Need to get into Red Rocks this weekend, but don't have a ticket to one of The Fray's three sold-out shows? We can't help you. But if you want to get up on the amphitheater's hallowed stage yourself some day, we've used the local band's stunning success to help guide your way to rock 'n' roll stardom.

Find some bandmates

Ah, in the beginning it's all so easy. After being former classmates and in the competing bands Ember and Fancy's Shadowbox, pianist Isaac Slade and guitarist Joe King bump into each other at Guitar Center in Arvada in the summer of 2002. Slade had some song ideas, King had some too. Out of any good musical options, they decide to band together and form a new, as-yet-unnamed group. King kept his day job as an insurance adjuster.

Taste some old-fashioned failure

And it quickly goes sour. Slade and King's chemistry is strong, but the first year is bumpy. Logistical and personal issues find the other band members, including Slade's brother Caleb, eventually leaving the band. Westword recounts a lackluster gig where the band planted a friend in the audience to shout for an encore that the rest of the crowd didn't want (and didn't get). After a couple of self-financed EPs, they eventually recruit Dave Welsh and Ben Wysocki on guitar and drums. By fall of 2003 with little success and only a smattering of shows under their belts, they give themselves a year to make it or they'll break up.

Get some love from the locals

Their luck changes quickly after setting the deadline. In October of '03, Westword's Dave Herrera gives the band its first high-profile press with a rave review of their unreleased songs, writing that Slade "has absolutely no idea just how good his band is." "He started to actually convince us that our music was good," Slade admitted. Promoter Don Strasburg also eventually books the band for its first headlining gig at the Fox Theatre. "I remember multiple times when Isaac would say, 'One day we are gonna headline the Fox and sell it out.' Not long after, they headlined and sold out. It did not take a rocket scientist to recognize The Fray would be very, very big," Strasburg said. Local radio also jumped on board. KTCL-93.3 FM was the one to break the band big with heavy rotation of Over My Head, then called Cable Car, and soon The Fray was in a three-way lovefest with KTCL, KBCO-97.3 FM and KRMT-99.5 FM (The Mountain). "(DJ) Alf got ahold of a copy for the Locals Only show," said KTCL program director Nerf. "He really thought it was awesome, had a big future." In music meetings and in listener surveys, The Fray easily outdistanced signed major rock acts. "We didn't tell people it was a local band. People just loved the song."

Get signed, start recording

"The snowball just kinda started rolling. In our naivete, if it was up to our timing, we'd still be rehearsing, still be handing out demo packs," Wysocki said. With airplay and burgeoning live shows, Epic Records quickly signed the band. And, of course, it all went sour again during the recording of the album How to Save a Life. "At different points we all got depressed, completely discouraged," King said. "I'm trying to do guitar licks and I just can't nail it. The producer says, 'We'll try it tomorrow.' . . . All of us went through low moments in the studio where you just can't nail it." Moments of magic outweighed the bad, as when King heard Slade's first run-through of the title song, with the two musicians and their producer breaking down in tears.

Get on television

Denver radio is all well and good, but placing your songs on an overwrought, dramatic medical show is even better. Grey's Anatomy helped blast the band past one-hit status by picking up on the album's best song, the title cut How to Save a Life. It quickly outsold even Over My Head, going triple-platinum in sales (the band ended up with a Grammy nomination for being on the soundtrack of the show; it didn't win, nor did the other two nods for The Fray). It's hard to count the number of places Fray music now appears, from Scrubs to HBO trailers to countless live, in-studio performances on YouTube, radio station compilations, MySpace.com and the like.

Get on the road - and stay there

With the music industry in disarray, the place to make real fans (and real money) is on the road. The Fray has toured tirelessly since the album's release, playing bigger venues each time and selling them out each time. "I never realized how much you have to be gone to be a musician. It has been a shock," Slade told the Rocky - and that was before the album was even released. In the nearly two years since, the band has toured the U.S., England, Spain, Italy, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and more, in addition to opening for the Dave Matthews Band and moving from 500-seat clubs to 18,000-seat amphitheaters.

Return home as conquering heroes

The Fray's first Red Rocks show this summer sold out in minutes. A second was added, which also sold out. So a third and final show was put up and it sold out as well. With three sold-out shows and 27,000 tickets sold, The Fray is the biggest act at Red Rocks this summer except for the disbanding String Cheese Incident, which added a fourth sold-out show for its string of dates. After the Red Rocks dates, they head back to England, Ireland, Holland, France, Spain and Italy for festivals and a series of sold-out headlining dates.