When Rhino records called Candlebox singer Kevin Martin late last year about putting out a "Best of" CD for the band that had called it quits six years earlier, Martin agreed to take a look at the proposed track listing.
It was around Christmastime, and Martin, who was in Southern California, was about to head home to Seattle to visit with family. While he was there, he called his former lead guitarist, Peter Klett, who still lived in the Emerald City, to look over the list with him.
"We went out for coffee," Martin said by phone during a tour stop in Houston. "During our conversation he said, 'Why don't we put this back together?"'
After a couple of calls to original drummer Scott Mercado and original bass player Bardi Martin (no relation to Kevin), they all agreed. "It sounded like it'd be a lot of fun," Martin said.
Now, 10 years after the original Candlebox lineup last played together, they are reunited and touring. In fact, the grueling tour schedule has seen Candlebox playing a pattern of four consecutive shows followed by one day off for most of the summer.
But Martin said that this time, things are different. "I don't know if we expected it to be as much fun as it has been."
In fact, Martin said after the band got together for its first rehearsal, they nailed the first song and at the end started laughing in both joy and amazement. "We've been gone 10 years and we don't (expletive)-up a song."
Candlebox was one of the first acts to be signed on Madonna's label, Maverick Records. The self-titled 1993 debut sold 4 million copies and produced the hits "Changes," "You" and the monster song "Far Behind."
Although Candlebox was more hard rock than grunge, it fell victim of being a band from Seattle that followed in the footsteps of fellow hometown boys Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains.
Candlebox's second album, 1995's "Lucy," went gold. That was followed by 1998's "Happy Pills."
But a grueling tour and appearance schedule finally wore on the band, Martin said. Mercado left in 1997 "out of frustration," Martin said. He was replaced by original Pearl Jam drummer Dave Krusen, who also left later for similar reasons. Bardi Martin left shortly after Mercado.
"Out of the nine years we toured, if you added up consecutively all the days off, we had like nine months off," Martin said, adding that some band members were getting physically sick due to exhaustion.
The record label had Candlebox making so many appearances on radio shows early in the morning and throughout the day, that by the time it was showtime that night, the band members were drained.
There was never a giant blowout between band members that led to the breakup, Martin said, and everyone kept in touch even after calling it quits. "We just essentially broke up to get out of the deal with Maverick. It ended up not being the best decision we ever made."
Today, the four members of Candlebox are on the road with a five-man crew making their own schedules, "doing what we want to do," Martin said.
This will probably be the last time the band tours as hard as it has this summer, he said. Beginning next month, Candlebox hopes to start writing for a new album of original material to be released in 2007. Then it's back to the road, concentrating more on Europe and Asia next spring.
Still, Martin doesn't look back on the early 1990s as completely negative. "They were great times. The only thing I would have changed, I wished we had focused a little more on our career," he said, implying that the band shouldn't have let the record label lead them around.
If you go
What: Candlebox
Where: The Depot, 13 N. 400 West
When: Wednesday, 8 p.m.
How much: $20
Phone: 467-8499 or 800-888-8499
Web: www.smithstix.com
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com