MIKE: "I was living with John at 1330 East 900 South in 1/2 of Granny Bates' duplex. We were working at Brigham Street Service on South Temple as gas jockeys. I worked John's shift so he could go stand in line for tickets with his East High debate buddy. (Son of the opthamalogist? Went to Bowdoin?)"

WARD!: "I remember running into John at the premier of 'Return of the Jedi' in the spring of 1983. He was in line with his so beautiful girlfriend. I had known John since 1979 from high school. He was a freshman when I was a senior. In '79 we both served on the student council at East High School in Salt Lake City. So here he was standing in line for this movie. I was just about to pack everything up and move to Los Angeles to find a band I might play guitar for. When I told John of my plan he immediately said, 'Let's make a band!' So we did. It's almost as though he said 'Let there be band'."

MIKE: "Ward! came by us in line, we were quite close to the front. John & Ward! both said, 'Let's have a band!' and I thought that would be that. But they saw each other again inside and got revved up again. I seem to recall providing paper and pen to write phone numbers."

WARD!: "Indeed you did. In the ornate lobby of the theater. Mike, you were the cement from the very start."

MIKE: "The early jam sessions took place in our car hole as I recall, I particularly remember the two playing The End. It sounded magical to me. VERY shortly thereafter I had my close encounter with the radiator (pictures available upon request). (Rumor has it DRE was on duty in the ER that day. But I digress)."

WARD!: "Mike is John's cousin. I think they had played together in a band."

MIKE: "The original band had one gig and I was in that as well. John, Doug, me and a lead guitarist who was Greek I believe. It was a birthday party at the U dorms for Doug's sister. I played keyboard, the only songs I remember are 'Back in the USSR' and 'Twist and Shout' (maybe) and 'Birthday'. We got the crowd up and dancing and it was a RUSH."

WARD!: "After practicing a few times we knew it would work. We just needed to find the other band members."

WARD!: "I knew Ron? from his hanging around the Lambda Chi Alpha frat house at the University of Utah. I was living in a room upstairs. He lived just down the street. He came by one day when I was practicing my guitar. I had these two huge 15" P.A. speakers and I liked to play very loud. You could easily hear my horrible playing several houses away. So Ron? comes by and says how he wanted to learn to play guitar and would I teach him? 'Sure,' I said. We started off backwards, as he is left handed and we both thought it might be good for him to learn to play a right handed guitar. We quickly figured it would be better for him to re-string his Stratocaster as left handed. This made a world of difference. He is a natural R&B lead guitar. It's as though he had been playing for years. I think the extent of my 'teaching' lasted about 30 minutes. The rest he picked up by ear."

MIKE: "Soon after we moved into The Cave on 4th South and 13th East."

WARD!: "Mike and John found 'The Cave' and had arranged for us to live there. (Meaning they came up with the first month's rent and deposit)"

MIKE: "Was it my imagination or did I do most of the cooking, cleaning and grocery buying at the Cave? What jobs did everyone have?"

MIKE: "Todd appeared in the picture from nowhere, a guitarist willing to slum as a bass player in order to get into a band."

TODD: "To correct your history a little, it was your former boss [TL] who got displaced by me, the slumming URGE bassist. IMHO John, Ward!, and Ron? made an Excellent decision - a heavy metal guitarist would not have fit in very well with a blues-based band."

WARD!: "TL was clearly a hard rock guitarist in his heart. He had no desire to play bass, or really to play other people's songs. He had all these great rock and roll ideas already in his head. After two "practice sessions" with TL at The Cave it became obvious that he was not going to fit into The Urge as bassist. The Urge was headed in an R&B power-pop kind of direction, TL and company were headed down an AC/DC 'Highway to Hell'. In the end this proved best as evidenced by the now immortal 'Terminal Velocity'.

continued...