History of Hard Rock/Heavy Metal: Tesla

Tesla is the name of an American rock band originating in Sacramento, California. The band formed in 1984 on the island of Guam as City Kidd, and was renamed Tesla during the recording of their first album on the advice of their manager. The band derived their name, certain album and song titles, and some song content from events relating to Nikola Tesla, a Serbian inventor (born in Croatia) and electrical engineer born in the 19th century.

The band's original line-up consisted of vocalist Jeff Keith, guitarists Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch, bassist Brian Wheat and drummer Troy Luccketta.

Tesla's music was often referred to as heavy metal, but is better described as hard rock with a bluesy feel. The band's lyrics also strayed from the themes popular in heavy metal, particularly in the 1980s. A further distinction from their comtemporaries was their T-shirt-and-jeans image which was in strong contrast to Glam Metal bands of the time, which were characterized by big hair, leather pants and flashy-make up.

After playing several showcases in Los Angeles, Tesla quickly scored a deal with Geffen and released their debut album, Mechanical Resonance, in 1986; it produced a minor hard rock hit in "Modern Day Cowboy," reached the Top 40 on the album charts, and eventually went platinum.

However, it was the follow-up, 1989's The Great Radio Controversy, that truly broke the band. The first single, "Heaven's Trail (No Way Out)," was another hit with hard rock audiences, setting the stage for the second single, a warm, comforting ballad called "Love Song" which substituted a dash of hippie utopianism for the usual power ballad histrionics. "Love Song" hit the pop Top Ten and made the band stars, pushing The Great Radio Controversy into the Top 20 and double-platinum sales figures; the follow-up single, "The Way It Is," was also something of a hit.

In keeping with their unpretentious, blue-collar roots, Tesla responded to stardom not by aping the glam theatrics of their tourmates, but by stripping things down. The idea behind 1990's Five Man Acoustical Jam was virtually unheard of — a pop-metal band playing loose, informal acoustic versions of their best-known songs in concert, plus a few favorite covers ('60s classics by the Beatles, Stones, CCR, and others).

The studio follow-up to The Great Radio Controversy, Psychotic Supper, was released in 1991 and quickly became another platinum hit. It didn't produce any singles quite as successful as "Love Song" or "Signs," but it did spin off the greatest number of singles of any Tesla album: "Edison's Medicine," "Call It What You Want," "What You Give," "Song and Emotion."

Bust A Nut followed in 1994 but tensions within the band caused their breakup in 1996. The band staged a small-scale reunion in 2000, which quickly became full-fledged. In the fall of 2001, the group released a two-disc live album, Replugged Live, which documented their reunion tour. Into the Now, which was co-produced by Michael Rosen (Testament, AFI), appeared in March 2004. A collection of '70s covers called Real to Reel arrived in 2007.