Ongoing History Daily: A terrible high school band was also the birth of two massive groups

October 27, 2023 Alan Cross 0 Comments 0 min read

Like all high schools, Libertyville High School in Libertyville, Illinois, had a bunch of students who wanted to be rock stars. In the early 80s, one of those bands was a punk group called The Electric Sheep.

They had that youthful energy that shouted that they were going to be huge. The problem was that they weren’t very good and no one gave them any chance of doing anything. And the naysayers were correct: The Electric Sheep amounted to nought. However, two members wouldn’t give up the dream and eventually ended up in California and ended up doing okay.

One of those guys was Tom Morello who would find himself in Rage Against the Machine. The other was Adam Jones, the guitarist in Tool. What are the chances of two guys from a small-town high school band both making it this big?

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

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