My Morning Jacket were formed in 1998 in Louisville, Kentucky by lead singer and guitarist Jim James, bassist "Two Tone" Tommy, J. Glenn (drums), and Johnny Quaid (guitar). The band's moniker comes from a discarded coat James found while sifting through the remains of his favorite bar after it burned down. The coat was embroidered with the letters ”MMJ”.

In 1999 the band's debut album “The Tennessee Fire” was released on Darla Records, and they were joined the following year by Danny Cash, responsible for layout and keyboard instruments. Second album ). Although the second album “At Dawn” was recorded with Glenn on board, he hadleft by the time it was released by Darla in 2001, replaced by Chris 'KC' Guetig, however Guetig’s stay was brief and in May 2002 James' childhood friend Patrick Hallahan replaced him.

Following these changes, My Morning Jacket signed with ATO Records, and subsequently released “It Still Moves”, in 2003, although it was the band’s third LP, it represented their major label debut. It peaked at number 121 in the US. Hot on its heels was a live EP “Acoustic Citsuoca”. In January 2004 Quaid and Cash both amicably left the band, replaced by Carl Broemel and Bo Koster, and later that year the band regressed by releasing 2 collections of early work, including old demos, live versions, and covers, entitled “Early Recordings Chapter 1 – The Sandworm Cometh” and “Early Recordings Chapter 2 – Learning”.

October 2005 saw the release of ”Z”, which climbed to number 67 in the Billbaord 200 chart. In 2006 the band released a live double album and DVD entitled “Okonokos”.

“Evil Urges”, recorded throughout most of 2007, was released in June 2008, and became their most successful US release to date, breaking inot the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 (number 9). It also made number 126 on the UK Album chart.

In other work, the band was featured, under the name ‘Ruckus’, in the 2005 film “Elizabethtown”, contributing the song "Where to Begin" to the soundtrack, and in the same year, James was featured on the opening track of the Bright Eyes album “I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning”, as well as on 2 tracks of the M. Ward album “Transistor Radio”, and 1 track on the “Back To Me” album by Kathleen Edwards. James and Hallahan appeared on America's 2007 comeback album, “Here & Now”, in a cover of "Golden", and James, Koster and Broemel can be heard on fellow Louisville band VHS or Beta's album “Bring On the Comets”. James is heard on the 2007 Bob Dylan film “I'm Not There”, along with the band Calexico (they perform "Goin' To Acapulco"), and on Follow The Train’s 2006 release “A Breath of Sigh”, James sings background vocals on "I'm Not Sorry" and does handclaps on "Flower".