Say Hello 2 Fuel

Feels like I've been waiting for ages to do this post. With Fuel's new single, "Want It" dropping on July 10 (Pre-save it here), now is the time. 

I've been listening to Fuel since 1998 - the year that featured the band on Godzilla The Album and the release of the Sunburn album with features hits Shimmer (peaked at #2 on the alternative charts) and Bittersweet (peaked at 17 on the alternative charts). 

While the original line-up had changed by 1998, the line-up most fans became familiar with comprised of: Brett Scallions, Carl Bell, Jeff Abercrombie, and Kevin Miller started major touring sprints with bands like Buckcherry, Kid Rock, Oleander, Three Doors Down and many more. If somehow, you missed falling in love with the Sunburn album, you probably bought their sophomore album.

But let's pause for a second, before I get ahead of myself. I loved "Walk The Sky", I remember thinking that I'd never heard anything like, and high school me knew that I had found something special - before other people were aware. Fuel wasn't just a band at that point, they were my mind, a band I found and I was sharing with my friends. Probably the first time I opened up a CD and read the credits - and inside it said "Written By Carl Bell". 

And that's a consistent theme across Fuel's music. 99% of the music is written by Bell, and if you love Fuel's music - you should be aware that the man with the red guitar is responsible for it. Anyway, Something Like Human, their sophomore album was truly epic. Not only because they were working with Epic Records, but because if you somehow missed Sunburn, you certainly know the music on Something Like Human. 

Something Like Human dropped in September of 2000, and by early 2001, Fuel had two singles in to the top 10 in the alternative charts with both Hemorrhage (In My Hands) and Innocent breaking through. Hemorrhage made it to the #1 spot while Innocent peaked at #4. Hemorrhage and Bad Day also had crossover power - getting airplay on Adult Top 40 stations hitting #17 and #21 respectively. 

The band has seen lineup changes over the years while releasing albums with the trademarked F symbol, the most recent was Anomaly which dropped in 2021. The Anomaly album is part of what started me on my new music journey, and a number of tracks from the album appear on our Alt Rock 2020-2025 playlist.  

The current lineup reunites Carl Bell and Kevin Miller, with Mark Klotz on guitar, Tommy Nat on bass, and Aaron Scott on the mic. Klotz and Nat have been with the band since the Anomaly album, and Scott joined the band in October of 2022, a while after appearing on NBC's The Voice, where he performed Hemorrhage. 

They've spent much of the past two years touring with Lit and took the stage on the first couple of Summer of 99 cruises with Creed. The guys have great chemistry on stage, and do a great job interacting with the crowd - often greeting fans after the show. Scott has become known for: climbing scaffolding, jumping out into the crowd, and often borrowing a fan's cellphone to record while performing. 

"Want It" made its stage debut in 2024 and over the past couple of years, the band has sprinkled in other new songs while on the road. Fans of the band have been eagerly and admittedly somewhat impatiently waiting for "Want It" to drop for nearly 2 years. If you lost touch with their music over after Something Like Human - now is the time to get back in! And "Want It" is one you are going to want to turn up loud!

This week, the wait is over. Nearly two years of watching "Want It" get teased on stage, and it's finally ours — Aaron Scott's voice in your earbuds, Carl Bell's name on the credits, right where it's always been. Pre-save it, then go find them on tour — they've got dates across the US all through 2026, and this is a band that still shows up for its fans after the lights go down