Before The Storm

The following is an account of Queensr�che before they were....well..Queensr�che! It was written by a close childhood friend named Brett Miller. After Brett had written me some of these stories, he thought it would be a great idea to share them with us, the fans :) I personally would like to thank Brett for choosing our site to put it on. It is an honor and a privilege to do so.

So sit back, put on the EP and get ready for some insight into our favorite band, and the early metal scene in Bellevue, Washington.

BEFORE THE STORM
by Brett Miller

I'm originally from Bellevue, WA where I grew up with the QUEENSRYCHE guys. Chris DeGarmo was my locker partner and best friend along with our mutual friend Dave "da Gold" Goldberg. We were like the 3 musketeers through jr. high and high school. I also knew Mike Wilton since 7th grade. I was the light man for Chris & Mike's first band JOKER.

Chris
7th Grade

Mike
8th Grade

Chris
10th Grade

Mike
10th Grade

I remember going to parties with Dave Goldberg (who's thanked on the first album) and Chris DeGarmo back in Jr. High School. If there were girls there, Chris would find an acoustic and impress them by playing Zeppelin covers like "Over The Hills and Far Away" and "Stairway". He always did well with girls. If there was an electric handy he would play "Barracuda" by HEART. He was a HUGE Jimmy Page and Paul McCartney freak, and still does a funny McCartney impression.

Michael
Basketball - 1976

Chris
8th grade

JOKER was formed in 1978 by Mike Wilton with friends from Interlake High School in Bellevue where we all attended. Mike was more well known as a star athlete in 3 sports than as a musician. (He actually toured Europe on an all-star youth Baseball team.) New Sophomore Chris DeGarmo was added to JOKER in '79. They had a chunky lead singer with a rough voice who fancied himself a David Lee Roth clone at the time, even though he had brown hair and sported a big moustache. The singer even had pants made for himself that matched Roth's striped spandex bell bottoms that he wore on the first 2 VH albums. His mindset was that all he had to do was scream a lot, drink Jack Daniels and be generally loud and obnoxious and people would think he was "just like Dave."

We all prayed at the alter of VAN HALEN at time. We lived our lives according to the doctrine of David Lee Roth. We also were heavy into Bon Scott-era AC/DC, Scorpions, and Judas Priest.

Michael
Baseball - 1976

Mike
9th grade