 John Spence, Eric Stefani, and Eric's sister Gwen Stefani formed the band as Apple Core in 1986, having worked together at a local Dairy Queen. It played small gigs around the Orange County area, with Spence's on-stage antics carrying its performances. Tony Kanal went to one of these early shows and soon joined the band as its bassist. After initially rejecting her advances, he began dating Gwen, but they kept their relationship secret for a year, feeling that it was an unspoken rule that nobody date her.
