A friend of mine Shawn Stevens used to always say that Ground Zero would be a cool name for a club, I agreed with him, but pretty much left it at that. We were both in another club at the time and I put GZ in the back of my head and went on with my life. Things went bad in the club we were in and I was pretty much the last person left in the club because I wouldn't just give up on it like that. A few weeks passed, and I was talking to my buddy Carroll McQueen. I said to him jokingly "hey, we should start Ground Zero..". We both laughed about this and next thing I knew I was saying "Hey, let's do this..". We started off with some ground rules and about 2 weeks later we called another friend of ours, Paul Calabrese, and Ground Zero officially started with a total membership of 3. We had our first meetings in the parking lot of a Taco Bell at McClintock & Southern in Tempe, AZ. Some of our friends from other clubs also chose to come aboard, now we were up to about 7 or 8. This idea was actually coming together!!

We went to our first truck run as a club, Spring Splash, and to our surprise we ran into another Ground Zero, Ground Zero San Diego. If that wasn't enough, we heard there were chapters in Florida, and Canada. Whoa, we never expected all this. After kickin' it with the Pres. of San Diego, we went back home to discuss whether we wanted to join the other Ground Zero clubs and become a chapter. The answer was an overwhelming "YES". Time went by and it was time for the jolly old man to give out presents, yeah, it was Christmas. Jerry one of our real close friends from Ground Zero San Diego was in town to hang with his PHX crew, while walking through the mall Jerry and I were messing with Paul, like usual, and he got butt hurt, like usual, and decided to leave, when he was walking to his car he ran into this tall, skinny guy that was from Kansas. His name was Brandon, but he said his friends call him "Slinky". Now, he still was a bit behind the times, his wheels stuck out on his Nissan, but hey we all start somewhere. After hanging out with us for a while he became a member. Time passed and Slinky had to return to Kansas. So, with our blessing he went home and started a chapter. Another member of ours Greg Ely also was planning a little journey, he was moving back home to Tennessee, he also received our blessings to begin a chapter there.

Well, along with the good, comes some bad, and it was gonna be our time for the bad. We became a hot commodity in the car club scene, people wanted to join left and right. We ended up with about 23 members give or take and we closed the club, things were a handful when you're dealing with that many mouths. As we all know, the more independent minds you have working on something, the more conflicts are gonna arise. It was our time to deal with what most clubs deal with, egos, attitudes, cliques, and big mouths. These things are a virus in any club, and I don't know if that kind of a virus will ever be exterminated. We went from that 23 way back down to 4. A lot of people said this foreshadowed the end of Ground Zero, but hey, I vowed to be a part of this club till the day I die, so I wasn't gonna give up that easy. Also, like the saying goes whatever doesn't kill ya, makes ya stronger.

Having to face the members that stayed with GZ and say to them that the club would be okay was hard. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was scared, I thought this was the end. This club was like a child to me, it meant as much to me as my family did, and still does. We worked through the bad times and kept our heads up. It was pretty embarrassing to have to face Kansas and San Diego after what happened. Especially since it was due to a mixture of all of our egos and big mouths. Other clubs ran their mouths about it, but hey, what's new? The mini-truckin' scene is all about sh**-talking. We stuck in there, and tried to push that we're family, so through it all, at least we had each other.

Meanwhile, as time went on, Kansas was having their own problems, Slinky moved back to AZ. He was disappointed with what happened here, and just didn't respond to coming back to the club, it's a very big loss to not have him back aboard, but there's a time all of us must figure out what is really important, he still keeps in contact and whenever he's back in AZ we always celebrate. Without his strong leadership, the members in Kansas were going crazy. They were earning a reputation for being a bunch of f***-ups, their idea of fun was going out getting drunk and treating everyone like s***. There went Ground Zero Kansas, may they rest in peace. 

