Ville Valo
Ville Hermanni Valo (born November 22, 1976), is a Finnish
singer, songwriter and frontman of the Finnish rock band HIM. They have released
six full length albums, and as of 2006, they are the first and only Finnish rock
band to go Gold in the United States.
Ville Valo was born in Vallila, Helsinki to a Finnish father named Kari and a
mother of Hungarian descent named Anita . As a child, Ville was influenced by
his music-loving parents, who exposed him to the songs of popular Finnish
performers such as Tapio Rautavaara and Rauli Badding Somerjoki, while an older
cousin introduced him to the heavier sounds of bands like Kiss, Black Sabbath
and Iron Maiden. [1]Valo's first musical step was as a three year old bongo
drummer. He learned to walk with the help of the family dog Sami, and when the
dog died, not only was he extremely upset, he also apparently developed his
allergies to animals and asthma at the same time. When Valo was at school, he
was regularly in fights and considered a 'disruptive student'. To counter this,
Valo would be allowed to draw in class to calm down. At the age of 18 when
visiting his parents, his asthma came back. His parents had a stray dog and when
Ville was around the dog his asthma came back. This sent him to the hospital for
five days. His father decided to get him his own place so that he wouldn't have
any more asthma attacks.
