The group was formed largely accidentally when folk singers Lillebjørn Nilsen, Halvdan Sivertsen and Øystein Sunde were scheduled to appear separately at a Sarpsborg music festival in 1987.
[2] After their 1994 tour ended, the members decided to focus on solo projects and didn't collaborate again until 2003, when they reunited to record a song for a Vidar Sandbeck tribute album.
Alongside the first reunion tour the group also released a live album consisting of a complete previously-unheard 1990 concert recording from Grieghallen in Bergen, Norway.
Nilsen died on 27 January 2024, aged 71, after a ten-year battle with lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
[4] Controversy arose in 2006 when four other Norwegian artists (Espen Lind, Kurt Nilsen, Askil Holm and Alejandro Fuentes) began touring and recording together, as the media referred to them as De nye Gitarkameratene ("The new guitar buddies").