Jeff Abercrombie

Jeff Abercrombie (born January 8, 1969) is an American bassist and rock musician. He is the bassist for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based hard rock band Fuel, which he founded in 1989 with guitarist Carl Bell. His musical influences are The Beatles, The Eagles, Pino Palladino, Led Zeppelin, and Flea.

Abercrombie was born on January 8, 1969, in Kenton, Tennessee. He and Bell are childhood friends; they started playing music together in junior high and high school and played in various garage bands. In 1989, they formed Fuel in Kenton, though the band went through multiple name changes before finally settling on Fuel. 

After graduating high school, Bell went to college, where he met drummer Jody Abbott; the two formed a college campus rock band in Henderson, Tennessee. After college, Bell and Abercrombie, who at the time was attending college at the University of Tennessee at Martin, reunited along with Abbott and formed the band Reel Too Real, playing cover songs at local clubs in Tennessee and eventually becoming a national touring club circuit band. They later recruited their lead vocalist-guitarist Brett Scallions after Abercrombie noticed him performing in a bar in Jackson, Tennessee in 1993 and later asked him to join in 1994. Keyboardist Erik Avakian joined the band in 1993. 

Around that time, the band relocated from Kenton to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where they played at local Pennsylvania bars and nightclubs under the name Reel Too Real, playing cover songs. Transitioning from covering songs to creating their originals, they renamed the band to Small the Joy and released one EP in 1994. They once again decided to change its name and settled on the name Fuel, before releasing their second EP, Porcelain, in 1996. They also repackaged their first EP, Small the Joy, with the "Fuel" name on it.