In the early 1970s, all of P.O.D. was born, and with Sonny and Wuv being cousins they lived close all of their lives in the lower-middle-class suburb of San Ysidro. Marcos Curiel grew up not too far away from them in Logan Heights, still in the vicinity of the San Diego area dubbed "Southtown" and "South Bay", just a stone's throw from Tijuana in Mexico, a.k.a. "TJ", famous for a July 1984 shooting at a McDonald’s that killed 21 people, alluded to on an early P.O.D. demo tape. Traa Daniels grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, while the other three grew up in the Southtown.

Noah Bernardo Jr. was called "love" by his grandmother, but with her thick Italian accent it sounded like "Wuv", so it stuck. His parents had him when they were only 15 so life was hard for their family; his mother once recalled sober stories of her kids playing in empty sewage tunnels. The Sandoval-Bernardo family was heavily into partying and drugs, and with Wuv’s dad being a big drug dealer, many times people would threaten the family. Sonny can recall Wuv seeking refuge in his room during these threats. On another hand, their lives had the constant companionship of music. Sonny’s dad arranged reggae band performances in San Diego, bringing more variety to the already highly diverse Southtown. Wuv’s dad was a drummer in several highly esteemed bands. Wuv would set up his dad’s drumset for these practices and quickly picked up the drumsticks as well, and by the age of six he could already hold a beat. After learning to play along with the first Cars album, he joined a group called Poetic Justice early in high school after getting bored with the school band. Wuv had many other interests such as surfing, and in the late 80s opened his own skate and surf shop.

Turmoil kept brewing in the family and Wuv’s parents separated, putting Wuv’s dad on the streets for three years. When he showed up again, Papa Noah was claiming he had found God and was now a Christian. His family members didn’t believe him at first but life kept improving for them. Bernardo Sr lived in a shack in his father’s backyard for a time and Wuv would go and study the Bible with him. Bernardo Sr barely even knew how to read at that time since he had been kicked out of school in the 9th grade, but through the newfound power of God all things became possible.

This faith spread through the family. Sonny’s mother became a Christian as well, although Sonny kept on with his usual partying life. He was happy with his life, working at a Lucky’s supermarket bagging groceries and having freedom with his own truck. He also got jobs in construction and then worked with Wuv as an audio visual technician for a famous hotel in San Diego. His mother eventually had to stay at the hospital when she became sick with leukemia. Sonny kept on with his life for a while, even going to community college for a while, but dropped out to support his mother. She kept telling Sonny that he needed to get his life straight. She was supposed to pass away at any moment but kept holding on. Doctors told Sonny that she had “mother’s heart”, which meant that she didn’t want to leave her children. One day after his mother talked to him some more, Sonny’s family made him go home for a break, so he prayed to God in the parking lot as he left and prayed for salvation and dedicated his life to God. When he returned to the hospital he told his mother that he had talked to God and that she could go back to Jesus. Moments later she took her last breath at the age of 37. Sonny was only 19.

Shortly before Sonny’s mom passed away, a friend of Marcos’ and Wuv’s had introduced them when they were in 10th and 11th grade. Marcos was raised by his mother and had been working at a Hot Topic store and Taco Bell. He had wanted to be a pilot when he was younger, but when he saw The Scorpions on TV he decided he wanted to play guitar. Starting with just a $60 Memphis guitar and cheap amp, he slowly developed skills from studying books and attending concerts. Bernardo Sr taught him more technical guitar skills such as chords.

The friend knew Marcos through church and brought him to meet Wuv. The two found they had similar musical interests and influences, so they formed their own band with Marcos covering guitar and vocals and Wuv playing the drums. Calling themselves Escotos/Eschatos (they never had to write it down so they don’t remember the correct spelling) after the study of eschatology, they started playing at keg parties doing Metallica and Slayer cover songs and often would say things such as “God bless you guys” at the end of shows. Sonny attended many of these shows and remarked at how brave they were to mention God so boldly.

Eventually Wuv and Marcos decided they wanted to change directions with the band and dedicate more time to the group, so they felt they would need just one exclusive singer to help even out the group. Wuv suggested his cousin Sonny, who at the time was in a hip-hop group called Unlicensed Product. He felt that the band would help Sonny to take his mind off of his mother and keep him out of the rough-and-tumble lifestyle that San Diego offered, but Marcos wondered if Sonny could be a frontman since he was so shy. They got a bass player, Gabe, and did their first show at a place called The Dungeon in front of 85 people, opening for a band called Face to Face. Wuv went out and bought a new drumset for the show. When it came time, Sonny was so overcome by shyness that he read the lyrics to the songs off of a paper with his back turned to the audience. Marcos forgot a part of his guitar parts and had to pause in the middle of playing. Nevertheless, the band kept playing shows all over the San Diego area and earned a reputation, getting a spot to open for Green Day on New Years Eve 1993. When it came time to pick a name, they all agreed that they wanted a long name since so many bands at that time only had a one-word name. Wuv’s girlfriend, who worked at a bank, suggested “Payable On Death”- a banking term that allows people to leave possessions to their heirs. For them, it would mean that salvation had been granted to mankind upon Christ’s death.

