Ski King

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Portrait shot of Ski King

Ski King , real name Andrew James Witzke , (born September 5, 1967 in Portland , Oregon , United States ) is an American musician living in Germany. He appears as a solo singer under the stage name "The Mighty Ski King", is the lead singer of the country band Ski's Country Trash , the gothic rock band Beloved Enemy and the 50s rock'n'roll band Ski King and the Wonderbras .

His singing varies stylistically between Johnny Cash , Elvis Presley and Lemmy Kilmister . Musically, it cannot be assigned to any fixed style, with rock, rockabilly and country clearly predominating in Witzke's repertoire.

Life

The first 17 years of his life were volatile and involved many moves. Witzke volunteered for military service and achieved the rank of sergeant in the 3/5 Field Artillery as a truck driver in the US Army . After his transfer to Nuremberg in Germany , the Franconian city ​​became his adopted home.

The first part of his artist name arose from the fact that his surname “Witzke” is similar to the word “whiskey” in American usage and “whiskey” was then simply abbreviated to “ski”. The second part "King" results from the similarity of Witzke's singing style to that of the "King of Rock'n'Roll" Elvis Presley .

The singer is married to Nadine Witzke, co-owner of Visavajara in Nuremberg.

At the end of the 1990s, Witzke appeared in the karaoke bar P&S , where he also worked as a bartender. The singer later bought the bar and renamed it SOHO Bar . Well-known artists such as The BossHoss or Rose Tattoo also performed there.

In 2006, Witzke won the first prize in the Johnny Cash tribute contest Walk the Line with the song Hurt against 90 fellow campaigners.

In 2011 he also made an appearance at the Wacken Festival. In 2013 he was a guest musician on the album "Nur für mich" by the Hamburg band Rotz & Wasser.

In August 2014 Witzke took part in the RTL talent show "Rising Star" on German television.

Artistic creation

Ski King live at the Gasometer in Merseburg

Witzke has been making music since the late 1990s and has been full-time since the beginning of 2000. He gained his first experience in the 1990s with the bands Sanity's Edge and Prime Sinister . He covers pieces a. a. by Johnny Cash , Elvis Presley , Motörhead , Bob Seger not only, he often reinterprets them. Witzke also appears at many tattoo conventions. His album Neverending Road was at number 19 on the metal rock charts in February 2012.

In 2016 he could be heard as the evil hunter Sturmhard in the radio play "MIG3 - In search of the blue monkey". In 2017 he took on the speaking role of Reverend John Thompson in the horror radio play "Blood Red Sandman", directed by Kim Jens Witzenleiter, and contributed a cover version of The Sound of Silence for the soundtrack.

Acting

In addition to his musical activity, Witzke was also engaged in acting in a film, the film Virus Undead .

Discography

  • 1995 Prime Sinister - Staring At The Sun
  • 1996 Prime Sinister - Junk
  • Ski-King - Devil in Disguise (not published)
  • Ski-King and the Black Jacks - A new Generation of Bar Musik (not released)
  • 2007 Ski-King - Early one morning a tribute to Johnny Cash
  • 2007 Beloved Enemy - Enemy Mine
  • 2008 Ski-King - Live at the NCO Club
  • 2008 Ski King - Uncaged
  • 2009 Ski-King - The new King
  • 2009 ski evolution
  • 2009 Ski's Country Trash - Welcome to Trash-Valley
  • 2010 Ski's Country Trash - Trash Valley (re-release)
  • 2010 Beloved Enemy - Thank you for the pain
  • 2011 Ski King - Songs from 81
  • 2011 Ski-King - Sketchbook
  • 2012 Ski's Country Trash - Neverending Road
  • 2013 Ski-King - Sketchbook II: Watching the Sons
  • 2013 Ski's Country Trash - Roadstop in Hell
  • 2013 Ski-King - Further up on the Road
  • 2015 Ski-King - Sketchbook III (New Horizons)

Web links

proof

  1. ↑ From minute 1:00 onwards the explanation of how the name came about follows Interview on Youtube.de
  2. ^ Lineup Wacken 2011
  3. ↑ From minute 4:10 there is a reference to the musical career Interview on Youtube.de
  4. ↑ Radio play premiere. In: pressnetwork.de. Retrieved October 29, 2016 .
  5. ^ Zauberspiegel-Nachrichten: Zauberspiegel - radio play premiere: Blood Red Sandman - a radio play to scare you. Retrieved on October 23, 2017 (German).
personal data
SURNAME King, ski
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Witzke, Andrew (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musician
DATE OF BIRTH 5th September 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Portland , Oregon , United States