Hideto Matsumoto



Hideto Matsumoto (1964-1998), known as hide, was the lead guitarist and one of the major creative members of X Japan from 1987 until 1997. He is co-credited, often, with Yoshiki for beginning Visual Kei as an artistic movement, and while working with Yoshiki, encouraged him to sign the band Luna Sea to Extasy Records, which eventually led to their own success as a popular band. Writing songs such as "Joker," "Love Replica," "Miscast," "Celebration," and "Drain," he soon branched out into an enormously successful solo career that encompassed 1993 to 1998.

Having been a hard rock guitarist with Yokosuka Saber Tiger and Dementia before joining X, he tended to prefer Hard Rock and Heavy Metal to ballads, notably being on record as saying Endless Rain was the only X ballad he truly liked to perform. In his solo career, he would do everything from Jazz to Electronic Music to Pop to Heavy Metal to gothic Industrial, often combining said styles wildly in songs or albums. He was one of the first true Cyberpunk musicians, and his promotional videos and live solo act, hide with Spread Beaver, would often incorporate Cyberpunk or technological themes. He would, near the end of his life, try to break into the American music industry with the band Zilch, which released one album featuring his works posthumously.

Being a former hairdresser and stylist, hide was one of the most truly visual members of X Japan, continuing to appear with his trademark red-spectrum color hair, unique clothes and guitars, and Badass stage presence well into when the rest of the band had traded shocking attire for more traditional expensive rocker styles.

On May 2, 1998, hide was found dying. He was taken to a hospital, where efforts to revive him were unsuccessful and he was declared dead. The best comparison of what unfolded to something the Western music scene could be familiar with would be if Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley had died at the exact same time, of reasons no one could really ascertain. Yoshiki went into a deep depression and many years of mourning for his closest and best friend, and some fans committed suicide at the thought of being faced with a world without him. Many theories were and still are debated.

hide's music is now the centerpiece of a Rock Opera produced by his brother and other musicians. It is called "Pink Spider," and if anyone reading has seen it, please launch a separate page for it and link it here.

Has sadly been made into a Cash Cow Franchise.

Band Members
 * hide solo works: Pata, Kiyoshi, D.I.E., Chirolyn, Ran, I.N.A., Joe, KAZ Iwaike
 * Zilch: Ray McVeigh, Paul Raven, Joe Castillo, I.N.A.

Studio Albums
 * Hide Your Face (February 23, 1994)
 * Psyence (September 2, 1996)
 * Ja, Zoo (November 21, 1998) with Spread Beaver (posthumous release)
 * 3.2.1. (July 23, 1998) with Zilch (posthumous release)

Singles
 * "Eyes Love You" (August 5, 1993)
 * "50% & 50%" (August 5, 1993)
 * "Dice" (January 21, 1994)
 * "Tell Me" (March 24, 1994)
 * "Misery" (June 24, 1996)
 * "Beauty & Stupid" (August 12, 1996)
 * "Hi-Ho"/"Good Bye" (December 18, 1996)
 * "Rocket Dive" (January 28, 1998)
 * "Pink Spider" (May 13, 1998) (posthumous release)
 * "Ever Free" (May 27, 1998) (posthumous release)
 * "Hurry Go Round" (October 21, 1998) (posthumous release)
 * "Tell Me" (re-recording, January 19, 2000) (posthumous release)
 * "In Motion" (July 10, 2002) (posthumous release)

Notable Live Albums
 * "Psyence a Go Go"
 * "Hide Our Psychommunity"

Compilations
 * Tune Up (June 21, 1997)
 * Tribute Spirits - covers of his work by contemporary artistes (May 1, 1999)
 * Best: Psychommunity (March 2, 2000)
 * Alivest
 * Psy Clone (May 22, 2002)
 * Singles - Junk Story (July 24, 2002)
 * King of Psyborg Rock Star (April 28, 2004)
 * We Love hide ~The Best in The World~ (April 29, 2009)

