Some people say names aren’t really important – well, they probably don’t share a name with a future Sony gadget (like me) and have normal names. But what if you’re in a metal nu metal rock euro dance band and you’re called Chester Bennington. It doesn’t sound tough now, does it?
Make the jump to read a few stories regarding the issue of having a name (not) fitting to the genre you’ve found yourself in.
Stage name, of course, are nothing new, and they are really common. In fact, they’re more common than people not using them, especially in the movie industry. When it comes to metal and rock, it differs mostly on the style of the bands, if they’re there just to play good music and keep it to themselves, they mostly don’t give a shit. On the other hand, you have bands like Motley Crue (hint: Nikki Sixx is a stage name) and Guns N’ Roses (Axl Rose, how convenient the band shares a similar name).
I just picked a few examples I found interesting — this is not a Top 10 or Top 5 (literally, I was full of ideas, I only have four) of funny or ridiculous names, just a few examples of stage name practices. If you think you know better, leave me a comment and I’ll use your idea in a future article. I’ll just make it more awesome.
Vinnie Vincent (born Vincent John Cusano) was a guitar player that replaced Ace Frehley during the original (makeup) run of Kiss. You might (or most likely might not) remember him as “The Wiz.” His stage name came to be after Genne Simmons vetoed the use of his original name, because “it sounded like a fruit vendor.” He keeps it as his professional stage name to this day.
Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara) is another (though more widely known performer, and it’s more widely known it’s not a real name) who took a stage name, but the thing some might not know is that it was mostly to conceal his ethnic background (he was born in Zanzibar of Parsi parents).
Jacoby Shaddix (born Jacoby Dakota Shaddix) is the singer for Papa Roach. And no, I’m not fucking around, his real name is Jacoby Shaddix. I always thought he had changed it when he put on his wigger persona. “Yo it’s Jacobeee, ‘sup Shaddix dawg.” Not as awesome as Chevy Chase and Jack Black (actually not awesome at all, just fitting), but it came as a surprise to me. And a trivia inside trivia (Inception style, bitches): he actually used Coby Dick as a pseudonym before 2001, which makes my original premise flawed before they didn’t drop the rapping for a year or two after that, but who gives a shit, it’s just Papa Roach.
The entire black metal scene. Why would anyone want to have a decent name like Varg Vikernes, when he can have an “awesome” name like Count Grishnackh? That’s a genuine question. By the way I got more info on that one, I got educated myself by fellow editor Guido. I’ve called him a walking metal encyclopedia before, and he proved the title. Varg Vikernes was born Kristian Larsson Vikernes, and Varg means wolf, which was also the codename for Adolf Hitler. Another trivia inside of trivia (inside of a trivia).
