Dave King (musician)

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Dave King (b. 1961 in Dublin, Ireland) is the lead vocalist and primary songwriter and lyricist for the Irish-American post-punk band Flogging Molly. He is now based in Los Angeles, California.

[edit] Personal life

Dave King grew up in a poor Dublin neighborhood known as Beggar's Bush. When Dave was ten, his father died. After emigrating to the United States, he was without a United States Permanent Resident Card for eight years, making him incapable of visiting his home. Such events in his life have contributed to many of Flogging Molly's song lyrics.

[edit] Career Information

Prior to forming Flogging Molly, Dave King was the vocalist for Fastway, a '80's-early '90's heavy metal band, featuring guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke of the metal band Motörhead. They recorded their first four records with King on vocals, as well as a live record. After disbanding Fastway (Eddie carried on the name with all new members) King formed Katmandu with Mandy Meyer (former member of the band Krokus), who released one self-titled album, had a couple of minor hits but later disbanded. Dave King retained a record deal with Epic records, who wanted him to sing for The Jeff Beck Group, but he declined. He started working on new material with a distinct Irish sound, but still retaining the hard driving, loud and fast musical style. He asked to be let out of his Epic contract because "they wouldn't know what to do with the new music anyways...". Since then Dave King has had great success with Flogging Molly, reaching a peak position of #20 on the Billboard charts top 200 and a #1 on the Billboard Indie Chart.