Useful Notes relevant to hide: Punk Heavy Metal Japan Los Angeles Suicide

''This isn't Getting Crap Past The Radar. This is crashing the crap through the front doors and out the back doors of the radar installation in an armored car with sunglasses-wearing flaming skull decals on every flat surface and a Hieronymus Bosch reproduction on the door, hood-mounted machine guns blazing, Motörhead blasting on the jury-rigged PA system, the tires leaving tracks painting sex and violence on the floor and walls and one arm hanging out of the window making a rude hand gesture.''
 * Angrish: "Doubt." Much of the song is arguably screamed in Angrish.
 * Anyone Can Die: One reason hide's death made such an impression and was such a shock. He seemed to be the least emotionally damaged ex-member of X at the time, had a public face that appeared lively and interested in life, and even seemed to be planning for the future in an interview he did the day before he died.
 * Artistic Stimulation: hide was a heavy drinker, possibly an alcoholic, though no one really knows "why" outside of speculation, and this inspired his solo songs Drink Or Die and Lemoned I Scream among others. There is also a video clip where he's obviously enjoying some good weed. There are rumors of his using/abusing other substances, but these are best not discussed online unless one enjoys Internet Backdraft.
 * Audience Participation Song: Audience participation LIVE. hide's lives often involved a great deal of audience participation and interaction, and the audience at memorial events will often sing along to his songs.
 * Author Existence Failure: When hide died, he had not yet finished his third album, Ja, Zoo, and many of his singles and other works hadn't been finished or released yet.
 * The Band Minus the Face: Zilch tried to go on after hide's death, to rather limited success. Spread Beaver occasionally reunites for memorial shows and such. Arguably, X Japan's reunion is this, since hide was one of the three Faces Of The Band (the other two being Yoshiki and Toshi)
 * Bar Brawl: hide, along with Taiji and Yoshiki, were the biggest troublemakers in regard to the fighting and damage that X Japan caused in its earlier days. If running around a hotel fighting with the desk people for no reason at all can be considered under this trope....
 * Bishonen: Often crossing into true androgyne.
 * Breakup Breakout: hide became most famous after leaving Yokosuka Saber Tiger and joining X Japan, and his career only improved more when he went solo from X Japan to his own career.
 * Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie: While hide has a grave in Japan and his funeral was held at the Hongan-Ji temple, his ashes were scattered off the Santa Monica Pier and Marina Del Rey Pier in Los Angeles.
 * Careful with That Axe: "DOUBT/Tell Me." Epic metal screaming in that performance of "Doubt." Also, on backing vocals for "Sadistic Desire" with X.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: Like Yoshiki, a walking Cluster F-Bomb, with a few musical examples.
 * Cool Shades: His yellow wraparounds. Rather unique to say the least.
 * Cover Version: hide has done work on many covers, but the two most notable are "Ace of Spades" done at one of the Extasy Summits, and "New Rose" at one of his solo lives. "New Rose" is notably Covered Up since hide's version is likely the second most known to the version done by Guns N' Roses. "Light My Fire" by The Doors is also somewhat notable.
 * Creator Breakdown: In the worst way possible.
 * Cyberpunk and Post Cyber Punk
 * Dead Artists Are Better: Sadly so in hide's case. This is probably because of the rise of Visual Kei as well as the internet. Many western v-kei fans are curious and many v-kei artists have performed at the hide memorial summit. they look into who he is and instant popularity. With that said, had he lived he would have probably been as influential as Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, or Elvis. It's obvious the Japanese viewed him that way
 * Double Entendre: From hide's solo career, the song Rocket Dive. The Performance Video is about spaceflight and in a "spaceship." The lyrics can be about finding hope in life or, to the overanalyst, bipolar mania. They're actually about neither...
 * hide's work in general heavily relies on wordplay, double-entendre, and the like. As a result, many translations of his lyrics can be slightly confused.
 * Drowning My Sorrows: See Artistic Stimulation, above.
 * Drunken Song: DRINK OR DIE!!!!
 * Dye Hard- hide's hair is either red or pink.
 * Sometimes it was blonde with a pink or red streak in the early days of the band. Which could be confusing to n00b fans seeing a redhead....and therefore confusing hide and Pata, who had *entirely* red hair off and on from around 1989 to 1991.
 * Eek! A Mouse!: hide was terrified of cockroaches. One time, he was with Yoshiki in a hotel room and saw one, which led to both screaming and running around until Tetsu from Lordi.5 (or Yoshiki, in another common telling of the story) killed the roach.
 * Elvis Lives / He's Just Hiding: Some vociferous and heavily in-denial fans subscribe to a Conspiracy Theory that claims hide didn't really die and is still alive somewhere. This sounds familiar....
 * Epic Rocking: hide's guitar parts in "Art of Life" and "Rose of Pain" with X Japan, and for almost all of his solo music, though "Oblaat," "Junk Story," and "Dice" are all some of the best examples. "Dice's" vocals are especially epic for the rapid-fire delivery and breakdown.
 * Frivolous Lawsuit: Was in part the subject of one well after his death. In 2010, hide's brother Hiroshi sued Yoshiki over the use of hide's image in X Japan. The case was met with the judicial-language version of Flat What and promptly thrown out of court.
 * Genre Roulette
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: The Dice live on TV was groundbreakingly NSFW.
 * Greatest Hits Album: more than one. People are beginning to complain about the abundance of these.
 * Grief Song: "Hurry Go Round" can be seen as a grief song, of hide grieving his mood changes.
 * Guide Dang It: Understanding some of hide's lyrics or expressions, or the meaning in some of his songs or Performance Videos.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With Yoshiki and with Pata, also with Sugizo.
