The notion of getting (guitarist) Don Morie as a 2nd guitarist came up, and was contacted.  Mike, Don & Brian had known each other since high school in the 80's also and as Brian said "Don was always in great bands and he inspired me to play, too".

Mike was at Guitar Center in St. Louis buying a Marshall amp (a used JCM 800) when he was talking to a sales associate about the fact that he was putting together an Iron Maiden tribute band. The salesman immediately said "you need to go talk to Wes (Stillman)". So, Mike and Wes talked, but as it happened, Wes was super-busy working in a cover band and working holiday 11-hour days six days a week at Guitar Center, so, for the moment, he had to decline, but said "let me know when you get it started".

The audition with Mike Ramsey went so well that the others were like "I know what we said that we're not going to hire the first guy, but I don't know how it can get much better than THIS!"

They said to Mike R. that they were also looking for a singer and Mike Ramsey goes "I know just the guy"...and calls Wes the next day!  Wes and Mike have known each other for 14 years and had played in Ivory Tiger together from the fall of 2004 till mid-2005 (Wes is still in that band).

Wes's cover band "Ivory Tiger" isn't playing as much as it was then, and his job wasn't in the holiday rush anymore, so now he could devote time to this project.

The band started rehearsals in Brian's basement in St. Charles, Missouri before they moved everything to a warehouse in Maryland Heights, Missouri.