The Sons of Champlin started in 1965 in Marin County, California rising from the wreckage of the Opposite Six, a locally popular R&B band from the pre-Beatle era. "Six" members, Bill Champlin and Tim Cain, added Terry Haggerty and the first of a series of drummers and bass players, and the new band was named for the "front" man, Bill Champlin. For a couple of years the Sons played as a five-piece band, working the college and high school dance circuit and the various clubs and bars in the Bay Area.