Join the Pop Culture Newsletter!
- Subscribe Here -

PUDDLE OF MUDD

What makes up a puddle of mudd? Wesley Reid Scantlin (guitar and vocals), Paul James Phillips (guitar), Douglas John Ardito (bass) and Greg David Upchurch (drums).

Formed 1994 in Kansas City, by guitarist, Wes Scantlin. After several years of recording demo tapes, the break came in the form of Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst and then was the first band signed to Durst's Flawless label in early Summer of 2001. The release of their major debut, Come Clean, was finally released in August.

Too mainstream to be labelled nu-metal and too modern-sounding to be allied with grunge, Kansas City, USA-based Puddle Of Mudd share elements of both genres and have gained a measure of success as a result.

Puddle Of Mudd struck lucky when Scantlin went to a concert on Korn's Family Values tour and passed his band's demo tape to a security guard during Limp Bizkit's set, requesting that his tape be passed to the band's singer Fred Durst. The rapper liked what he heard and contacted Scantlin who had, however, just lost all his band-members, his outfit having decided to part ways in the interim. Even the phone call from Durst failed to persuade the musicians to re-form, but Durst flew Scantlin over to Los Angeles, a city which he knew was bursting at the seams with budding musicians.

Scantlin and Durst negotiated a contract with the Limp Bizkit frontman's own Flawless label and commenced recording sessions for an album. The result, 2001's Come Clean, replicated the success of Durst's other discoveries, Staind, selling over 100,000 copies in a few weeks.