Rod Overaa: lead vocals, guitar
Jon Connolly: drums, vocals
Bob Gonzalez: lead guitar, vocals (1991-94)
James McMullen: bass, vocals (1991-94)
Keiron Black: bass, vocals (1995-97)
Ric Bilotti: drums, vocals (1991-92)
Fun Facts
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Idol Minds' first drummer was Ric Bilotti of the iconic Seattle punk band The Derelicts (later Zipgun)
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Sanctuary drummer Dave Budbill filled in on club dates before Jon Connolly joined the group
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Idol Minds once rented rehearsal space next to the room of then unknown Alice in Chains. According to an apocryphal, unconfirmed story, drummer Ric Bilotti sold Rod Overaa's PA system at a pawn shop, after he and Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley had exhausted their heroin stash.
You taste the poison on your lips
Still something makes you take a sip
--"Hey"
THE BAND
In the heady days of the early 1990s grunge era in Seattle, IDoL MiNDs blended punk, metal, and power pop to create a unique sound of their own.
Seattle's highly creative and combustible music community and club scene--in which bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, and Screaming Trees were busy honing their chops--proved a fertile ground for Idol Minds. Regarded as the thinking person's grunge band, the group balanced aggressive, Marshall-stack-driven sonic energy with science-fiction, political, historical, and mystical themes--often with a keen sense of irony or black humor.
Influenced by artists like Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, B-52s, Frank Black, Smithereens and Judas Priest, songwriter Rod Overaa penned songs dealing with a wide range of odd, eclectic topics, including: the sculptor and painter Michelangelo; the first Bill Clinton election campaign; the Zecharia Sitchin book The 12th Planet; and the 1980 volcanic eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Washington state. There's a song about the ocean. About a drunken trip to San Francisco. About meeting the love of your life in a beer-sweat-and-piss dive bar like Seattle's old Off Ramp Cafe and Lounge, where the band performed regularly.
The band formed in 1991 and dissolved in 1997, just after a performance at the iconic Neurolux in Boise, Idaho. A retrospective album of IDoL MiNDs recordings, The Essential Idol Minds, is now available on our homepage or your favorite music platform.