cooley received his first guitar at age 8, spending time with a local bluegrass musician to pick up the instrument. in 1985, he formed the punk-influenced band adam's house cat with patterson hood. the band was chosen as a top ten best unsigned band by a musician contest in the late 1980s. after the end of adam's house cat, cooley and hood performed as a duo under the name "virgil kane." they eventually started a new band, "horsepussy," before splitting for a few years. it was during this split that hood moved to athens, georgia and began forming what would become drive-by truckers "with the intent of luring cooley back into the fold.