Thursday, September 15, 2005

pleases read this...i know i am posting it again but i would like for people to read it
Found this online about Hide
hide, (yes the h is lowercase on purpose), was the popular guitarist for X Japan from 1987 till X's breakup in 1997. He was born Hideto Matsumoto on Dec 13, 1964 in Kanagawa, Yokosuka, (thus his name is pronouced 'hee-deh' and not the english word, hide). When his parents brought him to America in the early 1970's to go to school, he began listening to rock music such as KISS, which got him interested in learning the guitar. He bought his first guitar himself when he was 15, and because of the name of the brand, his schoolmates started calling him "Gibson". Later, in high school, he started a band called "Saver Tiger", which because of the school and arguments between members, broke up after a while.

In 1987, Yoshiki of the then indies band, X, had heard of hide's playing with Saver Tiger and since they had an open spot for a guitarist, he called hide and asked if he'd join X, to which he simply said "Fine". hide had been going to a costume/fashion school at the time.

When hide joined X, visual bands were not entirely popular by the mainstream music scene. But when X signed with Sony in 1988, this changed. From 1987 until 1997, hide played with X on three albums and numerous singles. In the early 90's however, hide began writing and recording his own music and releasing singles, and in February of 1994 released his first solo album, "Hide Your Face". While still with X (now called X Japan after the release of Art of Life in 1993), he continued to write his own solo works and in 1996 created a production company called LEMONed. In this company hide sought to bring awareness to new indies bands and of course, to promote himself. Also in 1996 (September), he released his second solo album, "Psyence". After Pysence he began working with 2 bands through LEMONed, Spread Beaver and Zilch. hide did two tours during his solo career, one in 1994 called "Hide Your Face" after the album, and in 1996, the "Psyence a Go-Go" tour.

After X Japan disbanded in September of 1997, hide could focus all his attention on his solo career. Late in 1997 and early in 1998, he began work on his next album, releasing the single "Rocket Dive" in January of 1998. All was going well with hide until early May.



On the night of May 1st, 1998, hide went out drinking with his brother and when they returned home around 5 am, needless to say they were trashed. They were left by the person who'd brought them back to hide's home and no one knows exactly why, but when the woman hide was living with returned around 7 am, she found hide hung by a towel on the bathroom doorknob. She of course called the Japanese version of 911, but it was too late, hide was pronounced dead around 9am, May 2nd 1998. Needless to say the Japanese music scene was shocked by the sudden death of the best rock guitarist ever in Japan. Much speculation surrounds the events that lead to the death of hide. Most agree that it was an accident, helped by the alcohol, but what hide was doing that required a towel around his neck attactched to a doorknob...we may never know. Since there was no motive or suicide note, there isn't much ground to beleive that it was a intentional suicide. hide was 33 years old.

On May 7th, hide's funeral was held in the Hongan temple in Central Chichuji, Tokyo. It was a scorching 100 degree day and along with those involved in the funeral, approximately 50,000 fans gathered around the temple to pay their respect to hide. Several actually attempted suicide themselves, not being able to live without hide. X Japan performed "Scars" (which hide wrote) and "Forever Love" for the people in attendance at the funeral


Facts about hide:

famous for his hair, which was usually red or pink

had a very unique voice, which sounded somewhat different in every song

made the Mockingbird guitar style (the yellow one to the left) famous again

liked beer a lot and would often get drunk

would often get into arguements with Yoshiki, but Yoshiki later described this as the way they best worked together

had disputes with Marilyn Manson

a hide museum was opened in June of 2000, spearheaded by the current Prime Minister of Japan, (a fan of hide and X Japan)

had 12+ singles and 3 albums released (plus several compilations and remix albums) from 1993 until today

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