MyGen Profile GeneratorNovember 14,1998 Intro by Bobby Collins:
OVERDRIVE was a Christian Heavy Metal Band that I was a part of from 1988 to 1991. Joe, Stacy and I met in 1985. I had known Doug since we were kids. We played together in bands with names like: "Damascus", "White Knight", and "Heaven Quest". When we finally found Jimmy Prior, we knew we had the perfect line up.
I believe we named ourselves OVERDRIVE because we were driven by the One OVER us!!! We recorded two tapes together: "OVERDRIVE" in 1989,and"A Grave Mistake" in 1990. All good things must come to an end, and so did OVERDRIVE. We all have moved on to other things in our lives now,but we still keep in touch.
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Updated intro:
Overdrive was a Christian gothic power metal band from Blacksburg/Radford, VA. They existed in some incarnation from around 1985 until around 1992.
Overdrive really began many many years ago with 2 different bands: one from Blacksburg VA, and the other from Radford, VA. The Blacksburg band consisted of Stacy Puckett on guitar and Joe McLaughlin ..board, along with Lloyd Linkous and a few other kids. They went by the name of Audio Vortex, Axident, and a few other cheese names
On the Radford Side, there was Bobby Collins on drums and John McGuire on vocal. I think there were supposedly some others, but they never showed up They were called Damascus.
A long story short, Joe McLaughlin started going to Radford, and met Bobby Collins. They hooked up, and Joe joined Damascus, dragging Stacy with him. A few other members came and went, including Joes brother, George, on bass (never materialized Joe would later use Georges bass), and Shawn and Neal Wolford (one was bass, the other I think vocals). As things started to materialize, and members came and went, there was a need for a vocalist. Bobby had this friend of his named Doug. Doug was a rapper (DJ Pebbles). Joe would do some little ditties that Doug would try to rap over, like the theme from Gilligans Island. By the grace of God, none of this was ever recorded...
They eventually snagged a bass player, Steve, and guitarist, Jimmy Prior, from another metal band called War Angel.
It was during one of the concerts that Steve was not able to perform, so the keyboard player had about a week to learn how to play Bass. he tried to do it Geddy Lee style (one hand on bass, one ..board).
Over the time, the band realized that there were other bands named Damascus, and felt they should hunt for a new name. They named themselves Heaven Quest, Cross Breed, and finally settled on Overdrive. The other names they joked about using included:
White Knights
Thunder Priests
Jed and the Wife Beaters
Bloody Rose Petals
Twisted Christians
Motley Jews
Over the years, there were several member changes, costume changes (there was a Motley Crue era, a Leather and Jeans era, a spandex era), and the silly nickname phase: Bobby "The Basher" Collins (a.k.a Animal), John "Rambo" McGuire, Doug "Brandon Wolf" Levy, Joe "Biff" McLaughlin, Stacy "Stace Sterling" Puckett.
It was at one of our concerts (I think in Bluefield) where we met our manager, Jim Morris, who led us completely into debauchery(jk). Actually, Jim became our mentor, and helped us greatly in our walk, as well as many of our performances
Highlights of their underground career included playing the 1990 and 1991 Cornerstone festival in Illinois, playing shows with about every other Christian metal band of the era (Living Sacrifice, Believer, Deliverance, Tourniquet, Vengeance Rising, One Bad Pig, etc..), and being courted by Intense (Frontline) records for a brief time before disbanding. They were voted as one of the top 5 unsigned Christian metal bands in the country 2 consecutive years by Heavens Metal magazine (currenty HM Magazine)
One of their songs (When the "Saints") was even featured in a national mailing of Benson's new releases catalog for 1991, but the song was pulled from the compilation due to some controversy over the use of the word "saints".
There have been a couple of reunion shows over the last decade, and another wouldn't be ruled out if we didn't all live in different states at the moment.
Unfortunately, Overdrive's original drummer, Bobby Collins, passed away a few years ago at the age of 30, due to no fault of his own. His is missed by all who knew him.
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-additional note by Dave Shelton ...
An odd footnote to the Overdrive history: the very last incarnation of the band included Jimmy Prior on guitar, Doug Levy on vocals, Steve Ryan on bass and Dave Shelton on drums. So, it was 3/5 War Angel and 1/5 Overdrive...perhaps it should have been called "Woverdangle"??
A very brief period--only one gig was performed at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Christiansburg, VA on 1-16-93. There is a very poorly shot video of the show. Shortly thereafter, "Jimmy moved, Doug got married... should have known it wouldn't last long"... wait, isn't that a Bryan Adams tune?
Still, it was a memorable gig and an honor to play...
Anyway, just a bit of lost trivia.
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Overdrive: Remembering the Basher
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