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Delious was right. There was something magical about the group. Despite anything negative I may say about him from this point on, I will give him this point: he picked a good group of guys for this project.

The first rehearsal was mostly a gab session. Introducing ourselves to the rest of the group, blowing our own horns, and describing our musical backgrounds and accomplishments. Alot of this information was old news to me. Delious and Jeff didn’t know that I had already spent a fair amount of time with Jerimy and Doug outside of the auditions, and Matt and I had talked quite a bit, though there was a bit of tension between us that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. He kept his responses fairly short, and was doing his best to maintain an air of exaggerated professionalism.

Stephen was the oldest of the five of us. He had a choir background, a pleasant tenor/high tenor voice, with a range not unlike my own. He grew up in California, but had since moved to Nashville. He was quiet in the beginning, but quickly became the “yes man” of the group. Delious was his leader and he the willing sheep. If we received a direction from Delious, Stephen would be the first to echo his words back to us. I guess every group has one of these types in it, but it has never scored points with me.

Doug had had little singing experience when he auditioned for the group. He was definitely in need of polishing. As I said earlier, he had a nice strong lead voice, with the perfect amount of Oklahoma twang to make you think he had actually been born in a tractor seat. He may have been. What he couldn’t do was sing a harmony part to save his life. If he wasn’t singing lead when we were rehearsing, he’d invariably end up doubling the lead, occasionally an octave lower. I can remember pulling him aside and playing a note on the guitar or piano and saying, “Sing that note.” He would sing it. I would play another note, he would accurately sing that note. I would then sing the original note, and ask him to sing the second note. Impossible. Couldn’t do it. I would get so frustrated, and say “Doug, can you hear the difference between these notes?” ” Uh’Course I can, I ain’t stupid,” he would reply.

Honestly, Jerimy was my favorite in the beginning. Not just because I thought he was cute, which he was… but he was also the most genuine of the bunch. He was the youngest, and had no knowledge of how the music business worked… no concept of being in a band. He just knew he liked to sing, and everyone told him that he was good. He was from a little town in Oklahoma, had a girlfriend back home that he missed terribly, talked openly about his love of his family and said all the right things that would make country fans swoon. He had a baritone voice, but was picked to sing bass, which could be a bit problematic as he would lose the pitch as he reached the depths of his range.

Matt was by far the strongest singer. His vocal range was perfect for a front man, his pitch was almost always perfect. He could pick out a harmony almost immediately and like me, had an extensive performance background and was used to blending in with a group. He was from the Chicago area, and came from a pretty conservative family. His father was a minister in a Church of God. He worked for BMI, the music rights and clearances organization, and he had a pretty solid knowledge of the business. He would often join me in my efforts to teach Doug and Jerimy the basics of singing with other people, such as the importance of listening to each other and trying to match your tone to theirs.

And then there was me. It would be rather impossible for me to describe myself at that time period without either being too hard, or too soft on myself. I was working for the radio station, rubbing elbows with the biggest names in country and pop music at the time. I was excited about the project, but very skeptical of the concept. One thing I can say about myself is that I already understood and accepted my strengths and limitations as an artist. I had, after all, been singing professionally for 8 or 9 years by then. I was the 2nd oldest, and fell into the role of big brother, explaining concepts to the Okies and usually remaining calm even when rehearsals occasionally got tense.

Delious detailed his ideas for the band… loosely based on the boy-band concept of his band, All-4-One, and newcomers *Nsync and The Backstreet Boys. We would dress sharp, play to the 13 year old girl market, and become fabulously popular. We’d have some “minor choreography” but only so far as to make us look like we had spent time rehearsing, as country audiences were less likely to buy into the gimmick that worked so well in the pop world. Delious and Jeff would talk in riddles when it came to details of the ‘contract’ that he was proposing. It was described as a Production Agreement, and we’d have plenty of time to hammer out details of the agreement after we had gotten our demo together to present to Atlantic Records.

I’ve avoided describing him up to this point because I can’t find anything nice to say… but I’ve mentioned Jeff, Delious’ right hand man/business manager. Jeff embodied everything I hate about Los Angeles. He was shallow, rude, pessimistic, and I never trusted him. Not from day one when he first talked to me at the audition between phone calls. He was too thin, too tan, his hair was too blonde, he dressed far too young for his age, and he used the word “Dude” without any sense of irony. His handshake was damp, limp and insincere. If I were to base a cartoon character on him, it would be a creature that was the perfect combination of rattlesnake, earthworm, and a mangy starved pit bull.

Picture that tonight when you lie down in your comfy bed.

Please note, the photographs I used for this entry were not taken by me, and were used without permission. If anyone should object, I’ll replace the photos with some that I actually took during rehearsals and at the recording studio. Trust me, they aren’t as nice and flattering as these. Be warned, I will probably use them in later posts, anyway.