Oh, the power of radio.
Radio took the hard-rock/blues band Tesla to the peak of success, with more than 14 million albums sold, three multi-platinum albums, one gold album and two Top 10 singles.
And it was radio that got the band back together after its 1996 breakup.
"We knew one of the DJs at KRXQ-FM in Sacramento," said bassist Brian Wheat during a telephone interview from Los Angeles. "He had been asking us for years when were going to get back together. After giving him dead answers for five years, he said he wanted to see us back together for a radio show he was organizing. He was going to revolve the show around us. And we decided it was time."
Tesla, named after inventor Nikolai Tesla, includes Wheat, vocalist Jeff Keith, drummer Troy Luccketta and guitarists Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch (pronounced SKE-oh), and they will give Salt Lake audiences a shot of old-fashioned, blues-based electric rock when they stop at Saltair on Saturday, Feb. 17. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available through Smith'sTix or by calling 467-TIXX.
"It was a great feeling getting back on stage with the others," said Wheat. "We had gone through the 'if-he-does-it-then-I-will' thing, and it felt good. After we did that show at the Arco Arena last October, we decided to see if we could take the band on tour."
Burnout fueled the breakup, said Wheat. Skeoch was the first to leave the fold, and then the rest of it fell apart.
"It was that, and there were a lot of other things that happened that just made it impossible for us to be a band," he said. "We had our ups and downs. And then we were faced with the new sound of music in the early 1990s."
During the band's separation, Wheat continued playing music in a band called Slowmotor, and Keith eventually reteamed with Skeoch as Bar 7.
"Music was the only thing I knew how to do," explained Wheat, who cited the Beatles — especially bassist Paul McCartney — and Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page as his main influences. "Getting the new band going was a challenge, and then keeping it running was also hard. But it was the overall attitude of people that was real hard to get over.
"We had doors slammed in our faces all over the place because we were former members of Tesla, who, a lot of people think, was a hair metal band."
Although Tesla did rise to fame in the late '80s and toured with the likes of Poison, its music is different. All their albums feature the motto "No Machines." And the musicians were raised on a steady diet of the blues.
"We were something different, but people tried to categorize us," Wheat said.
And the reunion helped bolster his conviction that music is his calling. "Getting back on stage with the guys was a huge reward for all the hard times these last five years. It's great to hear from the audience. And it's nice to know there are some fans out there who haven't forgotten us."
E-MAIL: scott@desnews.com