The fathers of '80s hair bands

In 1976, hair-bands like Bon Jovi and Poison were still growing out their long, silky tresses in preparation for the '80s. Meanwhile, another band was in the midst of creating an entire genre of rock. Starting out right here in Boston, the band gets its name from the city that spawned it. Boston was founded by Tom Scholz, who has a masters degree in mechanical engineering from MIT. During college, he played keyboards in local bands at night, and after college he kept it up. After coming home from his day job as a senior product designer for Polaroid, he would go out and play in bar bands. This was about the time when he began trying to assemble his own band from some of the musicians he had played with. Scholz had his own recording studio in his basement, and there he and original vocalist Brad Delp created the first demo tapes. Tom and his wife Cindy sent out their first demo tape to all of the major record labels, and it was rejected by all of them. The next demo tape was also rejected. It was not until they hired agents that Boston was able to secure a deal with Epic Records.