Early Life
Bell was born in Iowa City, Iowa to parents Tom Bell, a geography professor at Western Kentucky University, and Linda Menasco, an elementary school assistant principal. He was raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. He first gravitated to music at the age of four when his parents took him to an Elvis Presley concert at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium. Soon after Bell became obsessed with his father's record collection, playing it constantly. At a young age, Bell was forced by his mother to take piano lessons, refusing to let him take guitar lessons until high school because she "wouldn't believe that he would practice." Eventually, during his Freshman year in high school, his parents allowed him to take guitar lessons from Knoxville musician Ben Bolt. Also, during his first year in high school Bell was forced to switch high schools, "I was zoned to go to County School and my mom taught in the city, which meant I could go to a more privileged school. In doing that I was surrounded by snobs. I was kind of finding myself at the time, so I decided to go to the school I was zoned for." He started playing in a band with school friends Trey Counce and Tim and Glenn Maloof called Blooshroom which Bell described as "Pink Floyd-meets-The Stooges."
After completing high school at Bearden High School in 1987, Bell decided not to pursue higher education feeling it would be a "waste of money." At the age of 18, Bell moved to Los Angeles, California, and enrolled at G.I.T. In 1991, he became a founding member of Carnival Art, which released three official albums and an EP with Bell playing bass guitar. Unfortunately, the band had extremely small record sales and were eventually dropped by record label Beggars Banquet. it was around the time Carnival Art was disintegrating Bell became acquainted with the members of Weezer, "They started playing on the scene, and I instantly saw something unique in them. I didn't necessarily want to be in their band. They were for some reason, in with the wrong crowd and playing at the wrong venues. I wanted to help them out any way I could and I wanted to play a show with them." One night in the late summer of 1993, while driving home Bell decided once-and-for-all to quit Carnival Art. When he got home he found on his answering machine a message from Weezer bassist Matt Sharp. Sharp called again the next day, and Rivers Cuomo took the phone and asked him to join the band.
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