the foundations for queensrÿche began in the late 1970s. guitarist michael wilton started the band joker with friends in 1978, and they were joined by guitarist chris degarmo in 1979. in 1980, wilton met drummer scott rockenfield at easy street records in seattle, and they formed the band cross+fire together. they covered songs from popular heavy metal bands such as iron maiden and judas priest, and practiced in the garage of rockenfield's parents which they called "the dungeon" and fitted with egg cartons as acoustic cladding. before long, degarmo and bassist eddie jackson joined cross+fire, and the band name was changed to the mob, after the black sabbath song "the mob rules". in need of a singer for a one-off performance at a local rock festival, they recruited babylon frontman geoff tate. after babylon broke up, tate performed a few shows with the mob, but left because he was not interested in performing heavy metal covers.