 Many artists become legends after their death. Their records sell millions, and they are valued and treasured as priceless. Bucking that trend, without even trying, Hideto Matsumoto (松本秀人) (more commonly referred to by his stage name "hide") was already a legend during his life. hide (pronounced /hi.de/, always given in all-lowercase letters), was born on December 13th, 1964, at St. Joseph's Hospital at 5:43 in the morning, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan. He was a Sagittarius, and had an AB blood type. hide, could be viewed (at just under 5ft 5in (170cm) tall and less than 110lbs (50kg)) and even said that he saw himself, as just another average guy that played guitar, but in reality, he was one of the most popular and versatile Japanese musicians of his time.
In secondary school he joined the school brass band, and wanted to play the trumpet but was instead assigned the clarinet, dissatisfied with this he left it behind. At the age of 15, he received a Les Paul Gibson from his grandmother, and from then on it was only the guitar for hide.
He was often quoted as being the father of the Visual Kei movement in Japan. Despite this, many fans don't know that he had a band before he joined X (-Japan). He was originally a guitarist and writer for the band (Yokosuka) Saver Tiger. The stylish and original guitarist later joined X-Japan in 1987, after the demise of Saver Tiger. X had millions of followers, and slews of copycat bands followed in their footsteps, creating the Visual Kei movement we see today. In addition to being the loved guitarist of Japan's biggest rock band ever, hide also had a solo career during his time with X. This career started in 1993, as X took a break after "Art of Life", when he produced two albums with a band that would later come to be known as hide with Spread Beaver. hide produced only one more album under that name in 1998. He also started a band called MxAxSxS, which consisted of hide on vocal and guitar, J and Inoran of Luna Sea on bass and guitar respectively, and INA of Spread Beaver on programming and everything else. Rumor has it though that as soon as the rest of Luna Sea heard about hide kidnapping musicians to work with him on his solo venture, they came and retrieved their own rather quickly, and MxAxSxS was no more. They did manage to produce one single called Frozen Bug 93 before they ceased production. It later appeared on hide's Hide Your Face album. hide also starred in a movie titled Seth et Holth, with a lesser known artist named Tusk (of Zi:Kill). hide also began his own record label, LEMONed, which was named after a track he had created with previously mentioned Spread Beaver, the label went on to produce bands such as Zeppet Store, Shame, Vinyl and Trees of Life, the label still exists and produces artists today in hide's name. Later in 1997, hide formed the band Zilch. However, that project would be a dream that he would not live to see fulfilled. Sadly, he passed away quite tragically on May 2nd, 1998. He left this life, at the young age of thirty-three.
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