History

Early Years

Puddle of Mudd was formed back in 1993 with Wes Scantlin on vocals, Kenny Burkett on drums, Johnny Marr on Guitars, and Sean Samon on Bass. They got their name after the Missouri River flooded their practice space, and left the floor a big "puddle of mudd". In 1994 the band released the first Puddle of Mudd album, "Stuck", on V&R Records. The band wrote all 7 songs that were on it. It was produced by PoM and E.J. Rose, and recorded at Red House Studio in Lawrence, Kansas. The album did well in Kansas City, but never made it much further.

The bands 2nd release (minus Jimmy Allen) was "Abrasive." It was released in 1997 on Hardknocks Records. It had eleven tracks, all written by the band, three of which would eventually make it on to their first major label release.

In between records, Stuck and Abrasive, Wes gave demo tapes to everyone he thought might be able to pull him in to the music business. He threw demo tapes on stage to bands at the concerts he would go to, and try to sneak backstage to personally hand his tape to bands. One of these bands was Stone Temple Pilots. Wes had to get down on his hands and knees and crawl through about 400 yards of brush, then sneak around some trees to get to their dressing room, only to find himself being frisked by security guards for having a fake backstage pass. Luckily, he had managed to throw a copy of his tape on stage to Scott Weiland while the band was performing.

Around 1998 Wes was ready to give up on music. He had worked as a plumber, a waiter, and a construction worker, along with other things. He was getting ready to move to New Orleans to manage his girlfriend's career as a stripper when one of his friends asked if he wanted to go to the Family Values concert that night. After hearing the band line up, Wes reluctantly decided to go. As he was heading out the door he grabbed the last copy of his demo tape.

At the show some more of Wes's friends had fake backstage passes. He took one, and it got him to one of Fred Durst's security guards. He asked him if he would give Fred his demo tape, and he said he would. Wes left thinking that would be the end of the music biz for him. The guard did give the tape to Fred, who listened to it on his tour bus. After listening to it once, he had to play it again, then he decided he had to contact the band. Luckily, Wes had all of his contact info on the tape. Unluckily, he was already out of town and his pager was turned off.

One of Wes's friends happened to hear an answering machine message that Fred Durst had left. He tried to call Wes, but couldn't get a hold of him. He decided to throw a party in his honor, and he wasn't even there. When Wes finally found out, he was blown away.

Fred Durst got to talk to Wes, only to find out that the band had broken up. Everyone had went their separate ways, and there was no getting them back together. Fred was not about to give up, so he decided to fly Wes to LA, California, for a showcase. He still liked Wes's voice, so they got ready to recruit new band mates.

One of the first people Wes met when he arrived in California was Doug Ardito, an intern at Interscope Records. Doug used to want to play guitar. He would sneak in to his brothers room and play his Fender Jaguar, but his brother caught him. He wouldn't let him play it because he "put dents in his paint job." Doug's next door neighbor started a garage band, and they needed a bassist, so Doug decided to buy one, and he ended up playing bass, simply because no one would let him play the guitar. He played bass for the band Cellophane, and did some of the bass work on Vanilla Ice's album "Hard to Swallow." He was also in a Boston based band called Throat Culture. When Wes found out about Doug's bass playing, they decided to jam together. They instantly clicked, but still were in need of a guitarist and drummer.

Fred Durst decided to contact a guitarist he knew from his hometown, Jacksonville, FL. Paul Phillips formerly played in a local band there called "Happy Hour." They had earlier turned a record deal by Fred down because the band was in the process of breaking up. After getting the call from Durst, Paul decided he would try for Puddle of Mudd. He was immediately accepted by the band. Of course, this meant he would have to drop out of college, where he was studying management and marketing, to join.

They got a drummer who was also from Jacksonville, and they played together on some of the bands older songs and did some new ones. Durst had them do another showcase and this time all went well. He signed the band to his new record label, Flawless Records.

Things didn't work out with the drummer the band had, so Josh Freese from A Perfect Circle and The Vandals did the drum tracks on the album. Later they held auditions for a new drummer of which they eventually chose Greg Upchurch who was previously in the band Eleven and toured with Chris Cornell.

The breakthrough and mainstream success

They released their major-label debut album Come Clean on August 28, 2001. The lead single from the album, "Control" was successful and grabbed the attention of Rock audiences worldwide. It was also the theme song for the WWE Survivor Series 2001.

The second single, "She Hates Me" was released in early 2002 and became a massive hit reaching the #1 spot on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Drift & Die" was also released as a single and was very successful with Rock audiences with the single spending 6 weeks at the #1 on the Mainstream Rock Chart. The fourth single off the album, "Blurry" turned out to be their most successful single reaching #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #8 in the United Kingdom.

They embarked on a European tour with Godsmack and were also part of the Family Values 2001 tour, alongside the Stone Temple Pilots, Linkin Park and Staind.

Copies of their album were selling well. The album eventually sold 3 million US copies and was certified 3X Platinum.

Fan and critical reception of the album were mixed with many critics calling out that Wes Scantlin sounding too similar to the late Kurt Cobain.

Life On Display and the future

Their follow up, Life On Display spawned two hit singles "Away From Me" and "Heel Over Head". The album sold only 600,000 copies to date, due to both lack of advertising and lack of support from record company, Geffen Records, and dismal reviews.

This soon resulted with drummer Greg Upchurch leaving for 3 Doors Down. Guitarist, Paul Phillips left the band later on after creative differences between him and Wes Scantlin.

The band announced on November 2, 2006 on numerous rock radio stations that they have completed production on their third album and the record was slated for a release in early 2007.

In early January, information via numerous rock stations stated that the band's new album is set for a release sometime in Spring, 2007.