From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Benjamin Jackson Burnley (born March 10, 1978) is an American musician, and is best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and main-songwriter for the Post-Grunge band Breaking Benjamin.^[1]

Biography

Ben Burnley was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He grew up in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. 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 mic walked onto the stage and said, "I'd like to thank Benjamin for breaking my 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 "The Diary of Jane" was also featured on NASCAR 07 the video game.^[4]

Personal info

He is 6'4" (195 cm) tall, has his tongue pierced, and also has tattoos of the Autobot and Decepticon symbols on both middle fingers. He also has a Nirvana tattoo on his left bicep. Ben says that he has a few health problems that won't go away and he has been sober for more than 3 years. Before the Phobia tour 2006 Benjamin had a lung disease. They tried to remark the tour for another time but that wasn't possible. Ben was fully recovered from the disease sometime between 2008-09.

Outside of Breaking Benjamin

Burnley is credited with co-writing the track Shadows, featured on the new RED album, Innocence & Instinct. Burnley is also featured on The Drama Club single, "Brand New Day", and he co-wrote "Alive" featured on Patrick Droney's debut.^[5]

References