PAST:

I remember seeing the video for "In the Blood", and absolutely fell in love with the song. It didn't hurt that the lead singer was such a babe. Anyway, enough with my Kevin obsession, here are the facts:

The members of Better than Ezra met while Kevin was in college at the Louisiana State University (which they all attended). Kevin Griffin, the lead singer, and Cary Bonnecaze, drummer and vocalist, conceived the idea of forming a band back in the spring of '87, but dropped the idea after failure to find a suitable bassist. The next year, Kevin and Cary, while on a double date with twins, resurrected the idea and placed an ad for a bass player. Tom Drummond, then 17, is the first to respond. Later that year, they play Murphy's in Baton Rouge, where Kevin was working at the time.

By the fall of that year, they had become a local name. Playing frats, bars, etc, in nearby towns for often as little as gas money. It help to bond the members, according to Griffin who says "There's no subsitute for just getting in a van and going, playing night in/night out....It's the only way to become a tight band." Their first release, in 1990, was entitled "Surprise". Only 6,000 copies were produced and it quickly sold out. (Recently, the demand has been so high, that they are actually thinking of releasing it, 7 years later...the release date is TBA.)

In 1990, after the success of their first album, tragedy struck as Joel Rundell, the band's original rhythm guitarist and close friend, passed away. It was a hard time for all the members. The band go their separate ways for the time being, with Tom and Cary enrolling in LSU, and Kevin moving to Santa Fe. Kevin remembers, "When it happened, I just wanted to get out of Baton Rouge.... You're 20, you're out touring in a band, partying and suddenly you've lost a close friend."

By the end of the year, the band reunited as a 3 member band, after Kevin (living in Aspen at the time) was flooded by fan mail about the band, and they are finally coaxed into continuing. "After Joel's death, we didn't know if we would enjoy playing as BTE. But after our first show as a three piece, we received so much support from our fans that it bolstered our decision to keep playing." recalls Kevin.

Unsure of his future, Kevin again moves, this time to Los Angeles. In a year, the others moved out to LA to join him. "I had recorded a 4-track acoustic demo that had fallen into some industry types' hands. It was enough to say to Tom and Cary let's take this thing seriously." says Kevin. They began recording demos in a friend's, Dan Rothchild's, home studio. The band's second album, "Deluxe", produced by the band's Swell Records, began to take shape and was released in 1993.

Within months of "Good" becoming a phenomenal hit, and the record hits sales of 500,000 units. Unfortunately, people begin to label the band as "pop" and criticized their music as having "no bite." Griffin responds "People who didn't know our history thought we were just another pop hit band. Nothing could be father from the truth....in another [article] we were lumped in with a bunch of bands who'd 'never spent one day on the road in an unheated van.' "

1996, the band search to replace the departing Cary Bonnecaze, who left on good terms with the others. "It was mutually agreed that in order to remain friends, we needed to part ways."says Kevin. Travis McNabb a friend of the band, also from New Orleans, became the band's drummer.

The band's first major label album was released on Aug. 13, 1996, it was entitled "Friction, Baby."

Present:

The guys(Kevin and Tom...I'm not sure about Travis)share a house in New Orleans.(This is what I'm "officially" told, although it's been said that they each live in separate residences.) Being in such close quarters you'd think things would get difficult. Or at least, based on my roommate experiences, it can be. However, the guys don't find many problems with it. According to Tom, "We couldn't do it if we weren't such good friends. We've been through too much together. It makes me think of a joke our friends say about us, How many guys in BTE does it take to mail a letter? Three. That's so true." (I don't get it. j/k)