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BIOGRAPHY-DJ Ashba was born in Monticello Indiana on the early Friday morning of November 10th. At age 1, The Ashba family moved to Fairbury Illinois, a small country farm town, raised by his mother, a classical pianist, who taught DJ about music at a young age .He was instantly obsessed with it. DJ started playing piano at age 3 and played his first recital at 5, performing Beethoven’s classic “Ode to Joy.” By age 6, he was studying drums, banging on garbage cans, pots, pans, buckets and anything he could get his hands on. Finally getting a real set, he studied rhythm. At age 8, DJ worked detasseling corn in the fields for one year until he was able to buy his first electric guitar out of the Sears catalog. The Harmony white Flying V was priced at $89.00. As he rode on the bus to the corn fields each day, he sat with a friend he made, an older guitar player from a local band. DJ would take his pocket knife and carve a fret board on the seat in front of them. His buddy would take the knife, poke 3 holes, and say “That’s an A chord,” go home and practice that tonight. Everyday DJ looked forward to going to work so he could learn a new chord. DJ grew up in a 8 bedroom house with no TV, due to his religious mother. He would sit in his room and practice his new guitar 17 hours a day. At 16, he was taken to his first concert by his dad—the Mötley Crüe “Girls, Girls, Girls” tour. It was the night that changed his life forever. By 19, he packed his possessions in a van and drove to Hollywood, joining a band called Barracuda. As a solo artist, he released his first instrumental album, ASHBA: Addiction to the Friction, and earned six Best Guitar Player awards. DJ Ashba co-founded the band Beautiful Creatures, landing a major label deal with Warner Bros. Writing all the music, his song, “Ride” ended up in the major motion picture Rollerball, while “Wasted” appeared in Valentine and “1 a.m.” was used in the TV show Smallville and on Howard Stern. Beautiful Creatures opened for KISS on their farewell concert jaunt, then went on to perform on Ozzfest 2001, played with Marilyn Manson and toured Japan. The video for “Wasted” was featured on MTV and the band performed a full concert for HBO’s Reverb. The band also made appearances on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn with Knock-Turn-Al as well as memorable performances at Sundance Film Festival and Denver’s Mile High Stadium. DJ Ashba is endorsed by over 15 major music companies. He has toured the world, blowing away audiences with his out-of-control stage performances. DJ has appeared in Rolling Stone and numerous other world-wide ads and videos. Ashba eventually teamed up with Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, opening an amazing, state of the art recording facility called Funny Farm Studios, were they have written and produced songs for many platinum recording artists. His latest project with Nikki is writing, producing and performing on the soundtrack to Sixx’s biography, The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star, which also includes producer/songwriter James Michael. Together, Sixx, Ashba and Michael make up Sixx:A.M. creating the sonic diary to the book. Ashba contributes fiery guitar solos that fuel such songs as “Accidents Can Happen” and “Dead Man’s Ballet.” “After reading the book, I was so intrigued and inspired, I thought to myself, this is such an amazing story, with such an important message. “I’ve lost so many close friends in the music business to drugs, I felt I had a lot to add to this musical journey.” “We dug so hard-core into the book,” he explains. “I constantly probed Nikki’s mind about heroin and addiction. I really wanted to get a good feel on how to bring this book to life, musically. When I listen to the album now, it gives me chills, but at the time, I was in such a zone. I just tried to be as honest and true to the book as I could be. “I’m so proud to be a part of,” he admitted. “It never entered our minds it would turn out to be a band situation. But everything good that happens in life happens naturally, just like this did. The magic is so amazing between the three of us, this will be one of many albums to come. What I love about this is there are no limits, no rules. We’re putting our hearts out there, and people are responding to it.” “While writing this, we didn’t think about radio,” he said. “It wasn’t about being in a band… it was all done for the song, the story and the message, and that’s why the final product is the way it is. Working with these two guys is a dream come true.”
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ADRIANA SASSOON 