Andrew Stockdale
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Andrew Stockdale (born July 20, 1976) is the lead singer and guitarist of crappy Australian band Wolfmother. He has said that he is influenced by such 1960s/1970s hard rock guitarists as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore and Tony Iommi.
Life
Stockdale was educated in Brisbane, Australia, and lived in Ashgrove as a child. While first starting Wolfmother, Stockdale was homeless [1] in Sydney after experiencing poverty as an adult. A number of songs by Wolfmother have subsequently discussed homelessness, such as "White Unicorn" and "Vagabond".
Stockdale is known for his trademark afro-esque hairstyle, his falsetto voice, and wild stage antics.[original research?] While unmarried, he and his girlfriend gave birth to the couple's daughter, Juniper, in February 2006.[citation needed] He has been romantically linked to Ellen de Vries.[citation needed]
Rent dispute
In March of 2007, Stockdale became involved in a legal dispute with his Bel Air, California landlord over a undisclosed amount of due rent which he had neglected to pay while on world tour. While discussing Wolfmother's next album during a press conference, a reporter asked Stockdale to comment on the matter, to which he replied; "The day after we won the Grammy, I got an email from the real estate agent saying the rent was late and to avoid being taken to the small claims court, 'Please direct debit your arrears.' I have to sort out this stuff. There isn't a personal assistant." According to several Hollywood insiders, it is unconfirmed but speculated that Stockdale was in a rent-to-own situation and will be going to court with his landlord within the next few months. The Enquirer tabloid would later go onto publish a full-length article on the issue, suggesting that Stockdale "go to debt managment classes."
Styles and method
Often called the leader of the "mid-2000's retro metal movement", Stockdale's influences are most commonly cited among late-sixties and early-seventies hard rock and heavy metal guitarist. Vocally compared to a "cross between Robert Plant and Ozzy Osbourne" by the All Music Guide, his guitar antics and stage persona are commonly traced to Led Zeppelin's Page, Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi and Osbourne and The Jimi Hendrix Experience's namesake, while his style can often be compared to progressive rockers Pink Floyd.
In an interview with Subculture Magazine in 2006, Stockdale discussed his love of The Beatles and their influence on the band's material, most notably in the debut album Wolfmother , which received comparisons to The Beatle's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in terms of psychedelic rock and radio-friendly hard rock.
In another interview with Guitar World magazine, Stockdale told an interviewer of his antics; ""I just call it rock and roll, and rock and roll is part of our culture in Western civilization?we don't have anything else... It's not like we're Greeks and we play the pan flute and dance around in fucking leotards and do a do-se-do. This is Western civilization: we go to rock shows, we get drunk, we go to mosh pits, we try and get laid, we take drugs...or at least some people do." Later in the interview, Stockdale expressed his interest in taking "revenge on this alternative [rock] crap" for "knocking Michael Jackson off number one on the charts."
While accepting Wolfmother's first Grammy, Stockdale thanked fans, the United States and the Grammy judges for "taking a chance" on Wolfmother.
Equipment
As the lead guitarist of Wolfmother, Stockdale plays Gibson guitars, primarily a SG 60's reissue standard with a Bigsby trembolo. Other times he uses a Gibson Dot Studio ES-335, a white Gibson Flying V and an alpine white Gibson EDS-1275 with golden hardware. For the recording of the Wolfmother album he used a borrowed Gibson ES-355 through a 60's Marshall. When playing live, he uses Orange amplifiers and cabinets, lately seen in an Orange advertisement with an Orange AD30 and Thunderverb 200 and PCC412 cabinets.
References
- ^ Browne, Sally, "On Wolf Patrol", The Courier Mail, 23 April, 2006.