Only True Fans Know How Cheap Trick Really Got Their Name

With a slew of hits in the 1970s and '80s, like "Surrender" (one of the songs from 1978 that defined rock history), Cheap Trick has earned a loyal fan base who can likely tell you reams of minutiae on the band — maybe even how this power pop quartet from Rockford, Illinois, got its name. The fact is the group's early history is somewhat obtuse, perhaps purposefully so. The liner notes for Cheap Trick's first self-titled album said they were a band without a history and then went on to claim that they formed in Europe, neither of which was true. Even the origin of the band's name is somewhat up for debate, but the most frequently cited version involves the British glam band, Slade. Lead guitarist Rick Nielsen has often shared this story, including in a 2009 Times Record interview, in which he described seeing Slade with bassist Tom Petersson in Philadelphia in the early '70s.

The members of Slade were covered in glitter from head to toe, Nielsen recalled. "Tom looked at me and said, 'Man, that is a cheap trick.' I looked at him and said, 'That's a great name for a band,'" Nielsen said in the interview. But there are other versions of how the band — whose classic lineup also included drummer Bun E. Carlos and singer-guitarist Robin Zander — landed on their name.

Before Cheap Trick sold more than 20 million records and racked up 17 gold and platinum records, they were struggling musicians playing in various bands. Then, in 1973, Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson, Bun E. Carlos, and singer Randy "Xeno" Hogan joined forces. Hogan (who soon left to join another band and was replaced by Robin Zander in 1974) has a different version of how the band got its name. In 2016, he told the Chicago Reader that the name came from referring to one of Nielsen's guitar riffs as "a cheap trick."

Nielsen is the one to blame for all the confusion. He told a British magazine in 1978 that he made up a different story of how the band got its name for every interview. He's even claimed that a Ouija board spelled out the words "cheap trick," which they co-opted for their name.

Carlos also has a story about naming the band that's by far the blandest compared to the spirit world or glitter-covered glam rockers. "We didn't want to be like YES and all the bands with big capes and lasers ... so we came up with the word 'Cheap' ... and I think Rick said 'Cheap Trick,' and everyone said, 'Yeah, that sounds good,' so we just went with it," he told Legendary Rock Interviews in 2012. Now, true Cheap Trick fans can not only argue about whether "Surrender" is one of the songs that nail '70s power pop, but they can also squabble over how the group got its name.