"This shit is real. Watch out, cuz they're not gonna stop!"_{Fred Durst}

Staind's roots go back to a Christmas party in their hometown of Springfield, Mass., where guitarist Michael Mushok and singer Aaron Lewis met. Their conversation ended abruptly, as Mike reminisces, "when the drunken host smashed his head through a wall and kicked everyone out of the house." With the addition of drummer Jon Wysocki and a bassist (who would soon be replaced with current member Johnny April), they played their first gig in February of 1995.

After a year and a half of steady playing in New England, Staind self-released their debut album, Tormented, In November 1996. Nearly a thousand rabid fans attended the release party, and over the next two years they sold 4000 copies. Of the band and album, Lollipop said, "Unlike many a band, especially heavy bands that rely more on strength than dexterity, Staind has songs. Songs you get to know. Songs you move with, go the distance with. This is a band to watch."

They continued playing in the region with groups like Honkeyball, Shed, Kilgore, GWAR and God Lives Underwater, drawing attention for their fierce live show. Northeast Performer said, "Staind's musicianship is striking, an their live performance takes their recorded material one step further: pushing the envelope, ripping up the envelope, then jumping up and down all over the envelope 'till there ain't a d*** thing left." But by the fall of 1997 they were ready for bigger things. "We wanted to expand our base," Mike says. "So when our friends in Sugermilk invited us to play with them and Limp Bizkit in Hartford, we jumped at the chance."

What appeared to be their first big break didn't go so smoothly, however. "Fred's a spiritual guy," explains Mike. "The artwork on our first album was a bit, uh, graphic. [If you consider a bloody Bible impaled on a knife, with a Barbie hanging upside down from a cross to be graphic.] Twenty minutes before the show, Fred saw it, and he got in our faces, asking if we were devil worshippers, which we aren't. He threw the cd across the room and tried to get us kicked off the bill. Here we wanted them to like us, and they hated us before we played a note. So much for the big break."

Thankfully, Fred was persuaded to let the band perform. "When we came offstage, it was a different story," Mike reports. "He told us we were the best band he'd seen in a long time and that he wanted to produce us for his new company. So he obviously paid attention to what we did."

They exchanged numbers, and Mike called and called, but to no avail. Undaunted, they took their new four-song demo to a Bizkit/Deftones show the night before Thanksgiving. "We knocked on the bus door, and DJ Lethal remembered us, Mike says, "We never saw Fred, but we left the tape. At two in the morning, Fred called with our demo playing in the background. He loved it." Durst invited Staind to his home and rehearsal space in Jacksonville, Florida. "We had a gig the day after Christmas, and we left after the show at 4:00 a.m. and drove straight through. A thousand feet past the 'Welcome to Florida' sign the van died. Fred and a tow truck had to pick us up.

"When we finally got there at 3:30 a.m., Aaron started playing an acoustic song, 'Black Rain," Mike continues. "Fred said, let's do it right now." Durst liked it, played it for Jordan [Schur, president of Flip] over the phone, and Staind became the newest signing on the Flip roster. "Fred pointed us in the right direction," Mike says. "Back home we played with a lot of hardcore bands, and we were always trying to be heavier. But Aaron has a great voice, and Fred helped us see how we could be more melodic to take advantage of it."