After almost two decades, eight studio albums and two vans, three high school friends who never had professional music careers in mind are on the road again.

Big Head Todd and the Monsters are opening a six-week tour in Des Moines this weekend at Hoyt Sherman Auditorium to promote its latest release, “Crimes of Passion.”

Drummer Brian Nevin says the band’s touring methods have changed over the years.

“We put a good 300,000 miles on [our first van]; now it’s sitting in my backyard. When we retired that one, we got a 1992 Chevy and put another 300,000 miles on it,” Nevin says.

“Those were some of the most fun days — we all worked really hard.”

All three band members — guitarist and songwriter Todd Park, Nevin and bass player Rob Squires — still live in the Denver metro area. Nevin says he loves Colorado and won’t go anywhere else.

The group played its first gigs in 1986 for friends and at fraternity parties at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo. The band’s name was a last-minute decision. Nevin says they may have put more thought into it if they had any idea they’d be around this long.

“We were playing a party for a friend of ours and needed a name,” Nevin says. “The first part, Big Head Todd, was kind of an ode to old blues players. Then we needed to finish it off, so we came up with the most ridiculous thing we could.”

Nevin has been playing drums for more than 30 years, since elementary school. He says when the band started, the group members didn’t have music in mind as a possible career.

“That would have been too much of a dream; we just did it on the side for fun,” Nevin says. “Then we became quite popular in the Denver area. So, we dropped out of college, bought an old van and have been doing it ever since.”

He says during the first several years, until about 1998, everybody’s lives were focused on the band and traveling. But over the past five years, they’ve taken time to focus on other aspects of their lives and start families.

“We took 1998 off, the whole year, to reprioritize things,” Nevin says. “Rob got married, Todd got married, and I’m engaged. Now we travel and do music around the rest of our lives.”

Nevin says the latest release is true to the Big Head Todd and the Monsters’ style of blues-based rock ‘n’ roll. He says this latest, self-produced album includes some of the best writing Park has done.

“It was great to make our own record, not having to rely on others to put their influence on it,” Nevin says.

“I think every record we’ve made, we’ve gotten better at representing what’s good about the band.”

Who: Big Head Todd and the Monsters

Where: Hoyt Sherman Auditorium, 1501 Woodland Ave., Des Moines

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Cost: $25