Payable On Death continued to keep getting more exposure in Southern California and eventually recorded some music for their fans to take home. In late 1993 they needed a bassist to fill in for Gabe at some shows at the Whiskey A-Go-Go and The Roxy, so Traa from Wuv’s uncle’s funk band filled in. He had moved to California in 1986 and had previously been a technician for the Air Force. He told the other guys that he wanted to be a permanent part of the band since they all were in accordance in beliefs and would fit together well musically, so he became a part of P.O.D., despite not liking heavy music. Together they discovered they did not fit any kind of category- they put together their reggae, jazz, Latin, hip-hop and funk roots and came out with an entirely new sound, similar to one of their favorite band, Bad Brains. The band went into the studio and recorded “Snuff the Punk”, released on Bernardo Sr’s newly created record label, Rescue Records. Although it was very early in their career they were already getting offers from big name labels, but none of the deals were appealing to P.O.D. People were comparing their sound to Suicidal Tendencies and Body Count. As the years passed on they went on a nation-wide tour, going through the continental United States, gaining more exposure and kept touring for six years straight to build up their name. They would play anywhere, from YMCAs, to keg parties, to churches. Soon they all quit their day jobs to tour full time. Sometimes crowds at non-Christian places were turned off by their blatantly Christian lyrics, doing everything from covering their ears to making vulgar gestures, and soon the band felt that God was showing them that they didn’t have to quote Bible verses to show them His love, so they worked on being more tactful in their music and focused on just bringing people to the foot of the cross.

The band was slowly covering themselves with tattoos, many of it religious imagery, making them fit in well with the street-tough scenes at rougher venues. Sonny and Wuv had gotten tattoos quickly after they turned 18; Sonny’s first choice being Christ’s head on his back. At first no one spotted the tattoos since they would keep them covered up under their regular clothes, but soon ink started to spill over onto all of their bodies.

Once in 1994 P.O.D. ran into one of their musical heroes, HR the lead singer from Bad Brains at the World Beat Center in San Diego. The rest of his band was late and he asked P.O.D. if they knew any of their songs to which they responded, “We know all of them!” HR suggested that they could fill in if his band never showed up, and probably to the Southtowners’ dismay, the band showed up.

By 1996 they had enough material to write another album, “Brown.” They worked for a time to write the songs then for five weeks, each Friday-Sunday, they would record in a studio for 16 hours a day. Brown was sold out of the back of the band’s cars and 30,000 copies were sold without a distributor. Soon Diamante got a distribution deal for P.O.D.’s albums, which allowed them to be more widely available and to sell more copies. To create some hype for Brown, the band recorded some footage of them playing “Selah” at a concert and also shot themselves playing in an open area with cars all around them, and combined the scenes for the final video. It had some good airplay on TV and won them many more fans. Around August of 1996 Sonny started his famous dreadlocks, the year following Traa started his present ones as well. P.O.D. was discovered by the Christian music industry, and started to perform at festivals such as Cornerstone and Tomfest. The band had decided they wanted to record a live show for their fans, since they had so much energy at performances and considered themselves to be more of a live band. They recorded several of their shows and chose their 1997 performance at Tomfest in Washington, featuring appearances from emcee Dirt and Russell from Dogwood, and released the album in early 1998. This was their last record with Rescue.

P.O.D. was also building a reputation as a very caring band. At shows they would announce that they would be eating dinner at a local restaurant and the fans would show up to hang out with one of their favorite bands. They even dubbed their fans “warriors”, taken from the 1970s gang movie “The Warriors”, because they were beyond just casual listeners and were so faithful to the band. Sonny would sometimes put markings on his face as if he was going into a battle, which the warriors quickly picked up as well. The band would spend time after shows on the tour bus or in parking lots, signing things and talking to their fans, they even would pray with fans if so desired, earning a spot in the warrior’s hearts. Years later, even when the band sold millions of albums worldwide, they still took as much time as they could to spend time with fans, even to the protests of their managers.

By now the band was getting more and more label offers. In 1997 they did a West Hollywood showcase at The Roxy, capturing the attention of John Rubeli, an A & R for Atlantic Records, known for being the home label of Led Zeppelin and AC DC. Atlantic was seeking to have a wider variety of artists since they currently had Brandy and Jewel signed and they also admired P.O.D.’s hard work ethic. The band did more showcases in California and in Cleveland, with Atlantic, MCA, Interscope, and Zomba/Silvertone representatives attending. They felt as if it was the right time for them to bring the world their message of love, hope, and positivity, and a major label could help them to reach a broader audience. When they discussed a record deal with Atlantic, the label took a laissez-faire approach in that the band could continue to bring forth their Christian message, so by August 1998 the deal was done. To keep their fans’ ears still ringing with the P.O.D. sound, they recorded some tracks for “The Warriors EP” and Atlantic licensed it to Tooth and Nail to distribute. T & N made a limited number of copies and started selling them through their website beginning May 4, 1999.

All information Copyright The Warrior Klan, 2006.