We all know the story about the Lost Album, the one where John is credited on all the songs and only actually played on three, the one that sat in the vaults of Az Records until 2010, the one with the version of "Lost So Lost" that has Sam's voice in the background saying hey Jess, this one is for you. Ash left halfway through, replaced by Jo Harvelle, daughter of Will Harvelle, lead singer of Hunter, the one band that John Winchester played with who might have gone somewhere, were it not for Will's death by cocaine overdose. Jo lasted til the album was done, and then left herself, becoming the only Free Will drummer who never toured with the band. Jessica Moore, Sam's girlfriend, died of smoke inhalation in a fire in her and Sam's apartment three weeks after the album was done. John Winchester died of drowning in his bathtub in the Hilton penthouse suite he shared with Dean eight days later. There was no tour to promote the album. There was no band to do the tour, and so Damon Zhel refused to release the album. It had a name, but Ash and Jo never knew what it was. Neither Sam nor Dean has ever said. Dean only gives his famous fuck-you grin when people ask. Sam's been known to walk out of interviews if it's brought up.
It came out after they'd buried John that he'd signed over his rights to the existing Free Will songbook to Zhel for an undisclosed sum of money. Zhel squatted on the rights like a toad on a rock, demanding that Sam and Dean do the tour they owed him. Singer was ready to do battle for them but, instead, they cut their losses, moved to L.A., and grieved their way through writing Hard Road, their first real collaborative project, the album where "Dean's voice, Sammy's words" became their solidified m.o. Singer found them Lisa Braedon to drum and Madison Kurt to take on second guitar and cut them a deal with Virgin. "Sold It All" hit the charts at number twenty-six and climbed like a rocket. Hard Road went platinum, the band went on the road, and they were abruptly "rich as hell and famous as shit," as Dean once put it.
They weren't ready for it.