Tesla is Still Rockin'

Back in 1984, five guys from Sacramento, California got together to form a band named City Kidd. Two years later when they were finally recording their first album, their manager told them City Kidd was not a good name and they changed their name to Tesla.

Tesla was originally made up of lead vocalist Jeff Keith, guitarists Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch, bassist Brian Wheat, and drummer Troy Luccketta. Tommy Skeoch left the band in 2006 to be with his wife and newborn son. He had been battling substance abuse for some time before and missed time with the band in the past, but this time he had a much better reason for leaving the band. That's when he was replaced by Dave Rude.

Tesla recorded their first album called "Mechanical Resonance" in 1986. With such hard rocking hits as "EZ Come EZ Go", "Modern Day Cowboy", and "Cumin' Atcha Live", the album, which went as high as number 32 on the Billboard charts, went platinum.

In 1989, the band released their second album entitled "The Great Radio Controversy". Their single " Love Song" climbed the charts up to number 7, as the album went double platinum. The album also produced "Heaven's Trail (No Way Out)", which made it to Number 13. The following year they cut a live album called Five Man Acoustical Jam, which was all acoustical and featured covers from The Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and Creedence Clearwater Revival, as well as acoustic versions of some of their own hits. Their cover of the Five Man Electrical Band's "Signs" made it to # 2 on the charts. The album made it to number 12 on the Billboard charts and went platinum.

Tesla released their third studio album in 1991. " Psychotic Supper" spawned the hit " What You Give", which hit # 7 on the charts in 1992 and helped Tesla achieve another platinum album. "Edison's Medicine", one of many songs that makes reference to Nikola Tesla, the Serbian inventor and electrical engineer that the band is named after, was also on the album. In 1994, Tesla released "Bust a Nut", their fourth studio album. The song "Mama's Fool" went to #5 on the charts and sent the album to # 20 on the album charts. The album went gold. The band then split until 2000, however they re-released "Bust A Nut" in Japan with a cover of Led Zeppelins " The Ocean", as a bonus track.

When they got back together in 2000 they recorded the double live album titled "Replugged Live", which they released again in 2002 as "Standing Room Only "and squeezed it onto one CD. Tesla's next four efforts didn't have much success as their earlier albums, as only "Into The Now" made it as high as # 30 on the album charts. However, Tesla has just released its seventh studio album this past October called "Forever More". We will have to wait and see how it does in time but from the sounds of " I Wanna Live", this may be Tesla's next platinum album.

Tesla has long been one of my favorite bands. If you are into good Rock n' Roll and would like to check out Tesla, you can go to their website at www.teslatheband.com. They also have a killer Myspace page.