The name 'GLAY' originated from the English word 'GRAY' (since R sounds like L on Japanese) and gray because their music is a mixture of white/pop and black/heavy rock. Glay's songs are a mixture of pop and rock music and they range from beautiful ballads to hard rock songs. Takuro, founder and band leader who writes most of Glay's songs and music, is a big Beatles fan, so you can hear influences from English bands as well as American rock bands on their music. Teru's amazing voice also plays a very important role on Glay's music style.

So how did Glay became Glay?

Glay's story begins on the late 80's on Takuro's highschool. Back then Takuro was in a local heavy rock band called "Gestapo", but because he wanted to be in a group that could play both punk/rock as well as pop and melodic ballads he formed Glay. Why he thought of the name Glay, which represents his idea for a band that could play both hard and dark (black) music, as well as pop and light (white) music. Since Takuro played the guitar, and the bassist from his former band was going to play the bass, he immediately started looking for a drummer and vocalist. The first member to be recruited was Takuro's classmate and friend Teru. Teru played the drums for another small local band, so he was the first person Takuro thought of when looking for a drummer. They would practice and play music without a vocalist until one day Teru handed Takuro a demo of their songs with him singing the vocals. It was then Takuro realised Teru had a good voice and how with some practice he could be an even better singer than drummer. Another classmate who caught Takuro's attention was Hisashi, the guitarist for another local punk band called "Ari" ("ant"). At the beginning, Hisashi was not interested on playing with Glay, since he thought their music taste was very different from his, but once Hisashi's band broke he decided to join Glay. He admired Takuro's dreams of making Glay a big band and how he was able to put words to their music. As soon as Glay became a complete band act, they started performing on small gigs in their town. Their first live show was a success. Glay had dreams of going to Tokyo after graduation and making it big. It was 1990 when Takuro, Teru, and Hisashi left for Tokyo looking for stardom, but Tokyo ended up being bigger and harder than they expected. Tokyo was a big city full of people like them with many dreams and it was difficult to compete and get noticed among the many indies bands there. Times were hard then... and they even started talking about breaking up. It was depressing to play a gig and have less than 10 people come to see them. It was at this time when they met a bass player on a band called "Pierrot", his name was Jiro. Their bass player had left the band so they asked Jiro to join them. It was also at this time that they decided to change their look. Until then, they all looked like the rest of the visual rock indies bands, with long hair, make-up, and flashy outfits, but it was when they changed their image, with less make-up, shorter hair and just a more conservative look all together, that they started getting more attention and became popular. Then, their big lucky break came one night when they were performing in a Tokyo club and a representative of Extasy Records spotted Glay and liked their sound. It only took Yoshiki (from X-Japan) one time to listen to Glay and offer them a record deal. With Extasy, they released their first single "RAIN" (written by Yoshiki and produced in L.A.). It was soon after they returned to Japan that they found themselves with a busy schedule full of TV, radio, magazine, and live appearances! Rain was a hit and Glay's popularity grew fast, becoming one of the most popular Japanese acts ever, releasing hit singles and albums one after another, year after year, with sold out concerts and fans all over the world.