King's X is an American rock band formed in Springfield, Missouri, in 1979. They were first called the Edge and later became Sneak Preview before settling on its current name in 1985. The band's current lineup has remained intact for more than four decades, consisting of vocalist/bassist Doug Pinnick, backing vocalist/drummer Jerry Gaskill and vocalist/guitarist Ty Tabor. Their music combines progressive metal, funk and soul with vocal arrangements influenced by gospel, blues, and British Invasion rock groups. Despite a largely underground reputation as the "musician's musicians", King's X was pivotal in the early development of progressive metal, and produced a series of early records considered essential within the genre. The band's lyrics are largely based on the members' struggles with religion and self-acceptance. King's X was ranked No. 83 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.
King's X has released thirteen studio albums, two official live albums, and several independent releases. After signing to both Atlantic and Megaforce Records in 1987, they broke into the mainstream with their first six albums, including their only top 100 charting albums Faith Hope Love (1990) and Dogman (1994). The band's most recent studio album, Three Sides of One, was released in 2022 on the InsideOut Music label. Since leaving Atlantic Records, following the release of Ear Candy (1996), King's X has released albums through Metal Blade Records, InsideOut Music and independently, respectively. Each member of the group has recorded several solo albums and has made numerous guest appearances on other artists' albums, as well as participated in numerous compilation projects. Pinnick and Tabor also have many albums released with side bands in which they participate.
The spiritual nature of the band's lyrics, particularly on their first four albums, has often led to them being labeled a Christian rock band, a label that the members have rejected.
History Early years (1979–1987) The band traces its beginnings to 1979 in Springfield, Missouri, when bassist Doug Pinnick and drummer Jerry Gaskill were brought together to take part in a musical project coordinated by Greg X. Volz of the Christian rock band Petra. Within a month of Pinnick's arrival from Illinois, the project folded and he and Gaskill were left without a band. They soon landed a job as rhythm section for guitarist Phil Keaggy's live band. The two toured the country for several months in support of Keaggy's album Ph'lip Side. During the group's show in Springfield, Gaskill was approached by Ty Tabor who was a member of the opening band that night. The drummer for Tabor's band had quit the night before the show and Tabor had volunteered to take over on drums for the gig. However, seeing as he had no drums, he was forced to ask Gaskill if he could borrow his kit for the show. Gaskill obliged and the show went on.
When the tour ended, Pinnick and Gaskill returned to Springfield and set about looking for more work. Gaskill landed a job doing demo work for the Tracy Zinn Band, which happened to include Ty Tabor on guitar. The two became friends and were involved off and on together in different musical projects.
In early 1980, Pinnick attended a music show at Evangel College and watched a set by another of Tabor's bands. Pinnick was impressed with Tabor's skills and the two soon began collaborating musically.
Eventually Gaskill, Pinnick, and Tabor decided to pool their talents into a single outlet. Calling themselves the Edge, they initially were a four-piece with the inclusion of Dan McCollam on rhythm guitar. McCollam quit after only a brief time and was replaced by Kirk Henderson, who was a friend of Tabor's from Jackson, Mississippi. The group performed extensively on the Springfield bar and club circuit specializing in classic rock and Top 40 covers at the time.
By 1983, Henderson had quit the band and Pinnick, Tabor, and Gaskill decided to continue on as a trio. They also decided to change the name of the band, and settled on calling themselves Sneak Preview.
The group had been writing and recording many original songs up to this point. They chose ten of these songs to record for an independently released self-titled album in 1983. After the album's release, the band continued to tour and hone their songwriting skills.
By 1985, the group had made connections at Star Song Records based in Houston, Texas and were encouraged to move the band there. The first order of business for the three was to become part of a touring band for CCM artist Morgan Cryar. Tabor and Pinnick are also credited for co-writing several songs on Cryar's second album Fuel on the Fire in 1986. Tabor also performed some guitar parts on the album and both he and Pinnick are credited with background vocals.
However, when it came to signing Sneak Preview to a recording contract with Star Song, negotiations broke down and the deal came to a halt.
Megaforce era (1988–1991) The group released its debut album as King's X, Out of the Silent Planet, in 1988. Despite highly positive reviews, the album did not fare well commercially and peaking at No. 144 on the Billboard album charts. The songs "King" and "Shot of Love" were released as singles, but failed to garner much attention. The album derives its name from the C. S. Lewis novel Out of the Silent Planet. This appears to be the band's first of multiple references to the British author. King's X promoted Out of the Silent Planet with its first major tour, playing with the likes of Cheap Trick, Blue Öyster Cult, Robert Plant, and Hurricane, as well as Megaforce labelmates Anthrax, Testament, M.O.D., and Overkill.
