The story behind Platinum Weird began when pop songwriter Kara DioGuardi was sent to England by Interscope exec Jimmy Iovine to write for the Pussycat Dolls with former Eurythmics member and fellow songwriter Dave Stewart. Though the meeting didn't produce anything for the expressed purpose, they did end up creating their own material -- material that Iovine liked enough to have them make an entire album. Thanks to their star status, DioGuardi and Stewart were able to collaborate with rock stars like Mick Jagger, Elton John, and Stevie Nicks in an elaborate hoax to promote their new band, called Platinum Weird, which they claimed had been around since 1974, when lead singer Erin Grace disappeared the day before the album was set to be released, eventually ending up in a young DioGuardi's Scarsdale, NY, neighborhood, where she acted as her musical mentor.