Benjamin Jackson Burnley (born March 10, 1978 in Atlantic City, New Jersey) is the vocalist and guitarist for the band Breaking Benjamin.
Biography
Ben taught himself to play guitar by listening to Nirvana's Nevermind. Ben has also claimed that Nirvana was his biggest influence. Before Breaking Benjamin was formed, Ben had earned money by playing cover songs in various coffee houses as a solo artist under his own name "Benjamin". He later came up with the band's name, "Breaking Benjamin" after doing a performance of a Nirvana cover when he knocked over a cheap microphone from Radioshack that he borrowed from someone, to the ground. The owner of the borrowed gear came on stage and said "I'd like to thank Benjamin for breaking my fucking microphone." Ben's previous bands were Epoch and Plan 9 (later to be called Breaking Benjamin).
Breaking Benjamin
Burnley and Jeremy Hummel were in bands together since high school. They formed Breaking Benjamin.
Video Games
Ben is also a self admitted hardcore gamer. He has stated in an interview that he has a backup Xbox360 in case the other one "goes down". He is a big fan of the Hitman videogame series. Ben also wrote a song entitled "Blow Me Away" for Bungie's Halo 2, which is featured on the game's soundtrack and in gameplay. Ben has admitted his top 3 favorite games being The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Call of Duty 4, and Rainbow Six: Vegas. Ben's interview with Jane talks about how Benjamin enjoys the thought of being in another world where there are no rules or boundaries and you can basically do whatever you want to do.
Phobias
Ben has several phobias and has even said that the name of their 2006 release was named for that simple fact. His most well known fear is his fear of flying, thus the reason why Breaking Benjamin never tours outside of the U.S. and Canada. His other fears include getting sick, driving, fear of the dark, and many more that haven't yet reached the surface in an interview. He claims that he has these fears because he doesn't believe in a person's time to die. He wants to prevent dying for as long as he possibly can, which is why he doesn't fly. He said he wouldn't even ride in a car if it wasn't so necessary. He has claimed he will go as far as a ship can take him though . In the intro for Phobia, you can hear airplanes taking off and a woman's voice talking through a microphone like heard in airports. On the album We Are Not Alone, the song "Break My Fall" you can hear an airline pilot's messages dubbed over the song saying "Mayday, mayday. Request permission to land. I cannot control the plane. We are in danger of crashing."
Instruments
PRS McCarty- Tuning: C#
PRS Custom Breaking Ben Hollowbody- Tuning: Drop C
PRS Custom Baritone Breaking Ben Hollowbody- Tuning: A#
Ovation Acoustics
Trivia
Ben is 6 feet 4 inches tall.
Ben once sang the National Anthem and threw out the first pitch at the first Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees game in April 2007 at PNC Field. [2]
The song "So Cold" is a mix between their older songs "Inertia" and "Always", only played live.
Ben Burnley had his tongue pierced, and said he prefers piercings over tattoos in an interview.
His favorite place to perform besides his hometown in Pennsylvania, is St. Louis, Missouri. He recently stated he puts a smiley face next to St. Louis concert dates because of the fan support Breaking Benjamin receives from St. Louis.
He can be seen on Evanescence's "Anywhere But Home" DVD singing karoake with Shaun Morgan.
Ben is featured in ex member of Lifer Nick Coyle's band The Drama Club in a song entitled Brand New Day.
Ben is often seen throwing water bottles out to the audience in between his songs during performances.
He threw water bottles out to the crowd during a live performance while the band performed Deftones' single Change (In the House of Flies) while Shaun Morgan of Seether assisted on vocals as lead singer for the song during the first half of the 2008 tour.
On October 31st, 2007, Ben wore a Superman costume during his performance in Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, Fort Wayne, IN.
Ben has an older brother named Thomas.
Ben's family owns a small clothing company that operates mainly out of flea markets.
Ben was born in Atlantic City and his family moved to Pennsylvania when he was little.
Ben has admitted during the No Place Like Home Tour, subsequent to the release of Saturate, that he disliked playing their hit single "Skin." This is due to Hollywood Records pushing it as the single over the band's choice: "Medicate."
