Formed by former Acid Bath frontman, Dax Riggs, Deadboy & the Elephantmen first appeared in late 2000, following in the wake of the break-up of his prior project, Agents of Oblivion. The earliest incarnations of DBATEM were little more than Dax Riggs playing solo shows under the moniker when not using his own name or the rarely used T-Daks & His White Plastic Soul. He would play early versions of Deadboy songs along with covers of Leonard Cohen, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, among others.