Benjamin Burnley

Benjamin Burnley

Benjamin Jackson Burnley (born March 10, 1978 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) is the vocalist and guitarist for the band Breaking Benjamin. Ben taught himself to play guitar by listening to Nirvana's Nevermind. Before Breaking Benjamin was formed, Ben had earned money by playing cover songs in various coffee houses as a solo artist under the name "Benjamin".

Burnley and Jeremy Hummel were in bands together since high school. Aaron Fink and Mark Klepaski left their band Lifer and joined them in Breaking Benjamin in late 2001 and they were signed by Hollywood Records.

Ben is also a self admitted hardcore gamer. He has stated in an interview that he has a backup Xbox in case the other one "goes down". Ben also wrote a song entitled "Blow Me Away" for Bungie's Halo 2, which is featured on the game's soundtrack and in gameplay.

Ben's bandmates have poked fun at how he will wake up screaming in the middle of the night due to nightmares. In a memorable interview Ben told a story about how he woke up in the middle of the night screaming "Oh my God, no!" and Mark screaming because Ben scared him. Ben later would joke saying "I sreamed, you screamed, we all scream for ice cream".

Ben has several phobias and has even said that the name of their 2006 release was named for that simple fact. His most well known fear is is fear of flying, thus the reason why Breaking Benjamin never tours outside of the U.S. and Canada. His other fears include getting sick, and driving, though there are many more that haven't yet reached the surface in an interview. He claims that he has these fears because he doesn't believe in a person's time to die. That they can prevent dying for as long as they possibly can. Thus the reason why he doesn't fly. He said he wouldn't even ride in a car if it wasn't so necessary.