It’s like an episode of VH-1’s Behind the Music, except the ending hasn’t been written yet.

The Scalywags, featuring Martinsville native Jared Asher on drums, had arranged to play an opening set New Year’s Eve 1992 for Alice in Chains, until Alice’s album “Dirt” made a big splash on the charts. The Indianapolis show was canceled and Alice in Chains went to New York.

“I guess MTV was a lot more important than the Murat in Indianapolis,” Asher said.

It has been more than a decade since his band has played together for a live crowd. Their first show since reuniting early this year will be a big one, band members say.

Scalywags will play next Saturday in Indianapolis as part of the Zippo Hot Tour, a 10-state battle of the bands that will be decided by both fan votes and a panel of judges. The Scalywags is one of eight semifinalists from the state, as voted on by radio listeners.

Asher entered his group in the third annual contest after hearing about it on Indianapolis radio station WRZX, 103.3 FM, known to some as X103. Using material from their first period as a touring and recording act, they secured a spot in the semifinals. That gives them a chance of being one of 10 national finalists in October.

The Scalywags started in 1991 when Asher and vocalist Jason Bambery of Painted Hills formed an “all star band” of musicians from the Indianapolis rock scene, Asher said. On its Myspace Web page, the group lists its influences as “bad ones.” Its sound is similar to “alternative” bands of the time they formed - Stone Temple Pilots, The Cult and Alice in Chains, he said.

After producing a record and playing shows throughout the Midwest and South, the band broke up the day after playing at a record company showcase.

“We were on a desert island,” Asher said. “We got shipwrecked 12 years ago, and we just got rescued this year.”

LISTEN: » STRAWBERRY SMOKE [4MB MP3] Scalywags members are Greg Myers, bass; Dan Wolfla, guitar; Jason Bambery, vocals, guitar; Jared Asher, drums; Morris Bryant, guitar. Third Annual Zippo Hot Tour Where: Birdy's Live, 2131 E. 71st. St., Indianapolis When: Sept. 16 Cost: free For more information on the contest, check out www.zippohottour.com For more information on The Scalywags log onto: www.thescalywags.com or www.myspace.com/scalywags

When Asher and Bamberry discussed reforming the band recently, they placed a call to lead guitarist Morris Bryant, who agreed to come back to Indiana from California. The band has been rehearsing and recording new material at Bamberry’s home studio, Asher said, hoping to recapture the energy they had when the band started.

Since Asher submitted the band’s older material to the contest, most of the band was not fully aware of their upcoming show until the semifinalists were announced. The band is reproducing an album they recorded in 1993, the same material that earned them a spot on the Zippo showcase.

“We’re just happy to get this far,” he said. “We just decided to get back together and it snowballed.”

Now working during the day for Owens-Illinois in Franklin, Asher said has “become a computer nerd in the meantime.” Since the band decided to get back together, he said he has passed on the band’s music to people from Texas to Canada, and the reaction has been very positive.

“So much of the music on the radio now is stagnant,” he said. “We’re just a band that wants to go back to the classics.”

Any success that comes from the showcase would be an added bonus, he said, since nobody in the band has ever had to rely on the group for their livelihood.

“We all supported the band, but we never expected it to support us,” he said.