Bill Kelliher

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Bill Kelliher 2009

Bill Kelliher (born March 23, 1971 ) is an American guitarist . He is a founding member of the band Mastodon and previously played with Lethargy and Today Is the Day .

Career

Kelliher started playing the guitar at the age of 15 after his father gave him a guitar. It was an instrument made by Kramer , as played by Eddie Van Halen in the music video for the Van Halen song Jump . Kelliher's musical role models were initially The Edge from the band U2 , later Johnny Ramone from the Ramones , East Bay Ray from the Dead Kennedys and Greg Ginn from Black Flag . A short time later he founded with friends a punk - cover band that later songs of Hardcore -Bands as DRI or metal bands like Anthrax , Slayer and Metallica played. Kelliher never took guitar lessons. From 1994 Kelliher played in the band Lethargy, where he replaced Brian Steltz. With Lethargy he recorded their only studio album It's Hard to Write with a Little Hand in 1996 . Together with drummer Brann Dailor, Kelliher switched to Today Is the Day and recorded the 1999 album In the Eyes of God .

A short time later, Kelliher and Dailor moved from Rochester to Atlanta and founded the band Mastodon with guitarist Brent Hinds and bassist Troy Sanders. At Mastodon, Kelliher and Hinds share the guitar work, with Kelliher mainly playing the rhythm guitarist and only occasionally playing solos . With Mastodon, Kelliher released seven studio albums and was nominated three times for a Grammy with the band . In 2007, Kelliher and Brent Hinds won the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards in the Best Shredder category . During a tour in the opening act of Slayer, Kelliher had to be treated in hospital on November 3, 2008 for an acute inflammation of the pancreas . In the period that followed, he had to be hospitalized several times due to high alcohol consumption . In the summer of 2010 the band had to cancel a summer tour. In 2018 Mastodon were awarded the Grammy in the Best Metal Performance category. While Kelliher used to prefer playing a Gibson Les Paul , he has had an endorsement contract with ESP Guitar since 2016 . He prefers classic looking guitars in classic colors.

Bill Kelliher is married and has two sons. In addition to the US American, Kelliher also has Irish citizenship. Together with his bandmates, Kelliher made an appearance as an extra in the TV series Game of Thrones in 2015 . In the Hartheim episode, Mastodon's musicians can be seen as wildlings . At the Grammy Awards 2016 , Kelliher was a member of the committee that decides on the award of the prizes. 2017 followed another appearance in the series Game of Thrones in the episode The Dragon and the Wolf . In addition to his work as a musician, Kelliher also gives private guitar lessons, especially when he is on tour with Mastodon.

Discography

With mastodon

With other bands

  • 1996: Lethargy It's Hard to Write with a Little Hand
  • 1999: Today Is the Day In the Eyes of God

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Jens-Ole Bergner: Why do you want distortion? . In: Rock Hard , October 2017, page 124
  2. BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE Booed At METAL HAMMER GOLDEN GODS AWARDS. Blabbermouth.net , accessed April 3, 2018 .
  3. MASTODON Cancels Summer Tour. Blabbermouth.net, accessed April 3, 2018 .
  4. MASTODON Wins 'Best Metal Performance' GRAMMY Award. Blabbermouth.net, accessed January 29, 2018 .
  5. Bill Kelliher. ESP Guitars , accessed September 27, 2017 .
  6. ^ Ronan McGreevy: Mastodon break out the big guns. The Irish Times , accessed May 14, 2017 .
  7. MASTODON Members 'Murdered' In Latest 'Game Of Thrones' Episode. Blabbermouth.net, accessed August 7, 2015 .
  8. ^ Graham Hartmann: Mastodon's Bill Kelliher Celebrates One Year of Sobriety, Gets Added to Grammys Committee. Loudwire, accessed April 27, 2016 .
  9. Vivien Stellmach: Mastodon publish details of new EP "Cold Dark Place". Visions , accessed August 29, 2017 .