Kenneth Shaun Hickey (born May 22, 1966) is an American musician. He was the guitarist, backing and occasional co-lead vocalist of the gothic metal band Type O Negative, whom he played for from 1989 until the death of the band's frontman and bassist Peter Steele in 2010. He is currently the lead vocalist and guitarist for the doom metal band Silvertomb and was the co-founder of the doom metal band Seventh Void. All three bands featured fellow Type O Negative member and close friend Johnny Kelly on drums. Hickey is also an occasional touring guitarist for the heavy metal band Danzig.

Early career

Hickey was born in New York City in 1966 and was raised in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn, New York. As a youngster he listened to his father's records of Johnny Cash and was diverted into rock and roll after Elton John's album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. and still uses it, along with a Mesa/Boogie Mark IV as a backup. His main setup consists of a Mesa/Boogie TriAxis preamp and TC Electronics G-Force effects processor being sent to a Mesa/Boogie Simul-Class 2: Ninety power amp into one or more Mesa/Boogie 4x12 cabinets. In the early days he may have used Dean Markley 10–52 gauged strings for B tuning. Today he uses Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky 12–56.

While performing with Seventh Void, he could be seen using Mesa/Boogie dual rectifiers and Schecter Solo-6 guitars in either a black finish (seen in the music video for "Last Walk In The Light"), or Sunburst (seen in the music video for "Heaven is Gone").

In late 2012, Schecter announced an artist model based on his custom baritone he used near the end of his Type O Negative tenure.

Musical influences

In an interview with Loudwire, Hickey cited the image of Ace Frehley and his signature smoking guitar as one of his motivations to start playing the guitar. He also cited Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, T. Rex, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath as musical influences.

References

  • Official Type O Negative website
  • Seventh Void MySpace profile