In 1989, the band released their second album Gretchen Goes to Nebraska. Considered by many fans to be their landmark album and most creative period, the album fared only slightly better from a commercial standpoint than Out of the Silent Planet. The band played with a wide variety of acts while touring in support of it, including Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, M.O.D., Living Colour, Billy Squier, and Blue Murder. The album contains many fan favorites such as "Summerland", "Mission", and "The Burning Down". The song "The Difference (In the Garden of St. Anne's-on-the-Hill)" appears to be another C.S. Lewis reference, this time to a scene in the book That Hideous Strength, third and final installment of the "science-fiction" trilogy begun by Out of the Silent Planet. The song "Pleiades" is credited by Ty Tabor as being the genesis of the King's X sound when he presented the demo to the other band members a few years earlier. Significantly, the song "Over My Head" received moderate airplay on MTV and radio.
The increase in exposure would prove beneficial when the band released their third album, Faith Hope Love, in late 1990. It was the group's first album to crack the U.S. Top 100, with the help of the successful single "It's Love". Another track, the funk-rock "We Were Born to Be Loved", enjoyed a long life on Late Show with David Letterman as a commercial bumper instrumental favorite of Paul Shaffer's CBS Orchestra. King's X was featured in the February 1991 issue of Rolling Stone (RS598). Still, with major mainstream success continuously eluding them, King's X began questioning Sam Taylor's management vision for the group.
The band landed the opening slot for Iron Maiden in Europe on their No Prayer for the Dying tour in late 1990, and AC/DC on their Razors Edge tour in the U.S. and Europe for the first half of 1991. In the middle of that year, their song "Junior's Gone Wild" appeared on the soundtrack to the movie Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.
Atlantic era (1992–1997) The band was moved up to Megaforce's parent label Atlantic Records for the release of their fourth album, King's X, in early 1992. However, rising tensions with Taylor led the band to eschew the upbeat approach of previous albums and turn out a darker, more introspective effort. Unfortunately, despite critical praise, their new style did not translate well among the record-buying public, thus garnering fewer sales than Faith, Hope, Love. "Black Flag", the album's lone single, received only moderate airplay on MTV and radio. Not long after the release of King's X, the band parted ways with Taylor. The details of the split were not made public, but it was believed to be rather bitter. Taylor would admit in 1996 that his company Wilde Silas MusicWorks was growing and, as a result, he was no longer giving King's X, whom he considered "the top dogs", the attention they deserved.Hobart, Rowland The Resurrection of Sam Taylor Houston Press (May 16, 1996). Retrieved January 16, 2011. In the aftermath, King's X took over a year off to consider their collective future together. The band members followed other, non-musical pursuits; most notably, guitarist Ty Tabor took up semi-professional motocross motorcycle racing.
With grunge at the peak of its popularity, and Pearl Jam's bassist Jeff Ament declaring that "King's X invented grunge" (despite the group's trademark sound being very different from that of the commercially successful grunge acts), the band went looking for a new sound upon their return. They enlisted veteran producer Brendan O'Brien, who had recently produced albums for Stone Temple Pilots and Pearl Jam. The resulting album, 1994's Dogman, showcased a much more muscular and heavy sound from the group, with Pinnick now handling all lead vocals and the lyrics becoming less abstract and spiritual. The record received a heavier promotional push from Atlantic including a compilation promotional CD entitled: Building Blox, as King's X enjoyed a successful tour, capped by an appearance at the Woodstock '94 festival in August. They also toured with bands such as the Scorpions, Pearl Jam, Mötley Crüe and Type O Negative, but despite a return to the Top 100 for King's X, the album failed to sell as well as Atlantic had hoped, and the label's support for the group quickly faded.
The band's third release under Atlantic, 1996's Ear Candy, would also be their last for the label (not including the subsequent Best of King's X compilation album). Although it sold to the band's sizeable core following, it lacked the relative mainstream success of previous efforts. The record was soon out of print, and it seemed that the group's chance for commercial success had come and gone.
Metal Blade era (1998–2004) The group moved to Metal Blade Records in 1998. Their first album under the label, Tape Head, signaled a new era for the band. They modified their creative methods by writing and recording the album together in the studio, rather than coming together to record songs that the individual members had written separately. They also elected not to hire an outside producer and recorded the album at Pinnick's Hound Pound and Tabor's Alien Beans Studios, thus cutting production costs. Their next two albums, Please Come Home... Mr. Bulbous (2000) and Manic Moonlight (2001), were more or less created in the same way.
Manic Moonlight featured the band experimenting with electronic drum loops and other sounds for the first time on a record. The new direction, along with the relatively short length of the album, was generally not well received by longtime fans, but did get some positive critical reviews.
For their next album, 2003's Black Like Sunday, the group arranged and recorded an album of original songs that the band had regularly performed during The Edge and Sneak Preview days of the early 1980s. The cover art for this album was selected from artwork submitted by fans in an online contest.
The double-disc set Live All Over the Place (2004) was the band's final album for Metal Blade Records, and their first official live release.
Inside Out era (2005–present)