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 his own name "Benjamin". He later came up with the bands name "Breaking Benjamin" after doing a performance of a Nirvana cover he threw the mic' to the ground. The club owner came on stage and said "Thanks Benjamin for breaking my fucking mic' !". Ben's previous bands were Epoch and Plan 9.

Contents

Breaking Benjamin

Video Games

Nightmares and phobias

Trivia

Breaking Benjamin

Burnley and Jeremy Hummel were in bands together since high school. They formed Breaking Benjamin, briefly called Plan 9, with bassist Bug. Bug would later be replaced by Mark James Klepaski. Aaron Fink and Mark Klepaski left their band Lifer and joined Breaking Benjamin in late 2001 and they were signed by Hollywood Records. After the release of their first two albums ''Saturate'' and ''We Are Not Alone'', Jeremy Hummel would be replaced by Chad Szeliga. In 2001, Breaking Benjamin had played gigs around home town Wilkes-Barre, which caught local Dj Freddie Fabbri's attention, who was an on-air personality at alterna-rock station (WBSX-FM). Fabbri put their song "Polyamorous" in rotation, and he also financed the recording of their self-titled debut EP- which, ended up selling approximately 2,000 copies throughtout Wilkes-Barre.

Video Games

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". He is a big fan of the Hitman videogame series. 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 interview with Jane talks about how Benjamin enjoys the thought of being in another world where there are no rules or boundaries and you can basically do whatever you want to do.

Nightmares and phobias

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 screamed, you screamed, we all scream for ice cream".[1]
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 his fear of flying, thus the reason why Breaking Benjamin never tours outside of the U.S. and Canada. His other fears include getting sick, driving, and cats (the reason for this being that his cat bit him as he was walking), although 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. He wants to prevent dying for as long as he possibly can, which is why he doesn't fly. He said he wouldn't even ride in a car if it wasn't so necessary. He has claimed he will go as far as a ship can take him though. In the intro for Phobia, you can hear airplanes taking off and a woman's voice talking through a microphone like heard in airports. This could be a reference to his fear of flying.
On the sophmore album We Are Not Alone, the song "Break My Fall" you can hear an airline pilot's messages dubbed over the song saying "Mayday, mayday. Request permission to land. I cannot control the plane. We're in danger of crashing."

Trivia

★ Ben is 6 feet 3 inches tall.

★ Ben once sung the National Anthem at the first Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees game in April 2007 at PNC Field.

★ The movie "28 Days Later" was an inspiration for Ben to write "So Cold".

★ In an interview, Ben told a story about a fan who stole his garbage. "A fan stole my garbage once. Yeah, I was smoking a cigarette on stage and I threw it on the ground and stepped on it and a girl picked it up and wiped it in some of my spit and wrapped it in cellophane and put it in her pocket. Yeah, that's freakin' gross!"

★ Ben is known for belching onstage during songs.

★ Former drummer Jeremy Hummel sued Ben Burnley because Jeremy says he wasn't credited for the former songs that he helped Ben write, which was a little road block for the band at the time.

★ Ben Burnley had his tongue pierced, and has approximately 10 tattoos. He recently got Superman on his calf.

★ Ben has been clean and sober for 7 months.

★ His favorite place to perform besides his hometown in Pennsylvania, is St. Louis, Missouri. He recently stated he puts a smiley face next to St. Louis concert dates because of the fan support Breaking Benjamin receives from St. Louis.

★ He can be seen on Evanescence's "Anywhere But Home" DVD singing karoake with Shaun Morgan.