| Artist: Rozz Williams |
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| Discography: Rozz Williams |
| Wikipedia: Rozz Williams |
| Rozz Williams | |
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 Rozz Williams on a Christian Death poster.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Roger Alan Painter |
| Also known as | Rozz Williams |
| Born | November 6, 1963 Pomona, California, U.S. |
| Died | April 1, 1998 (aged 34) West Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Deathrock Dark Cabaret industrial Spoken-word Performance-art |
| Occupations | Musician Songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1979-1998 |
| Labels | Cleopatra Records Frontier Records Triple X Records Hollows Hill Sound Recordings |
| Associated acts | Christian Death Shadow Project Premature Ejaculation Daucus Karota Heltir Exp |
| Website | www.rozznet.com |
Rozz Williams (born Roger Alan Painter November 6, 1963 – April 1, 1998) was an American musician of several varieties vocalist, most famous for fronting the bands Christian Death and Shadow Project, the latter with musician Eva O though his main project throughout his career was the industrial, Premature Ejaculation. He is also cited by some as a pioneer of deathrock.
Other musical projects he was involved in include Daucus Karota, Heltir, Exp and Premature Ejaculation. Williams also recorded several solo albums.
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Williams was born Roger Alan Painter in Pomona, California, and was raised in a strict Southern Baptist family with his three older siblings (two brothers and one sister).
As a child, he was a fan of David Bowie, Roxy Music, T.Rex, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, and The New York Dolls. When he reached adolescence in the late 1970s, he became attracted to the punk rock music scene.
By the age of 16 he began performing in bands. He took the name of Rozz Williams from a gravestone he found in a Pomona cemetery. His first bands were called The Crawlers, No, then later The Upsetters. He sang and played the guitar, though the band never performed on stage. He then went on to form The Asexuals. In addition to being the lead vocalist, he played the organ and guitar, with Jill Emery also contributing vocals as well as playing bass, and Steve Darrow on drums. Their performances were limited to a few parties.
He then sang in a band called Daucus Karota with Mary Torciva on percussion and Jay on guitar. Jay and Williams then went on to form Christian Death in late 1979 with James McGearty and George Belanger. The name "Christian Death" was a play on words of the fashion designer Christian Dior. The band broke up temporarily in 1981, and Williams formed Premature Ejaculation with performance artist Ron Athey, with whom he had been living. After only a few live performances, including one which involved Athey eating a crucified road-kill cat, clubs began refusing to book them.
Williams then restarted Christian Death in the summer of 1981 with McGearty and Belanger, who also brought in guitarist Rikk Agnew, who had previously been with The Adolescents. Agnew and Belanger left the group in 1982, with guitarist Eva Ortiz and drummer Rod China Figueroa stepping in as replacements for live performances. By the end of the year the band had broken up once again due to drug problems.
In 1983, Williams formed a new band under the Christian Death name, this time with former members of Pompeii 99, with whom Christian Death had performed at a live show the previous year. The new lineup consisted of Williams as frontman, Valor Kand on guitars, Gitane Demone on keyboards and providing backing vocals, Constance Smith on bass and David Glass on drums. Williams had been the only original member of Christian Death left when he departed the group in 1985, yet the remaining members continued to perform and release several albums under the original group name. The latter is commonly called Valor's Christian Death by Rozz's supporters since it was fronted by Valor Kand.
Williams released various material under different project names following his departure from the band; the first was Premature Ejaculation with Ron Athey, and then Shadow Project with Eva O, whom he married in San Francisco in 1987. The band lineup included Johann Schumann (bass) and also Barry Galvin and David Glass, both of who came from Valor's Christian Death. The name Shadow Project, was taken from the tests in Hiroshima following the nuclear bomb which left impressions or ‘shadows’, but no bodies.
Later on, Williams reformed Shadow Project with Eva O, Jill Emery (bass), Tom Morgan (drums), and Paris (keyboards). At the time, Rozz was increasingly falling under the influence of the philosophy of Charles Manson.
Williams also occasionally took part in Christian Death reunions during the late 1980s and early 1990s with Rikk Agnew, the guitarist on the band's first album. Williams and Eva O also released two new albums under the name Christian Death during the 1990s through Cleopatra Records, resulting in two bands being called Christian Death. Valor Kand had since acquired the legal rights to the band name, and for this reason Cleopatra was forced to release Rozz's albums as Christian Death featuring Rozz Williams.
In the summer of 1993, Shadow Project toured America. The band consisted of Williams, Eva, Paris, Mark Barone (bass) and Christian Omar Madrigal Izzo (drums). After this American tour, Eva O and Paris left the band to work on the Eva O Halo Experience CD Demons Fall for an Angel's Kiss. Shadow Project had come to an end; however a German tour for October had already been booked. Although all tickets, flyers and publicity for this tour would show Shadow Project, Williams had decided that the band name should change to Daucus Karota. He sang on the tour, Brian Butler was the guitarist, Mark Barone played bass and Christian Omar Madrigal Izzo was on drums. For one show Gitane Demone drove from her home in Amsterdam to Germany to meet up with Williams backstage. The Shrine EP by Daucus Karota was recorded in January 1994 with Mark Barone (bass), Chistian Omar Madrigal Izzo (drums) and Roxy (guitars). Daucus Karota returned to Europe for a month long European tour in November 1994, with Gitane Demone filling the support slot. The tour had Todd Dixon on drums, Mike Saavedra from Anal Kitties on bass and Brian Hansen on guitar. Brian had replaced Rolf Donath, who had been the guitarist for the band at shows in Los Angeles and Mexico during that summer.
In 1995, following his return from Europe, Williams joined forces with Paris and Ryan Wildstar to work on the spoken-word album, The Whorse's Mouth. The lyrics, co-written with Ryan Wildstar, chronicle a period of heroin addiction from which the two eventually escaped. Shortly following the recording of The Whorse's Mouth, Williams began playing bass for EXP, the musical troupe created by Paris and Ryan Wildstar. He went on to play bass on their self-titled debut album with fellow bandmates Paris (keyboards), Ryan Wildstar (vocals), Doriandra (vocals), Ace Farren Ford (horns/violin), Justin Bennett (drums) and Ignacio Segovia (percussion).
Just a year before his death, Williams again paired up with Eva O to record the final Shadow Project album, From the Heart, an extremely intimate album with a notably stripped-down sound for the duo. He also recorded Wound of Exit, his last solo CD as Premature Ejaculation.
In addition to his musical activities Rozz had a keen interest in painting, and several of his pieces have been exhibited. His attempts at establishing an acting career were less successful, Williams having become discouraged after being rejected for the part of Pennywise in the film adaptation of Stephen King's It.
On April 1, 1998, Williams hanged himself in his West Hollywood apartment. He was found by Ryan Wildstar, his roommate of seven years. Williams was 34. A memorial was held at the El Rey Theatre shortly after his death, and a small gathering of family and friends offered his ashes to the earth at Runyon Canyon Park in the Hollywood Hills.
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