Who is shady jeff from hollywood undead

The usual Internet urban legend is that it started with just Jorel and Aron. Were you and Matt also founding members, or did you join afterwards?

We were just like, picking up shit off the ground, you know, a fucking Del Taco bag, come on. We were just messing around. It was me, Jorel, and Aron. Shady Jeff: Yeah, actually I did notice that, that they did leave my vocal tracks on several songs. I was on, of the 8 or like 9 songs when I left I think, maybe 12 songs when I left. The original 8 songs, you remember the original 8, you know I was a part of, the darker stuff, early stuff.

Of those, I was on more tracks than anyone but Aron at one point, but when I left they wiped me. It was interesting. I was on a bunch of a tracks back then, but then they got rid of it. There was the original video too, with me in it. That was a funny video we made for zero dollars, and it was good times. Shady Jeff: Aron and Jorel went to Full Sail Academy or something, some recording school and they had just finished it and they were just like recording some goofy shit. I was there, and I was in like dozens of bands growing up.

So they just made those tracks and it just happened, put up the MySpace, put pictures up and immediately just exploded. The Tila and the Jeffree Star, and that whole stuff came way later. There was a natural explosion that that shit had when we put it in.

We were the number one band on MySpace for years and years, and then like top 5 for years and years. That shit blew up. I ended up going to one of their first shows up in Ventura County. It was like somewhere, San Luis Obispo or something. It was their first show, oh my god it was bad, but then I saw them after they got a world tour.

They were fucking pros. They were really good, I was very fucking surprised, very surprised how good they got, and THEN they got Danny, and then they got even better because Aron really was an embarrassment.

He was holding the band back. Shady Jeff: Yeah, first time we were all on stage. First and last haha. First and last all seven members were ever on stage. Shady Jeff: Maybe, I guess in the music video we were kind of on stage. In Hollywood, on the street. I mean it was like a small stage. I got a crazy story about that. This was pretty close to the time I left, because this was a big mess that happened that really pissed me off. There was the MySpace event.

The boys all got, we all got like wasted that day. So we got raging, and we got there and they had like booze for us in the tent, and we drank all of that, and then the event happened, and then I bounced. Then the other guys stuck around, and they went into the other tents of the artists and drank all their fucking booze. There was almost a massive brawl between Hollywood Undead, and I think it was Dashboard Confessional We all ran out of that money within a week of each either.

I thought I was gonna be a fucking rockstar? So it's a rough life, but when you have seven dudes all with very intense personalities and shit just goes crazy it's hard, the life is hard sometimes, musician life and all that shit. They got bounced around labels and stuff. It was really rough, and everyone was fighting with each other.

You know, it's crazy, that kind of situation with money and with a band getting serious and all that causes lots of drama and craziness. Elementary school and reality tv shows give us really shitty communication skills, and it makes us really competitive, and it's crazy that bands stay together as long as they do. Shady Jeff: I was thinking of doing music again, but I was really over it. For the people that are unaware of this, can you tell us the real reason why you and HU parted ways, and the whole bullshit with Aron?

They should be, I think they are I was just like chilling, and I get this call. So, Aron like threw a temper tantrum and got ahold of any random reporter he could of got. He must of co-wrote the article with him because it was complete crap. He just lost his shit, he got what deserved a thousand times over. He did, he kicked himself out of the band. You already know what the story was. Shady Jeff: Fans? The band blowing up was pretty surreal. I flew to Miami, and went to some festival and saw kids that had like made Hollywood Undead shirts.

Those dudes, who were fucking nowhere, and now they have million views on one of their videos on fucking YouTube.

It was super fun, that was just always weird. We were wearing masks too. Those dudes, any chance they had to have their masks off, their masks were off. I was hiding all the time. Kids would know-knew just by like my tattoos or whatever, it was crazy.

The whole thing was just such a strange occurrence. No band had ever gotten big without ever playing a show, or without ever rehearsing for a live show, all that stuff was nuts with MySpace. Tom had me do a bunch of interviews for MySpace music when that shit went off because it was absolutely revolutionary when it happened.

We were one of the biggest bands ever, just through putting up something on a website, it was nuts. Shady Jeff: Yeah, that was my idea! All that shit was my idea. The music video was pretty nuts. There was a lot of like 6-on-1, but I was managing shit and I was pretty integral person in the band during that era.

For a long time- everything was going fine but there was always a lot of 6-on-1 type shit, but the managers and the record labels and stuff, I had been dealing with them the most and I had really good ideas and stuff.

So for a while, everything was fine, but then it just got to a point where everyone ran out of money and everyone was fighting, it was just chaos kind of. Like I was talking about earlier, when they got in the fight with all those bands, and all those fucking promoters and shit at that show, I was pissed because this was a project I put a lot into and these dudes were just like fucking off with it and I was really mad. The next day, me and the current manager were like fucking screaming at those dudes, so pissed off.

So there was just a bunch of shit, everyone got a little nutty, everyone got a little rock star, everyone got a little too crazy, a little too early. I was just sick of taking care of all of them, sick of being the dad, and it just stopped.

Shit went South, shit hit the fan. Then obviously when HU happened, it was the perfect stage name for HU. It was funny because I had gotten sick of it and kind of got rid of it, because it was funny for a while but then it got to be annoying, but then when Hollywood Undead came through it was like solidified for the rest of my fucking life.

Definitely check out my YouTube. Shady Jeff: Nope. Definitely not. Shady Jeff: Tyler Shields was sleeping on my couch, in the house, that really dope photo of all of us on the couch, that was my place. Tyler was staying there, I was having him shoot a lot of the early HU stuff. Most of all those early iconic shots were Tyler Shields. I came around it, I had my girlfriend in the car, and it was wet, and I spun and went up on the curb and hit a fucking fire hydrant just like in the movies.

Fire hydrant flies off, geyser in the air.