 * Hey, Let's Put on a Show: The hide memorial summit, as well as his annual birthday shows from other old bandmates.
 * Hot-Blooded
 * Indecipherable Lyrics: Much of "Doubt," "Bacteria," and "Fish Scratch Fever." "Dice" is a little better, but the rapid-fire delivery pretty much necessitates having the lyrics there too.
 * The Jimmy Hart Version: "What's Up Mr. Jones" is this to "Drain," hide's last X Japan song. That said, he owned the music so he just had to change the lyrics...
 * Large Ham: hide could definitely have his ham moments.
 * Lunatic Loophole: Played straight almost too many times to count in Real Life: he survived alcohol poisoning on repeated occasions, almost lighting himself on fire in a pyrotechnic stunt gone wrong, being in a rather large number of fights despite being short and scary skinny, sustaining a skull fracture and leg injuries in a fall, a car wreck, and that's just what's known about. Sadly, also subverted in Real Life in a horrific way.
 * Manic Pixie Dream Girl: The rare male version. That said, as he said in at least two interviews, he *wanted* to be a combination of Manic Pixie Dream Girl and The Ladette if he could have. Whether this means he was actually bigender or simply perverted is unknown.
 * Matter of Life and Death
 * Meaningful Name: hide = the concealment of his true self and his vulnerabilities and problems at an absolute surface level, with their only being able to be discerned with more scrutiny and/or personal knowledge.
 * Metal Scream: Backing vocals for Vanishing Vision and live "Sadistic Desire." The Doubt/TELL ME performance in his solo career.
 * The Mentally Disturbed: hide may have suffered from bulimia and alcoholism according to various sources. Whether it's Word of Dante or Wild Mass Guessing, some fans also say he suffered from Axis 1 bipolar disorder.
 * Motor Mouth: YES. So very yes. Enough that it might make one wonder how he can be so speedy.... *cough*
 * The Musical combined with Rock Opera: his songs have now become a part of one, called "Pink Spider."
 * My Nayme Is: It's spelled hide and pronounced hee-day in reference to his solo career. Do not capitalize it there, even if That Other Wiki does. In regard to his X Japan career, on the other hand, it is pronounced the same way but written in ALLCAPS as HIDE.
 * Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly
 * Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Played straight AND averted like hell. Internet Backdraft tends to happen when extreme partisans of playing this straight and of averting it end up in the same location. One side will deny things that hide actually *did on stage,* and the other will post accusations that are patent falsehoods just to "look cool" or out of Shipping related rage.
 * Off the Wagon: Subverted. To argue that hide ever was *on* the wagon is laughable.
 * Our Ghosts Are Different: The hologram in X concerts could be considered a constructed variant of this. Could be played straight also, if you believe some of the stories from some fans who claim to have seen/channeled/otherwise met hide's soul somehow. Of course they/we could all be batshit. Or maybe they/we aren't.
 * Outlived Its Creator: Zilch is a straight example (it outlived both hide and Paul Raven), but a more meta example would be pretty much all of hide's career and artistic output. As an example, the "Pink Spider" musical just opened in Japan....
 * Performance Video: While the technology of the time dates some of hide's performance videos, almost all are very unique and very artistic. The art of the video actually creates its own scene, its own comparison piece to the song for almost all of the songs that have a Performance Video. Especially interesting are "Misery," "Eyes Love You," "Genkai Haretsu," and "Bacteria."
 * Persona Non Grata: Banned from more than a few bars and hotels.
 * Precision F-Strike: The lyrics to "Celebration" and "Doubt" are specifically awesome examples of a Precision F-Strike.
 * Rant-Inducing Slight
 * The Red Stapler: Fernandes guitars (pretty much every one of his guitars was a Fernandes), Necromance (a shop in Los Angeles where he tended to buy jewelry and magickal items), and Mild Seven cigarettes.
 * Refuge in Audacity: This quote on the Refuge in Audacity article sums up hide's career and life:
 * Religion Rant Song: "Easy Jesus" with Zilch.
 * Rose Haired ... whatever hide identified as.
 * Rule of Drama: Invoked it by dying.
 * Sanity Slippage: Arguably, his life from 1997 onward. The pressures of his solo career, his alleged drug use catching up to him, the pain of the band that had made him famous and his friendships from said band breaking up, and his increased need for alcohol all pointed to hide's being in somewhat of a downward spiral toward the end.
 * Sanity Slippage Song: "Drain" for X Japan, and solo: "Doubt," "Hurry Go Round," "Genkai Haretsu," "Breeding", "Lemoned I Scream," "Drink or Die," and "Sold Some Attitude"
 * Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll: Quite possible. Quite arguable. And that is all we shall say about that.
 * Shout-Out: The target of quite a few, including a NSFW manga featuring the Yokosuka Pink Spiders, inspiration for Shuichi Shindou of Gravitation, and a partial one (along with Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue ) in Chrono Cross http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9hcWoltq-c.
 * Smoking Is Cool: hide was a rather notorious tobacco addict, who once posted a blog whining about not being able to smoke indoors in California, and who would occasionally even smoke while performing. He provided quite the free advertising for his preferred brand, too.
 * Team Mom: Despite his issues, he was, according to everyone else, this for X Japan while he lived.
 * Trickster: Often seen as sympathetic to the Egyptian mythological deity Set/Seth due to his role as such in the art film "Seth et Holth" and due to a few photoshoots on this same theme.
 * Unstoppable Rage: Often as a result of consuming alcohol, and directed at some of the oddest targets. Being a hotel desk clerk was not safe when you had hide staying there....
 * Virtual Ghost
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Yoshiki and hide could be a type of this.