bin bags and trecked across the estate and back to her mother's. In truth she was only 16, he was 20 – she probably still should have been therein the first place but they were so in love.
They were going to have one of those nice flats in Docklands as their London pad, with a 42inch plasma TV. They were going to have his and hers Ferraris, and when he came off stage in Buenos Aires they would go back to their 5 hotel and have hot horny sex while ordering what they wanting from room service and not caring about the price.
When she chucked him he was quite surprised, but in fairness the warning signs had been there for a while. She was getting bored and he only cared about one thing at the moment, and she wasn't it, She didn't cry when she moved out, the same night he told Dive Records he wasn't interested in their offer. She was angry, shouting and throwing her stuff into the polythene sacks with venom the crinkling of plastic accompanying each item being packed.
"I quit school to help you follow your dreams, to help you with the rent and your opportunity finally comes and you blow it."
"It's not working, is it? You sleep with your bass more often than you sleep with me."
"How about just one bloody weekend without being in the van heading to fecking Sunderland or Swansea or whichever pub will pay for your peccy this week."
Yep, she was definitly pissed with him and when she put it like that she probably had a point. He tried to tell her he'd still make it, that he'd look after her, to remember the good times but he had well and truly blown it.
He thought it would all blow over though, and she'd come back and they'd carry on playing house. He'd write her a new song, or she would forget about the row and ring him up to go to the pub.
It never happened.
Ok, he didn't force her to leave school, but he never encouraged her to stay. He knew himself it took 5 A-Cs to get a job these days, he only got in at Superdrug thanks to a mate. She probably did deserve better, someone who could take her somewhere more exotic than a rough pub in Sunderland, travelling the 5 hours there and the 5 hours back in the slightly smelly and totally grimy blue Transit van Monki owned.
And now there she was, travelling with her new fella. Jimmy had never met him but Mickey made out that they were really into each other. A proper love job.
Jimmy though, he got with Tash about a month after Rose. At the point when it was obvious she wasn't going to come back – not even for the Sandra Bullock movie she had left in the DVD player.
One thing led to another and before he knew what was going on 15 year old Tash was pregnant with 21 year old Jimmy Stone's kid. They moved into another part of the Powell estate while Jimmy tried to earn a living. 9 months later Kayleigh was born.
He was going to be another one of those people who end up living their whole life on the estate, flitting between dead and job and the dole. He knew he was one of the estate's "look what happened to him" stories, but he had done the right thing. Most people would have just buggered off when their under-age shag got pregnant but Jimmy stayed by her. That's probably one of the things which mark him out as thick, staying with a girl after a "it's just a shag" relationship resulted in a pregnancy. Most boys would head for the hills, but not him. No, he was a decent person and he cared. He just didn't have the brains to realise when he was making a mistake.
But he would make it work for Kayleigh, because Jimmy Stones wasn't a bad person. He was just thick, and if Rose Tyler could get off the estate and go off and travel the world then he was sure his kid would do the same.