"My mom assumed that a guitar meant long hair, rock 'n' roll, and drugs," Bell said while preparing for the band's tour with No Doubt in Boston. "But she said it was OK if I bought the guitar with my own money. So I sold my Atari when I was 14 to my uncle for his kids - all my cartridges and everything. I thought to myself, 'It's time to get serious. I'm not a kid anymore.' So that's what I did."

Obviously, the sell was well worth it since Bell is now a member of the quirky, poppy Weezer. Although he wasn't the group's original guitarist, he met up with fellow members vocalist Rivers Cuomo, bassist Matt Sharp and drummer Patrick Wilson when he went to one of the band's shows in a small Los Angeles club.

"The show didn't totally rock my world," he said. "But the songs stuck in my head, and I kept singing them. I was with another band, and I thought it'd be kind of fun for us to do a show with them, so I gave Rivers my phone number." Several months later, they did call, asking Bell to join the band.

Weezer was already recording its 1994 self-titled album with hit songs like "Undone - the Sweater Song," and "Buddy Holly" when Bell decided to drop everything and go to the Big Apple. He said it took about four months to really feel like a bonafide band member.

"There was no terrible initiation or anything," he said.

After making the mega-successful "Happy Days" spinoff video for "Buddy Holly," the band was thrust into the spotlight with heavy MTV and radio rotation. Even though lots of struggling bands pray for a moment like this, the boys of Weezer looked at the situation with some humor and skepticism.

"We started to notice a lot more backward baseball caps at the shows," Bell said. "There were lots of cheerleader-type girls. People were moshing, and that's not necessarily a good thing."

A little dazed with its success, Weezer took a step back and recorded its second album, "Pinkerton," with a harder edge. With heavier guitar chords and distorted drumming, Weezer picked up a more alternative, San Diego-like sound.

"We wanted to make a sound that was a little bit harder to digest," Bell said. "It sounds a little meaner, more organic than the first record. But I feel I had more of an influence on 'Pinkerton' because I was part of the writing procedure."

Along with sounding meaner, the band is rumored to have problems among its members, and the band suddenly left the limelight to form other projects. Cuomo went back to college; Bell joined up with an experimental band, the Space Twins; and bassist Sharp formed the kooky, electronic Rentals. Bell admits that while there were some disagreements, the problem wasn't as big as the newspapers and magazines reported.

"We have a great time together," Bell said. "But it's just like any relationship - what boyfriend and girlfriend don't fight? With all the attention we were getting, it was literally impossible to amend all of this."

Gossip and rumors aside, Weezer is revving up for a national tour with No Doubt, and Bell said he's so excited he can't even think about it sometimes.

"I've mentally started to prepare for this," he said. "But I don't want to think about it too much because then the anxiety will start setting in and I'll be up all night. I realize I'm definitely lucky, but it's not like this is the end all to end all. It's nothing but another step in a line of far many more steps."