Catching Up With...HIM

The band's eyeliner wearing, heartogram sporting lead singer talks to OK! about getting clean, being TV stars and, oh yeah, musicians.

What’s it like on the road?

I used to be the hell raiser but things have settled down. I had to go to rehab a few months ago. I was a heavy drinker. I love working with music in general. There was so many things going on. I had a case of heart break. I'm now six months sober. I mended my pain with alcohol.

What inspires your music?

Well the boring answer is life in general. We are blessed in a way that we get to meet a lot of people and on tour you suck in all the info and when come home you purge it into the music. I'm like a sponge for ideas. Bit by but like a puzzle it becomes the song. It’s a long journey, very rarely sit down and write a song. Some pieces of the puzzle don’t find their companion. It takes time to realize the connection.

How has been featured so predominately on MTV changed your career?

The good thing about the Bam Margera thing was the fact that he was a big fan and bought the album from a cd store. After he watched that gig he knocked on the dressing room door and that’s how we met, we weren’t introduced by industry people and he wanted to direct a video. We didn’t know how big Jackass was in the states.

How would you describe your music?

We've been describing the genre as love metal. I'm a big fans of ballads and stuff like that and we wanted to incorporate that to all kinds of emotions. So it just felt good to sing songs with balls but balls that are soft.

What's it like being in a band with these guys for so many years?

We're such good old friends everybody knows each other inside and out.

By Jocelyn Vena