Formed in 1998 by vocalist Benjamin Burnley and drummer Jeremy Hummel, Breaking Benjamin quickly garnered a strong local following in their home state of Pennsylvania. The band derived their name from an incident when Burnley was covering a Nirvana song during an open mic night at a club. He kicked the microphone stand over, breaking it. The person who owned the microphone came on stage and said, "I'd like to thank Benjamin for breaking my fucking microphone."[6] In 1999 the band changed its name shortly to "Plan 9" then in late 2001, after various line-up changes, the band changed its name back to "Breaking Benjamin" and two friends of Burnley, Aaron Fink and Mark Klepaski, left their previous band, Lifer, and joined the ranks of Breaking Benjamin as guitarist and bassist, respectively. According to the band, the Breaking Benjamin logo is a variation of the Celtic knot, with four interlocking "B"s.[citation needed] The logo is tattooed on the left wrist of Burnley, Fink, and Klepaski, and the right wrist of Szeliga.
