Gasoline

Derrick Williams

Jared Mercer

Chris Long

Gasoline is an American rock band formed in 1997. They achieved mainstream success with their 2000 album *The Real World*, which sold 8 million copies in the United States alone. The band's lineup has changed several times since then, with rhythm guitarist Derrick Williams being the band's only consistent member.

## History

In 1997, Tracy Bridges moved to Killeen, Texas from his home state of Tennessee. When he saw an advert for a guitarist in the local newspaper, he responded. Bridges had previously performed with a few Southern rock bands back home, so he had experience behind the microphone. When he finally met Jonathan Blackwell a few days later, the two immediately formed a bond, deciding to form a band shortly thereafter. They were soon joined by Derrick Williams and Jared Mercer on rhythm guitar and bass, respectively. The band was then introduced to drummer Willie Yates through a friend of Mercer.

For the next two years, the band toured across Texas, building up a small following in the process. In 1999, the band recorded a demo, which was received by Capitol. They signed the band, and invited them to record an album. Before they could do that, though, Yates left the band, and was replaced by Chris Long, the drummer from Blackwell's previous band. After several months in the studio, the band released their debut album, *The Real World*, in March 2000. This album was a massive hit, briefly topping the album charts, and lingering in the top 20 for quite some time. Four singles were released from the album; *Time's Up*, *Oh Well*, *Deadline*, and *First Time*. Each of them reached the top 10 of the rock charts, with *Time's Up* in particular doing extremely well. As of 2022, *The Real World* has sold over 6 million copies in the United States alone, and another 3 million worldwide.

With *The Real World* being so successful, anticipation for the album's follow-up was very high. After finishing a lengthy tour in support of *The Real World*, the band returned to the studio in 2002. Later that year, the album *Just Like This* would be released. Despite being similar to it's predecessor, *Just Like This* wouldn't perform nearly as well, with about 2 million sales to it's name. Three singles were released with the album; *Break*, *What I Am*, and *Run and Hide*, but only the latter would reach the top 20, and the former two barely scraping the top 50. In 2004, with the band slowly crawling along, Chris Long decided to leave, and was replaced by David Kirby. One year later, as the band was recording their third album, Jonathan Blackwell and Jared Mercer departed too, with Dennis Gorman and Billy Woods filling in their respective positions.

As 2005 came to a close, the band's third album, *How Far We've Gotten*, was released. This album was a massive flop by the band's standards, selling under 1 million copies in it's first year. Only one single from the album, *Save My Soul*, even touched the charts. The failure of *How Far We've Gotten* was the final straw for Tracy Bridges, who quit the band in January 2006. As he left, Bridges reportedly advised rhythm guitarist Derrick Williams to "Put this poor band out of it's misery". Williams thought about doing so, until he was contacted by Brian Kaczynski, lead singer of the then inactive alternative rock band Sixfinger. Kaczynski expressed interest in joining the band, and offered to fly down to Texas to try out. With nothing left to lose, Williams agreed. He later admitted that this decision singlehandedly saved Gasoline from it's looming demise.