Daren Jay "DJ" Ashba (born November 10, 1972) is an American musician, producer, songwriter and CEO of Ashba Media. He is the lead guitarist in Guns N' Roses and Sixx:A.M. He is also known for his work with hard rock bands BulletBoys and Beautiful Creatures. Ashba has worked with various artists including Mötley Crüe, Drowning Pool, Marion Raven, Aimee Allen and Neil Diamond.
Ashba was born in Monticello, Indiana and was raised in rural Fairbury, Illinois by his religious single-mother, a classically trained pianist, who began teaching him about music as a toddler. Dj performed in his first piano recital at the age of five, where he played Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” Ashba’s next ambition was to learn the drums. He built kits out of garbage cans and pots and pans, until he finally acquired a real set at the age of six. When he was eight, Dj took a job detasseling corn in the fields in order to earn enough money to buy his first guitar out of the Sears catalog. He would ride to his job in the corn fields on the bus with a guitar player from a local band, who would teach him a new chord each day on a “fret” that they had carved into the back of a bus seat with a pocketknife. His friend would take the knife and make three holes in the fret and say, “That’s an A chord, go home and practice.” Dj sometimes spent 17 hours a day practicing guitar in his bedroom as a teenager. For his 16th birthday, Ashba’s father took him to his first concert, the Mötley Crüe Girls, Girls, Girls tour and his life was forever changed. “The crowd, the music, the lights! It was the night I realized that no matter what it takes, I was gonna be on that stage one day.” At the age of 19, Dj packed up his possessions and set out for Hollywood to make it as a rockstar.
W. Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose, Jr.; raised as William Bruce Bailey; February 6, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is the lead vocalist and only remaining original member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he enjoyed great success and recognition in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before disappearing from the public eye for several years. In 2001, he resurfaced with a new line-up of Guns N' Roses at Rock in Rio 3, and subsequently played periodic concert tours, before releasing the long-delayed album Chinese Democracy in 2008. Rose has been named one of the greatest singers of all time by various media outlets, including Rolling Stone and NME.
Rose was born William Bruce Rose, Jr. in Lafayette, Indiana, the oldest child of Sharon E. (née Lintner), then 16 years old, and William Bruce Rose, then 20 years old. When Rose was two years old, his father abandoned the family. His mother remarried to Stephen L. Bailey, and his name was changed to William Bruce Bailey. He has two younger siblings—a sister, Amy, and a half-brother, Stuart. Until the age of 17, Rose believed that Bailey was his real father. He never met his biological father as an adult; William Rose, Sr. was found murdered in Illinois in 1984.
James Andrew Michael (born September 26, 1968) is an American record producer, songwriter, engineer, mixer, vocalist and musician. He is currently the lead singer of the rock band Sixx:A.M.
Michael's actual given name was James Michel, but he changed the spelling of his surname to Michael so people would not mispronounce it.[citation needed] He took piano lessons while growing up and sang in Holland High School's show choir, Vocal Dimensions. As a teen he played in different local rock bands including The Way We Dress and Night Shift. In the late 80's, he moved to LA.
James Michael has worked as a record producer, songwriter and/or engineer/mixer with many recording artists including Alanis Morissette, Meat Loaf, Mötley Crüe, Scorpions, Hilary Duff, The Rasmus, Papa Roach, Trapt, American Bang, Saliva, The Exies, Deana Carter, Sammy Hagar, Lillix, Sarah Kelly, Taylor Momsen, Halestorm, Jack's Mannequin, Brides of Destruction and Marion Raven.
He is a band member of Sixx:A.M. side project with bandmates Nikki Sixx and DJ Ashba. He is the lead vocalist, songwriter and co-writer, co-producer, mixer and multi-instrumentalist on the album The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack. He put out his first solo album in 2000 entitled "Inhale". Michael wrote and mixed the entire album and often played all of the instruments, with the exception of a few guest artists. He released the song "Los Angeloser" on May 7, 2009 on MySpace.
Steel Panther is a band from Los Angeles, California mostly known for their profane and humorous lyrics as well as their exaggerated on-stage personas that reimagine and parody the glam metal music and lifestyle of the 1980s. Formed in 2000, the band has formerly been known as Danger Kitty, Metal Shop and Metal Skool. Steel Panther is one of the most popular bands out of Hollywood since Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses and Poison were the main focus the Sunset Strip in the mid to late 1980's. Arriving in 2009 with debut album Feel The Steel, hailed by Kerrang! magazine as “close to perfect”, Steel Panther has won a legion of fans across the world. And now the band is aiming even higher with second album Balls Out.
The band broke through the mainstream success with their 2009 album Feel the Steel, especially with the single "Death to All but Metal". "The Aldo Nova song "Fantasy" was remade by the band into a faster paced song for the MTV original series Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory. The remake was released on iTunes on December 8, 2009 and their album Feel the Steel was released in June 2009.