Army Of Anyone:

Richard Patrick: vocals, guitar
Dean DeLeo: guitar
Robert DeLeo: bass, guitar
Ray Luzier: drums

The seeds of Army Of Anyone were sown in Chicago on the night of October 12, 2001, when Filter singer Richard Patrick joined Stone Temple Pilots onstage at the Allstate Arena to perform Filter's 'Hey Man, Nice Shot'.

At the time, Stone Temple Pilots were still going strong, and Filter released their album 'The Amalgamut' in 2002. But both bands came to a standstill due to substance-abuse problems. Scott Weiland's personal demons caused STP to go on hiatus in late 2002, and Richard Patrick went through a rehab stint of his own.

He was supposed to play a show together with STP again on September 28, 2002 in Atlanta, Georgia. He didn't make it to the show because he checked himself into rehab that day. He has been clean and sober since. As a reminder, he got a tattoo of that date on his forearm. Robert DeLeo adds that the date of September 28 has another significance: it was on this date in 2004 that the band members phoned each other and decided to do this band.

"After my life became more 'managable'," says Patrick, "I was like, 'I wonder what those guys are doing.'" Robert adds: "Dean, Richard and I were all managed by The Firm, and we didn't know that. They asked if we would like to go out and write with Richard for his record. At the time, I didn't know that Richard was sober, even. So I was a little hesitant about going out there and wondering if he was going to be still really loaded, because I've seen him like that a long time ago. I've seen that guy. I was a little hesitant."

Richard: "We met for dinner one night, and we were like, 'Let's do a song together.' I had a little studio with my ProTools thing going, and they just came in and had all these ideas. We did this song called 'A Better Place,' and it came together so quickly. It was like, 'Jesus Christ, this was just a little acoustic guitar riff five minutes ago, and now it's all into this big, huge, layered, unbelievable music'. It was so compelling and so much fun, and the music was so right and good. We just looked at each other and went, 'Wouldn't it be great if we did a whole album?'"

"Yeah, I stopped working on the Filter record immediately," says Patrick. "It wasn't something where we had to say, 'Hmm, wonder if we should do this?' We knew it was working," adds Robert.

Patrick and the DeLeo brothers kept their collaboration under wraps, but dropped hints in the press. Richard started calling Dean DeLeo one of his three favourite guitarists ever, and he also posted on his web site that he was very excited to be working with his new band, featuring members with whom he had only performed once before. Robert DeLeo ended a posting on the official STP web site's forum with "Dean and I have something coming up that you will all be thoroughly excited about. More of that to come".

David Lee Roth drummer Ray Luzier posted cryptic messages on his web site as well. The DeLeo brothers had found him at a NAMM show they played with drummer Steve Ferrone. Robert explains: "It's funny because, during the time before we met Richard, Joe Walsh called me. He plays with The Eagles. He's a huge influence on Dean and me. We got to know him, and he called up and said, 'Hey, you want to go out and play some shows?' So we got to play some shows with him. One of the drummers in the band - he had two drummers - and one of the drummers was this guy Steve Ferrone. He played with a band called The Average White Band. He plays with Tom Petty. He's an amazing musician. We had asked to play with him after that. So it kind of went from Joe to Steve. We were doing a show with Steve at the NAMM show. It's a big musical convention. Ray was there; we were watching him sound check. Dean and I were like, 'That's the guy we want.' So we got in touch with each other. He kind of completed the band. That's how we all got together."

Finally the band announced their name 'Army Of Anyone' on September 29, 2005 in an interview with MTV. Richard commented on the band's name, saying it came from "the naive hippie thing of wishing the world was all on the same team".

Within less than a year’s time, the group had recorded more than 30 songs in Patrick's home studio. They narrowed it down to 11 and went to The Village studios in Santa Monica with producer Bob Ezrin to record them. The album was mixed by Ken Andrews and was due out on Columbia Records in early 2006.

But things didn't go as planned with Columbia Records. Eventually the band ended up inking an innovative deal with their management company The Firm, who would act as a record label at the same time.

