Grandaddy is an American indie rock band from Modesto, California. The group was formed in 1992, and featured Jason Lytle, Aaron Burtch, Jim Fairchild, Kevin Garcia and Tim Dryden, until Garcia's death in 2017 following a stroke. After several self-released records and cassettes, the band signed to Will Records in the US and later the V2 Records subsidiary Big Cat Records in the UK, going on to sign an exclusive deal with V2. The bulk of the band's recorded output was the work of Lytle, who worked primarily in home studios. Grandaddy released four studio albums before splitting in 2006, with band members going on to solo careers and other projects. Grandaddy reformed in 2012, made a number of live appearances and released its fifth studio album, Last Place, in March 2017. History 1992-1997: Formation and early independent releases Grandaddy was formed in 1992 by singer, guitarist and keyboardist Jason Lytle, bassist Kevin Garcia and drummer Aaron Burtch. The group was initially influenced by US punk bands such as Suicidal Tendencies and Bad Brains. Lytle was a former professional skateboarder, who had turned to music after a knee injury forced him to stop skating. Lytle began working at a sewage treatment plant to fund the purchase of music equipment. Several of the band's early live performances were at skateboarding competitions. The band members constructed a studio at the Lytle family home, and their first release, also in 1992, was the self-produced cassette Prepare to Bawl. This was followed in April 1994 by a second cassette titled Complex Party Come Along Theories. The singles "Could This Be Love" and "Taster" were released later that year. The guitarist Jim Fairchild and the keyboardist Tim Dryden joined the band in 1995. Fairchild, who left another band to join Grandaddy, was another former professional skateboarder and had already guested with them; Dryden had been Fairchild's "jam-buddy". A third cassette, Don't Sock the Tryer, was withdrawn, and the band instead released their debut mini-album A Pretty Mess by This One Band in April 1996 on the Seattle-based Will label. In 1997 they released their debut full-length album Under the Western Freeway through Will, and, with the help of Howe Gelb, signed a UK deal with Big Cat Records – by then a subsidiary of Richard Branson's V2 Records – who reissued the album the following year. The album included the single "A.M. 180", which was