Staind’s roots go back to a Christmas party in their hometown of Springfield, MA, where guitarist Mike 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.
Staind put out a self-released CD (Tormented) on November 29th, 1996. The 1st CD party was an overwhelming success with over 900 people in attendance and selling more than 200 CDs that night. The band's big break came October 23, 1997 when Staind performed with the band Limp BizkitHartford,CT. About 20 minutes before Staind was supposed to perform, Fred Durst, the singer for Limp Bizkit, approached Aaron and Mike with a copy of their CD in his hand. Fred thought that Staind were Satan worshippers due to the nature of the cover art. Of course they weren't, but Fred tried to kick them off the bill. Then, he took the CD and threw it across the table. He wanted nothing to do with Staind. That is, until he watched them perform.
     After the show Fred approached Staind and said they were the best band he had seen in 2 years. He also said that he was starting a production company and wanted to work with them. They exchanged phone numbers and then went their separate ways.
At the time, Staind was in the studio making a demo with four new songs. The band tried to reach Fred but was unsuccessful due to Limp Bizkit’s busy touring schedule. Once they found out that Limp was opening for the Deftones outside of Boston they thought it would be the perfect opportunity to give Fred a copy of the new songs, so the band drove up to see the show.
     They went to Limp Bizkit's bus and knocked on the door, where they met up with DJ Lethal (Fred was busy elsewhere). They gave him a couple of tapes with the new tunes, then went to see the show. They tried to find Fred but were unsuccessful.
     Fred eventually got back to them and said he loved the new songs and wanted the band to go to Jacksonville, FL to work with them on the new material. After a few phone conversations, they decided that they would leave the day after Christmas.
    They almost made it, but their van broke down about 1,000 feet from the Florida State line. They had it towed to Fred's house and started work the very next day.
    Fred played an integral part in helping Staind to develop their sound, and even helped Aaron bring out that amazing voice of his. Staind reworked four of their songs and played to a sold out show in Limp Bizkit’s hometown of Jaxsonville.
    While there, Fred contacted Jordan Schur, the President of Flip Records. Fred told Jordan about Staind and within a week of leaving Jacksonville, the band was on a plane to L.A. where they would meet Jordan and record a three-song sampler.
     They recorded "A Flat," "Suffocate" and one of Aaron's acoustic tracks "Black Rain" at Sound City Studios with Fred and Lethal producing. By February 1998, Staind had signed to Flip Records.
     In April, Staind went back to Jax and worked with Fred on some more tunes and by June of 1998, were working closely with their management company, The Firm, who also managed Limp Bizkit and Orgy. Staind was then able to persuade Terry Date (The Deftones, Pantera, White Zombie) to produce their first album, Dysfunction. On August 1, 1998 Staind flew to Seattle to record at Studio Litho. During early October, the album was also mixed in Seattle.
     Dysfunction was released in April 1999 and was an amazing success. The three singles Just Go, Mudshovel (which also appeared on Tormented), and Home enjoyed a great amount airtime on the radio and on MTV.  Staind also appeared on the Family Values tour in 1999 with Limp Bizkit.
    After touring for almost a year straight, Staind went back into the studio to begin recording their next album, Break the Cycle. "Every scenario is kind of a cycle. A cycle will continue until its broken in every sense and aspect of it, whether its a good cycle or a bad cycle," says Aaron of the album title, "This record is kind of an awakening or eye opening of sorts." Indeed it was. The album was released May 22 and when the first single, Its Been Awhile, became a major hit on the charts and radio as well as MTV, more and more people started to notice Staind. The album went Double Platinum almost two months after it came out.
    Of course, It's Been Awhile wasn't the only reason the album became a huge hit so fast. There's the song “Outside,” which Aaron performed solo(fred durst performed along side him, but didn't really add much to the song), acoustically once on the Family Values tour. The track, which appears on the Family Values Tour ’99 live album, found its way onto the radio and MTV, and quietly became one of the biggest rock records of late 2000 and early 2001. “It’s really an accidental phenomenon,” Aaron explains. “I’ve been playing it for quite some time. In the early days of the band, any money we made went back into the band, so two or three times a week I played acoustically to make money to live off. ‘Outside’ was one of the songs I played, but it wasn’t really finished, so I made up different words every time. We almost put it on Dysfunction. Then, one night on the Family Values tour, ten minutes before going onstage, we decided to do it. There was never any thought of releasing it this way.” However unintentional this turn of events may be, the song earned some well-deserved success, and Staind decided to record a full-band version that appears on Break The Cycle.