In 2004, Oliver Hofer was playing in Blue Man Group in London. A guitar player by the name of Michael Maddox was in town, as part of a European tour with the Los Angeles-based band Vain. The two met each other after Vain’s London show, got “blitzed,” according to Hofer, and swore that one day they’d work together. Well, Maddox subsequently got the guitar gig in the Broadway jukebox musical Rock of Ages, and when it came time to put the band together for the national tour, he remembered the pact he had made with Hofer and called. “He never even heard me play,” laughs Hofer. “It was all about the hang. I guess my resume gave him an idea, but that was it—15 years in the making.” Hofer grew up in Germany and says that he was “subconsciously” influenced by rock music from the age of nine-years-old. “My first vinyl, a birthday present from my sister, was The Best of Uriah Heep [Bronze/Mercury, 1976],” he recalls. “I still absolutely love that band. I did not be