Ginger Fish
- Kenny Wilson redirects here, for the football player see Kenny Wilson (footballer)
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Ginger Fish |
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Kenneth Robert Wilson (born September 28 1966) is an American drummer who is primarily known for playing drums for Marilyn Manson. He is only known by his stage name, Ginger Fish. His pseudonym originates from the combination of the names of Ginger Rogers, a dancer, and Albert Fish, an American serial killer, cannibal and paedophile.
Biography
Having played drums since he was in second grade, Wilson eventually went to the University of Nevada Las Vegas to study music; during that time he played with several underground bands from the area.The band Marilyn Manson had already agreed to replace their current drummer at the earliest opportunity. Ginger learned the drums off of the first album, Portrait of an American Family, and was ask to join the band in march of 1995. Despite constant band member changes, Ginger is only the second drummer for the band, not counting a previously used drum machine; his playing can be heard on Smells Like Children and every subsequent Manson album, except "Eat Me, Drink Me", where Manson decided to use a drum machine. He was temporarily replaced by Chris Vrenna for a year when in 2004 during the Viva Comet Awards a head injury left him unable to tour; however, he remained a member of Marilyn Manson. While Manson was on tour, Ginger started a side project. Rumors of Ginger not returning to Marilyn Manson were squashed after he performed "This Is Halloween" on the Tonight Show with the rest of the band. Though he did not appear on "Eat Me, Drink Me", he did a remix for the track 'Putting Holes in Happiness', on which his piano playing can be heard.
Injuries
Fish's drumming proficiency (both acoustic and electric) has a tendency to be overshadowed by his uncanny knack for getting himself seriously injured during his own concerts:
- On September 7, during the first show of the Dead To the World tour at Irving Plaza in New York City, a mic stand thrown by Manson connected to the side of the drummer's skull after the first minute of 1996. Fazed only for a moment (several seconds after he was hit), he continued to play flawlessly--stopping only after an enraged Twiggy smashed his Ibanez bass into Ginger's drums and the rest of the band left the stage, except Ginger, who managed to claw his way halfway from behind the kit before collapsing to the stage. After paramedics bandaged most of his head, Fish was able to walk, assisted, out of the venue and into an ambulance to the hospital; he received 8 stitches over his left ear and physical therapy on his neck and right arm. Though this was Fish's first major injury, it was far from being his last, or worst; Manson apparently took offense to his drummer's collapse and made a point of cutting or bruising him on subsequent shows.
- Shortly after, in Orlando, during the equipment destruction part of the set, a guitar smashed with full strength into Fish's hand; fortunately nothing was broken in this case besides the guitar.
- In June 1998 the band's proposed tour of seven European summer music festivals (starting in Denmark 25 June) was canceled when Ginger was diagnosed with mononucleosis, commonly known as 'Kissing Disease'. The remaining band members finished the Mechanical Animals album without him.
- Near the beginning of Rock is Dead (tour), Fish tore a ligament in his right knee (while physical therapy was continuing on his right arm from the previous incident), forcing him to abandon double bass playing lest his knee pop out of joint; on the occasion when Manson decided to break Fish's kit, he would be forced to hop, one-legged, out of the way. Ginger played every night despite being mostly unable to walk until a month before the end of the tour.
- On the Guns, God and Government tour, Fish's drum tech became fed up with Manson's constant trashing of the drums and attempted to put an end to the practice by strapping them to the riser. In November 2000, at the Hammerstein ballroom in New York City, Manson met the new resistance by simply breaking the straps. The extra force caused the entire kit to catapult off the three-foot riser, Ginger going along for the ride. When he landed, he broke his collarbone. Unable to cancel the tour, he moved his hi-hats to the left and played with his wrists as much as possible (despite a doctor's order to not move the arm for six weeks), from the gig in Detroit two days later until the tour completed.
- A month after this incident, a disc in his back herniated, causing his main (left) foot to not respond properly and go numb at random moments. He trained himself to play with his right foot and started using more double-bass patterns to keep his feet moving. When the tour completed, he had back surgery done, but his foot was never the same again.
- On September 24, 2004, during an awards show broadcast on live TV from Cologne, Germany, at the end of a performance of the new single Personal Jesus, Ginger fell from the back of his drum riser and then off the very high stage, and was taken immediately to the hospital, bleeding and concussed. The awards show was delayed twenty minutes; when Ginger woke up, the band had left the country, with Chris Vrenna playing live drums for the remainder of the year-long tour.
Equipment
Premier Marquee drums:
- 24" × 18" bass drums (2) also a 30" bass drum
- 14" × 7" snare
- 12" × 10", 13" × 10" rack toms
- 16" × 14", 16" × 16" floor toms
Zildjian custom cymbals:
- 14" Z Custom hi-hats (pair)
- 14" Dyno Beat hi-hats (pair)
- 20" Z Custom China
- 20" Z Custom Ride
- 19" Z Custom Rock Crash
- 18" Z Custom Medium Crash
Other
- Aquarian drumheads
- Promark 5ab sticks Pro-mark 5AB nylon tips
- DW pedals
- Roc n Soc throne with back
- Shure PSM700 hardwired in-ear monitor system
- Ultimate Ears UE Pro 5 in-ear monitors