We went to another run and ran into another chapter of Ground Zero, Ground Zero Tucson. This was great, another chapter right in our back yard, it was kinda like a breath of fresh air for our club, we knew that no matter what we would have support from people just a hour and a half away from us. Boy did we need that. We immediately formed a bond and pretty much right then and there we became sister chapters. We knew that we couldn't be stopped now. There would always be a Ground Zero in AZ. Incidentally around these same happenings Greg Ely, you know, the guy who moved to Tennessee to start a chapter there, well he moved back, ending the chapter in Tennessee, there just wasn't anyone there, that he felt could lead the club, which in a way is a good thing, because that way it didn't come to the demise that GZ Kansas did. But personal issues have caused him to go back and forth in between AZ and TN, but when he had the chance I really must say, he was always a strong voice in the club and his input has definitely been respected and appreciated.

Here in AZ we got closer together as chapters, while another local club pulled further apart, incidentally, they were pretty vocal about what happened to us, so in a way it was kind of ironic. Like I said, this type of thing happens to all clubs, but it's the strong, the ones with heart, with love that make it through. We met up with a few members of that other club, and invited them to, let's say, "merge" with us. Hey let's face it, we were a club of 6 at this point, we wanted more members, we wanted a new beginning. It took a few weeks, but we all gave it a chance. Things seemed like they were gonna be great, we were pretty close, or so we thought. After a few months things started going bad. It's the ego thing again. Some people wanted to run the club their way. Man, this was like a bad case of deja-vu. Things were starting to fall apart again, but we pulled the members together and weeded out the trouble makers. Time passed some chapters grew, some shrunk. In 2002 we split the Phoenix chapter into East and West side chapters, the West side chapter was being headed up by someone who had been in this scene for as long as me, and knows how good things could be if all the other clubs and young kids get their sh*t together. Unfortunately, he still had some growing up to do, so we had no choice but to close his chapter. Our Tucson chapter closed in 2003, mainly due to a lot of miscommunication between our chapters.

So, we are now at this point in time. We threw 3 great shows so far, and now are in a dillema on whether we want to continue having it. The shows had great coverage and the first 2 were featured in Mini-Truckin', as well as many websites. As I update this it's now March of 2006. Our 10 year anniversary came and went. We planned a celebration, but other things came up. We have started 2006, exactly how we needed to. We had a couple club functions bringing the members back close together. Some members were asked to leave and some old members have come back. We've been through a hell of a lot, and this is our story. I'm sure I left some stuff out, but it sure was a wild ride makin' it to a new millennium and beyond. We have found that there are Ground Zeros in Chicago, New Jersey, Virginia, Texas, San Francisco, and probably a bunch we don't even know about. I know that no matter what happens I will always have a GZ logo, and my kids in about 2 years will probably be the first 2nd generation members. So that brings me comfort.

I'm not trying to say that I was the catalyst for bringing this club to where it is, or even begin to take all the credit, because there have been A LOT of good people, and good friends, that have flown G.Z. logos that deserve credit for this club being around for 10+ years. I want those people to know regardless of whether they're still in G.Z. today, whether they are thinking about coming back, whether they left the state, whether they left on good or even bad terms, that we couldn't of gotten here without all of you. I do take some pride in knowing that I was a strong voice in G.Z. when things were at their worst, but I also must admit that it took almost as many years as G.Z. has been around to learn when to turn the volume down on that same voice, and hopefully the other G.Z. members are slowly learning the same. Through the years I've been blessed to be surrounded by a very strong group of people that put up with a lot and sacrificed a lot to keep this dream alive, some are still in contact, some moved on. This club and it's members, past and present, have become a second family. I love all the guys and girls that are in, and that were a part of the club, more than they probably know. We all have our faults, none of us are perfect, we butt heads every once in a while, but hey, if things were perfect where'd the fun be?

I hope this gave some of you out there a little insight into what GZ is about. We're friends, but above all we've become a family. Thanks for coming to our site and enjoy. Ground Zero... Friends by chance, Family by choice...

Jean-Andree' Roberts (Peanut Butter)