Mudvayne

The band formed in Peoria, Illinois, in 1996. Lead singer Chad Gray had a steady factory job making good money but left it to pursue his passion. "Heavy metal was the one thing that I could really relate to," he said in a Songfacts interview. "It's never let me down."

After releasing their 1997 EP Kill, I Oughtta, Mudvayne started painting their faces and using stage names because they wanted their shows to be like films, complete with a visual story - this was before anyone outside of Iowa had heard of Slipknot. Their elaborate stage costumes and makeup became part of their identity, but they stopped doing it in 2003 because it looked like they were imitating Slipknot, which was huge at the time. On their 2021 reunion tour, Mudvayne went back to the makeup and costumes.

In 2001 Mudvayne won the first-ever MTV2 Award for the video to their debut single, "Dig." They beat out artists like Gorillaz and Alicia Keys, which was completely unexpected from a nu-metal band. Mudvayne went to the ceremony wearing white suits with red, spiked mohawks and bloody bullet holes in their foreheads. Chad Gray said Bono gave them a screwfaced expression from the crowd. Moby, who handed the band the award, blew Gray off in a hotel lobby the next day. Gray remembers him as "a f--king dick" who is "about four foot nine." Speaking in 2025, Gray's disdain for Moby was still palpable.