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| Birth Name(s) : Brad Wilk |
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Full Brad Wilk Biography
Brad Wilk (born September 5, 1968 in Portland, Oregon) is an American drummer, famous for being the drummer in Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave.
In late 2005, Brad Wilk married his girlfriend of 10 years Selene Vigil. The low-key wedding ceremony took place on the 10th of December at Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe with only family in attendance. They have one child, Luca. Vigil, lead singer of girl band Seven Year Bitch, was a punk icon throughout the 90s and has appeared in several films as well as cult grunge documentary “Hype!”. Seven Year Bitch released their major label debut “Gato Negro” in 1996 but ended up calling it quits soon after.
Brad's success as the drummer of Rage Against the Machine came from the failure of a different band; he once auditioned for a band called Lock Up, who released one album (titled Something Bitchin' This Way Comes) through Geffen records in 1989 and broke up when the album received little media attention upon release. Former Lock Up guitarist Tom Morello was looking to pick up where Lock Up left off and start a new band, and called up Brad to see if he was interested in playing the drums. A short while after, the duo met Zack de la Rocha, a rapper, and through de la Rocha met bassist Tim Commerford (a childhood friend of Zack's) and Rage Against the Machine was born. After frequenting the L.A. club circuit, Rage signed a record deal with Epic Records in 1992, that same year RATM released their self titled debut. They achieved a phenomenal amount of mainstream success and released three more studio albums.
An announcement was made on January 22 that all original members of Rage Against the Machine would be re-forming to perform a show at the 2007 Coachella festival on April 29th, 2007. Originally thought of as a one-off show, the band later played four shows in the Hip Hop festival Rock the Bells with the Wu Tang Clan, Public Enemy and Cypress Hill, and later an additional night in New York City after the first night sold out in twenty minutes. Rage also played their first (non-festival) concert in 7 years at the Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, Wisconsin, supported by Queens of the Stone Age in August 2007. It is unknown whether Rage Against the Machine has reformed officially, but they have planned more live events co-headlining spots at New Orleans' Voodoo Music Experience in late October and the Vegoose festival which runs from October 26–28 in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. It was later announced that the band will play two shows in Australia in January 2008. The concerts, in Sydney at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on January 22 and Melbourne at Festival Hall on January 30 respectively, sold out in under 3 minutes, making this a record for the band. It was also announced that Rage will be co-headling all of the Big Day Out venues in Australia and New Zealand along with Bjork and Arcade Fire.
By May 2001, they had began to work in the studio, writing their first song “Light My Way”. By April of 2002, the newly formed band had split due to “outside” pressures, mainly from management companies. They soon got back together though, and on November 19, 2002 they released their eponymous debut, which would attain triple platinum status. Audioslave attained a large amount of success, and released another two studio albums. On May 5, 2005 Brad & Audioslave played a free concert in front of 65,000 Cuban fans, becoming the first American rock band to play a concert within Cuba.
On February 15, 2007, Chris Cornell officially announced his departure from Audioslave, leaving the band's future in question.
Wilk and bandmate Tom Morello joined with Maynard James Keenan of Tool and Billy Gould of Faith No More to record the song "Calling Dr Love" for the 1994 Kiss tribute album Kiss My Ass. The lineup was billed as Shandi's Addiction.
Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford have also been listed as contributing artists in Keenan’s side project Puscifer. The extent of Brad’s contributions are unknown thus far.
In addition, Brad composed the song "Snoop Bounce (Roc N Roll Remix)" for Snoop Dogg's Death Row's Greatest Hits CD.
The following are the Drumkits used by Brad Wilk during his musical career:
- Rage Against the Machine (1991-2000) era:
- Premier Signia Marquis Drums and Zildjian Cymbals
- 12x9" Tom
- 16x16" Floor Tom
- 14x6.5 Premier Pork Pie or Tama Bell Brass Snare
- 22"x18" Bass Drum
- 14" New Beat Hi-Hats
- 18" Z Custom Crash
- 19" A Custom Crash
- 20" A Medium Ride
- 18" Zildjian China or 19" Zildjian Crash (Only used until 1995)
- LP Cowbell (x2)
- Audioslave (2001-2007) era:
- Gretsch Custom Drums and Paiste Cymbals
- 12x9" Tom
- 16x16" Floor Tom
- 18x16" Floor Tom
- 14x6.5" Tama Bell Brass Snare
- 22"x18" Bass Drum
- 14" Paiste Signature Sound Edge Hi-Hats
- 18" Paiste Signature Power Crash
- 19" Paiste Signature Power Crash
- 19" Dimensions Power Crash
- 22" Paiste 2002 Ride
- LP Cowbell
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- Brad Wilk also uses DW Hardware (9000 Series), Remo drum skins (Emperors & Ambassadors) and Vic Firth 5B sticks (hickory with wood tips).
Studio albums:
- 1. Rage Against the Machine (November 3, 1992)
- 2. Evil Empire (April 16, 1996)
- 3. The Battle of Los Angeles (November 2, 1999)
- 4. Renegades (December 5, 2000)
- 1. Audioslave (November 19, 2002) Epic
- 2. Out of Exile (May 24, 2005) Interscope
- 3. Revelations (September 5, 2006) Epic |
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