FUNK POWER by TRUST

When Jeffrey Smith's parents first heard their eight-year-old son's feeble attempts at percussion, he was banging on garbage cans. Convincing their parents to buy legitimate instruments, Jeffrey and his brothers Tony and Terry formed a makeshift family band. In high school, they renamed themselves Trust after gaining fourth member and classmate Gary Brabson. Their shot at the big time came via an ad in the Indiana Evening Gazette for The Bong Show, a local spin-off of NBC's the Gong Show. The group's winning performance awarded them a release courtesy of Troy Shondell, a Fort Wayne native famous for his one-hit-wonder "This Time (We're Really Breaking Up)." Trust's session at Shondell's Star Fox Studios produced the single "Funk Power" b/w "Explosion," but disagreement between the young group and Shondell squelched any chance of promotion. A follow-up album was cancelled when a rival group broke into the Smith house and stole all of Trust's gear, their home suddenly silenced.