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,
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.
He was asked to join Type O Negative after former Carnivore guitarist Marc Piovanetti declined. Hickey was a childhood friend of the band, growing up in the same neighborhood as the band members. Hickey graduated from Xaverian High School in 1984. He has been on every Type O Negative release with fellow members
Peter Steele and
Josh Silver (
Johnny Kelly joined in 1994).
Guitars and amplifiers
Hickey played a black Gibson Flying V in the early days of Type O Negative, as seen in the "
Christian Woman" video. He then switched to a black
Gibson SG, to which he added green accessories (knobs, pickups, and a green painted fretboard), a trend he would continue to follow. Starting in 1996, he used Fernandes Guitars, starting with a Raven Elite Sustainer and Revolver Sustainer with the same green additions as his previous
Gibson SG. This would be his main guitar for over half a decade. He would always use the Raven live, and as seen on the music video for "I Don't Wanna Be Me", he could be seen using a Monterey Deluxe (without EMGs) in satin black, with green fingerboard inlays. In 2007, he began using Schecter guitars, most prominently a green C-1 Baritone. Unlike his previous guitars, this has true green inlays, exposed pickups (A
Seymour Duncan SH-4 "JB" bridge, and a Sustainiac neck pickup), and the body, including the headstock, the back of the headstock and the back of the neck is entirely green. All Hickey's guitars have invariably been tuned to B Standard throughout his career.
Hickey's early rig (before World Coming Down) consisted of ADA MP-1 & MP-2 preamps or a Marshall JMP-1 with an Alesis Quadraverb running into Marshall 9005 and/or Mosvalve 500 power amps, which were run into one or more Marshall 4x12s w/ G12-75 speakers. During the recording of World Coming Down, Hickey used a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier,
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.
External links
