Sensitive rockers Incubus toured, toured and toured some more while building an audience fan by fan. And, like Crazy Town, Incubus broke massive only when their third single crossed over to pop radio.
“It sounds self-serving to say it,” said Incubus manager Steve Rennie, “but the plan was always to get to ‘Drive.’ We just didn’t think it would take a year to do it.”
The band’s first two singles, “Pardon Me” and “Stellar,” did well on rock radio and helped their October 1999 album, Make Yourself, sell nearly 1.5 million copies during its year-and-a-half chart climb.
It wasn’t until the band released the mellow “Drive” that the album climbed into the Billboard top 50 after hanging below that level for more than a year. In fact, Make Yourself is currently one of only four albums in the top 100 to log more than 70 weeks on the charts.
When the single crossed over from rock to pop and adult-rock formats, the group suddenly found their video airing on both MTV and VH1, which exposed the band to a new audience.
