This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2025.
Seven Days turned 30 this year, and my assignment was to write about four of my coworkers and their band. My dog as my witness, I actually said out loud, “Diane is going to be a problem.”
“Diane” is art director Diane Sullivan, one of the longest-serving employees at the paper, who for decades has fronted acts like the Dirty Blondes and Everybody’s Favorite Irish Drinking Songs Band. She’s a supernova of energy and booze-soaked abandon onstage. She and production manager John James, designer Jeff Baron and digital production specialist Bryan Parmelee formed the band Enemy of the People in 2019.
Ordinarily, interviewing people I know well would be something to avoid. But our self-reflective Birthday Issue aimed to tell the story of the paper and the people who make it, so we threw all the rules out the window and leaned into the conflicts of interest.
Conducting an interview with friends typically goes off the rails, and this was no exception. But after a chaotic hour, I had plenty of good information and profanity-laced quotes. I wrote my story, and everybody involved seemed happy.
Except Diane.
When she saw the story, as part of the paper’s weekly assembly, Diane emailed culture coeditor Carolyn Fox: “I get that Chris is taking artistic liberty with the quotes here. But I def don’t use the word ‘fucking’ like that.”
Carolyn was quick to point out that Di had similar problems with another Birthday Issue story that mentioned her. But I was still rattled. I thought to myself, Did I embellish? I know how Di talks; maybe I filled in some blanks?
Diane is one of the Queen City’s coolest rockers. For years she’s been bringing dirty, loud rock and roll to Burlington, such as the perennial St. Paddy’s Day banger “Fuck You, I’m Drunk.” She’s also a perfectly lovely and talented colleague. While she might be comfortable getting potty-mouthed with me, she doesn’t shout profanities down the phone at work. I could see why she objected to so many attributed to her in print.
A quick check of the tape confirmed that her quotes were accurate and the f-bomb count was correct.
“Um, maybe take out some of the ‘fucks,’ I guess?” I said to Carolyn.
She suggested a few other tweaks to allay Diane’s concerns without detracting from the story. Sometimes it’s harder to write about what you know than what you don’t.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Most Cursed Story”
This article appears in Dec 24 2025 – Jan 6 2026.
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