In 1987, Popoff (guitar), Jerry Neel (bass), Dave Barber (drums) and Derek Johnson (vocals) formed the band Strate Lace and performed three live shows together: The Troubador in Hollywood, The Waters Club in San Pedro, and a back-to-school party in a friend's backyard.

Neel quit the band early on to pursue a career in the mortgage industry and Johnson would go on to attend the Trebas Institute of Recording Arts in Hollywood, California, where he learned to produce and engineer.

On February 20, 2003, Derek Johnson was among the 100 killed in the nightclub fire while attending a Great White concert at The Station in West Warwick, Rhode Island.

The lineup being Kevin Baldes (lead vocals, bass), A. Jay Popoff (drums), and Sean Holland (guitar).

In 1989, A. Jay switched from drums to lead vocals, and the band added guitarist Jeremy Popoff and drummer Allen Shellenberger.

Things began to come together in 1990, when the group released a demo tape (engineered by Derek Johnson, the singer of Strate Lace) and an EP entitled New Vibe Revolution in 1993.

[citation needed] On April 1, 1997, the group released Tripping the Light Fantastic on the Malicious Vinyl record label.

The band became staples on late night television shows The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Later with Craig Kilborn and appeared regularly on MTV TRL, Spring Break and guitarist Jeremy Popoff appeared in an episode of MTV Cribs.

The band's highest-charting single was "Lipstick and Bruises" which reached top 10 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks.

Shellenberger immediately underwent clinical trials, chemotherapy and radiation at the Cedars-Sinai Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute.

On January 7, 2013, frontman A. Jay Popoff told Loudwire that after Lit finished touring in support of The View from the Bottom, they would begin writing their next album.

[10] On October 26, 2016, Lit's music video for their new song "Fast" debuted on CMT, which went to number 1 on the viewer voted 12 Pack Countdown.

[14] Lit announced their seventh studio album Tastes Like Gold on April 8, 2022, and released the song "Kicked Off The Plane" that same day.

Lit joined Bowling for Soup in April for Europe's two week Crowd Surf the UK Tour which was originally to take place in 2021.

[citation needed] On the band's first album Tripping the Light Fantastic, Lit incorporated elements of punk rock, grunge and heavy metal.

Lit's influences include Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Jimi Hendrix, the Cars, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Nirvana, Weezer, Metallica, Elvis Costello, George Lynch, Ozzy Osbourne, and Boston.