tour with the KC Southern Band. Some six weeks before his death in 1991, Clark told interviewer Bill Wasserzieher that he considered Two Sides to Every Story his best album, rivaled only by No Other. McGuinn, Clark & Hillman For his British tour dates, Clark found himself on the same bill as ex-Byrds Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, each fronting their own bands. Shortly after returning to the United States, Clark and McGuinn began touring as an acoustic duo. After Hillman joined his former bandmates, the reformed trio named themselves McGuinn, Clark & Hillman and signed with Capitol Records. Produced by the Albert Brothers (who had recently recorded Crosby, Stills & Nash's 1977 comeback album), the ensuing McGuinn, Clark & Hillman (1979) was a rebirth in both performing and songwriting for Clark, who ensconced himself as the group's dominant creative force. He wrote four songs for the album, including "Backstage Pass" (a rumination on the ennui of touring and his fear of flying), "Release Me Girl" (a disco-inflected collaboration with Thomas Jefferson Kaye), the UFO-inspired "Feelin' Higher" and "Little Mama". Many critics felt that the album's slick production and disco-influenced soft rock rhythms didn't flatter the group, but the album reached No. 39 on the Billboard 200 (underpinned by the McGuinn-penned "Don't You Write Her Off", which peaked at No. 33 in May 1979) and earned a RIAA gold certification, selling well enough to generate a follow-up. McGuinn, Clark and Hillman's second release was to have been a full group effort entitled City; although it was ultimately released in 1980, a combination of Clark's unreliability (including experimentation with heroin) and his dissatisfaction with their musical direction (mostly regarding Ron and Howard Albert's production) resulted in the album being credited to "Roger McGuinn & Chris Hillman featuring Gene Clark." Despite the turmoil, Clark penned the song "Won't Let You Down". By 1981, Clark had left, and the group recorded one more album as "McGuinn/Hillman". Rehabilitation, Firebyrd and So Rebellious a Lover Clark moved to Hawaii with Jesse Ed Davis to try to overcome his drug dependency, remaining there until the end of 1981. Upon his return to Los Angeles, he assembled a new band, the Firebyrds, and in 1982 proceeded to record what would eventually become the album Firebyrd. While waiting for the album to be released, Clark joined up with Chris Hillman and others in an abortive venture called Flyte,