Dean DeLeo comments: "I can't say enough positive things about the Firm because everything they have said has come to fruition. If you think about this considering where we're coming from, we enabled Warner Brothers and Atlantic Records to count a lot of beans from us and then we got hooked up with Columbia Records where we got the quintessential wine and dine from this record company and when we were in New York mixing that record, we were waltzed through that company like we were the next slice of bread. Promises, promises and so many promises were made --The next thing I know is that everyone that we were affiliated with was gone, all our champions at the label were gone and they're basically looking at us and saying that we don't really want to sink any more money into this venture. We just replied that we're out of here and I have to say that they were cool enough to let us go with just some financial exceptions and let us have our record back. So we weren't even sure if that record was going to see the light of day. So that instance right there was enough reason why I don't ever want to fall into that kind of dilemma ever again. We were very fortunate to a certain extent compared to other artists that have gone through the same thing."

Robert DeLeo adds: "When STP split up, Dean and I stayed at The Firm. They believe in music. At this point in time, there are not many people that do. It's good to have that. We were sitting around and we were like, "You know what? Let's start our own label, let's get it together." So we started the label. The real cool thing is that I'm used to this "big machine" so to speak. You get a big record company, and they put all this stuff into it, they put you everywhere, and ram it down peoples' throats. This is a little different. It's not about charting, so to speak, wondering where you are on the charts. I'm kind of over that. I kind of got caught up in that. I think when you get caught up in that aspect of your music, you're really losing the charm of the art. This is all about making music. The cool thing for me is that here's our first show, and tickets are only $10-$15. When's the last time you went to a show like this for $10-$15? That's because there's no middleman. There's no big guy up there saying, "We need more money!" The record is on sale for $6.99. You can't beat that. That's bringing it back down to where I always saw my career being. It's a matter of bringing it back down where it should be. Being to the top and then coming back around is great. I like being back here."

On July 28 (2006), AOL Music premiered the band's first single 'Goodbye' through a web stream. Army Of Anyone launched their new official website a few days later and offered the single as a mp3 download. On August 17, the band invited fans from the Los Angeles area to join them for shooting of their debut music video for the single 'Goodbye', which was to be done on August 22.

The band then embarked on a promotional tour, visiting radio stations throughout the United States, playing an acoustic set featuring the songs 'It Doesn't Seem To Matter', 'Disappear', 'Leave It', 'Interstate Love Song', 'Take A Picture', 'Ain't Enough' and 'Goodbye'.

The 'Goodbye' video premiered on Yahoo.com on October 3, and the video and single were officially released to radio and TV on October 14. The band released an exclusive 3-track EP through iTunes on October 31. It featured the single 'Goodbye,' the music video, and a podcast featuring interviews with the band members. The single peaked at #21 on the Modern Rock Charts and at #3 on the Mainstream Rock Charts.

Army Of Anyone released their self-titled debut album on November 14, 2006 with the following track listing:

1. It Doesn't Seem To Matter (3:53)
2. Goodbye (Album Version, 4:33)
3. Generation (3:32)
4. A Better Place (5:00)
5. Non Stop (4:00)
6. Disappear (4:09)
7. Stop, Look and Listen (3:53)
8. Ain't Enough (3:46)
9. Father Figure (4:06)
10. Leave It (4:29)
11. This Wasn't Supposed To Happen (5:22)

The iTunes version came with a bonus track, the instrumental 'Used To Know Her'.

A week after the album's release, the band kicked off their U.S. tour in Boston at the Paradise Rock Club. Their first tour took them through the United States and ended on December 16 at the House Of Blues in Cleveland. They didn't only play their new material. The bandmembers also added songs from their previous bands into the live show. Robert said: "We're doing 'Vaseline,' 'Big Bang Baby' and 'Piece of Pie,' and Filter-wise we're playing 'Take a Picture,' 'Welcome to the Fold' and 'Hey Man, Nice Shot.' And it's been fun doing them."

The band embarked on the Sno-Core tour in January 2007 and were supported by the band Hurt. They released a second single, 'Father Figure', to radio but did not shoot a video for it. It got to #31 on the Mainstream Rock Charts. While the band was still on tour in May 2007, Richard announced that he was "working on something" and had "15 songs written for a project that starts with an F and is not 'Foghat'". After Army Of Anyone played their last show at the KLAQ Balloonfest in El Paso, TX on May 26, it got quiet on the musical front. The band went on "hiatus" as they called it, and have been so ever since...

Robert and Dean DeLeo started touring again with Stone Temple Pilots in April 2008.
Richard Patrick has released a new Filter album, 'Anthems For The Damned' in May 2008.
Ray Luzier joined the band Korn in November 2007 and started touring with them in January 2008.