Formed in 1989

What would become Fuel was formed in 1989 in the western Tennessee town of Kenton when childhood friends Carl Bell and Jeff Abercrombie began playing music together in junior high school and played in various garage bands. After graduating high school, Bell (who was a few years older than Abercrombie) headed to college where he met drummer Jody Abbott. Bell and Abbott formed a college campus band, Wanted (along with Robert Wagner and Mark Crawford), in Henderson, Tennessee . After college, Bell and Abercrombie – at the time, attending college at the University of Tennessee at Martin – reunited with Abbott and formed the band Reel Too Real, playing cover songs at local clubs in Tennessee and eventually becoming a national touring club circuit band. Bass player Jeff Abercrombie saw vocalist-guitarist Brett Scallions performing in a bar in Jackson, Tennessee in 1992 and later recruited him to join the band in early 1993.