Davey Havok - Biography

Biography

Havok was born as David Paden Passaro in Rochester, New York, and is of Italian ancestry. At the age of three, his father died, and when his mother later remarried, he took on the surname of his stepfather, Marchand. When Havok was six years old, he and his family moved from Rochester to Ukiah, California. There, Havok attended Catholic school until the eighth grade.

In high school one day, he and his friends Mark Stopholese and Vic Chalker decided to start a band, even though they did not own or play any instruments. Stopholese suggested that his friend Adam Carson join the band as a drummer, because he knew Carson owned a drum set. That band became AFI.

Shortly after high school, the band broke up and Havok moved to Berkeley, California, where he attended UC Berkeley, planning to double major in English and Psychology. He began constantly writing lyrics to songs that would eventually appear on the albums Answer That and Stay Fashionable and Very Proud of Ya.

AFI played at the Phoenix Theater for several hundred fans. Following the good reception from the fans, they decided to reunite and record an album. In 1995, the band's first album Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released on Wingnut Records and in 1996, their second album Very Proud of Ya was released on Nitro Records. In 1997, the band released their third full length album, Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes.

The next release was the A Fire Inside EP. It featured covers of The Cure's "The Hanging Garden", and "Demonomania" by The Misfits. In 1999, the band released Black Sails in the Sunset, which was the first album to include the current line-up: Havok, Carson, Hunter Burgan and Jade Puget. In the fall of 1999, they released the All Hallows EP.

In 2000, they released The Art of Drowning to fair record sales. The group had toured with another band, Samhain, on their reunion tour. Havok later joined three Samhain musicians, Steve Zing, London May and Todd Youth, and recorded an album in the vein of Samhain under the name Son of Sam, entitled Songs from the Earth. In 2000 when Michale Graves had left the Misfits, Havok was approached by Roadrunner Records to be the new lead singer of Misfits. However, Havok told an interviewer that he'd never leave AFI as it was his own band.

Following Davey's work with Son of Sam, AFI continued to tour for a few years and released a few EPs along the way. In 2003, the band's first major label release, Sing the Sorrow, was released, attaining great record sales.

On June 6, 2006, Decemberunderground was released on Interscope Records. Havok, along with AFI, toured around the world. Along with this concert series, AFI's first DVD, I Heard a Voice – Live from Long Beach Arena was released on December 12, 2006, containing the live concert from Long Beach Arena from September 15, 2006. This DVD was released as in CD version in November 2007.

Havok was voted the winner of peta2's annual World's Sexiest Vegetarian contest in 2007.

On August 14, 2007, Havok's electronic side project with AFI guitarist Jade Puget, Blaqk Audio, released their first album, entitled CexCells. Blaqk Audio went on a two month long American/Canadian tour following the release.

Havok and Jeffree Star modeled for Tarina Tarantino's jewelry line, Tokyo Hardcore in 2007.

In 2009, Havok joined sci-fi movie legend Lance Henriksen and horror movie icons Bill Moseley and Danielle Harris in the cast of the "illustrated film" series Godkiller. Havok voices the antagonist role, a fallen god named Dragos.

AFI's eighth studio album Crash Love was released on September 29, 2009.

For March 2011, Havok joined the cast of Green Day's American Idiot on Broadway, playing the role of St. Jimmy.

Havok is featured in at least one episode of Tim Armstrong's musical web series "Tim Timebomb's RockNRoll Theatre".

Havok was a presenter at the Mélange Fashion Show on August 6, 2011 in San Francisco. He was featured in the June 2012 issue of VAR Magazine. He was again voted the winner of peta2's Sexiest Vegetarian Celeb contest in 2012.

Blaqk Audio's release, Bright Black Heaven was released in September 2012.

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