Benjamin Burnley

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Benjamin Burnley
Benjamin Burnley performing with Breaking Benjamin
Background information
Birth name	Benjamin Jackson Burnley
Also known as	Ben Burnley
Born	March 10, 1978 (1978-03-10) (age 32)
Origin	Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA
Genres	Alternative rock, alternative metal, post-grunge
Occupations	Musician, Singer-songwriter, Lyricist, Composer, Vocalist, Guitarist
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar
Labels	Hollywood
Notable instruments
PRS Guitars

Benjamin Jackson Burnley (born March 10, 1978) is an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and primary songwriter for the band Breaking Benjamin.^[1] He is also known for his brutal screams and high range melodic singing voice.

Biography

Ben Burnley was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He grew up in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. He dropped out of high school and moved to Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania at the age of 18. He moved in with former Breaking Benjamin bass player Jonathan Price. He taught himself to play guitar by listening to Nirvana's Nevermind and has also claimed that Nirvana was his biggest influence. Before Breaking Benjamin was formed, Burnley 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. At the end of the performance, Ben knocked over and cracked a microphone he had borrowed. The owner of the microphone walked onto the stage and said, "I'd like to thank Benjamin for breaking my fucking microphone."^[2] Burnley has several phobias and has even said that the name of their 2006 album, Phobia, was named after that simple fact. His most notable fear is that of flying, thus the reason why Breaking Benjamin never tours outside of the United States and Canada.^[3] Burnley is a self-admitted hardcore video gamer. In fact, he wrote a song entitled "Blow Me Away" for Bungie Studios' Halo 2, which is featured on the game's soundtrack and during gameplay. The song "Polyamorous" is also featured on the game Run Like Hell and WWE Day of Reckoning(also with their song Firefly), and "The Diary of Jane" was also featured on NASCAR 07 the video game.[4