Kenny Hickey

Kenny Hickey
Hickey in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Kenneth Shaun Hickey
Born	(1966-05-22) May 22, 1966 New York City, U.S.
Genres	Heavy metal, gothic metal, doom metal
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter
Instrument(s)	Guitar, vocals
Years active	1989–present
Member of	Silvertomb, Eye Am
Formerly of	Type O Negative, Danzig, Seventh Void

Kenneth Shaun Hickey (born May 22, 1966) is an American musician. He was the co-founder, guitarist, and backing and occasional co-lead vocalist of the gothic metal band Type O Negative, whom he played for from 1989 until the death of the band's frontman and bassist Peter Steele in 2010. He is currently the lead vocalist and guitarist for Silvertomb and was the co-founder of Seventh Void. All three bands featured fellow Type O Negative member Johnny Kelly on drums. Hickey is also an occasional touring guitarist for Danzig.

Early career

Hickey was born in New York City in 1966 and was raised in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn, New York. As a youngster he listened to his father's records of Johnny Cash and was diverted into rock and roll after Elton John's album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. He was asked to join Type O Negative after former Carnivore guitarist Marc Piovanetti declined. Hickey was a childhood friend of the band, growing up in the same neighborhood as the band members. Hickey graduated from Xaverian High School in 1984. He has been on every Type O Negative release with fellow members Peter Steele and Josh Silver (Johnny Kelly joined in 1994).

Guitars and amplifiers

Hickey circa 1997

In the early days of Type O Negative, Hickey could be seen playing a black Gibson Flying V. He played this for the music video of "Christian Woman." He then switched to a black Gibson SG, to which he added green accessories (knobs and pickups and a green painted fretboard), and would continue to follow this trend. Starting in 1996, he used Fernandes Guitars, starting with a Raven Elite Sustainer and Revolver Sustainer with the green additions like his previous SG. He would use this for over half a decade. He would always use the Raven live, but as seen on the music video for "I Don't Wanna Be Me", he could be seen using a Monterey Deluxe (without EMGs) in satin black, with a green fingerboard. In 2007, he began using Schecter guitars, most prominently a green C-1 Baritone. Unlike his previous guitars, this has true green inlays, exposed pickups (A Seymour Duncan SH-4 "JB" bridge, and a Sustainiac neck pickup), and the body, including the headstock, the back of the headstock and the back of the neck is entirely green. All Hickey's guitars have invariably been tuned to B Standard throughout his career.

Hickey's early rig (before World Coming Down) consisted of ADA MP-1 & MP-2 preamps or a Marshall JMP-1 with an Alesis Quadraverb running into Marshall 9005 and/or Mosvalve 500 power amps, which were run into one or more Marshall 4x12s w/ G12-75 speakers. During the recording of World Coming Down, Hickey used a Mesa/Boogie dual rectifier, and still uses it, along with a Mesa Boogie Mark IV, as a backup. His main setup consists of a Mesa Boogie TriAxis preamp and TC Electronics G-Force effects processor being sent to a Mesa Boogie Simul-Class 2: Ninety power amp into one or more Mesa Boogie 4x12 cabinets. In the early days he may have used Dean Markley 10–52 gauged strings for B tuning. Today he uses Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky 12–56.

While performing with Seventh Void, he could be seen using Mesa/Boogie dual rectifiers and Schecter Solo-6 guitars in either a black finish (seen in the music video for "Last Walk In The Light"), or Sunburst (seen in the music video for "Heaven is Gone").

In late 2012, Schecter announced an artist model based on his custom baritone he used near the end of his Type O Negative tenure.

Musical influences

In an interview with Loudwire, Hickey cited the image of Ace Frehley and his signature smoking guitar as one of his motivations to start playing the guitar. He also cited Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, T. Rex, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath as musical influences.

External links

• Official Type O Negative website
• Seventh Void MySpace profile