Billy Maddison

Billy Jared Maddison (born July 9, 1978 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American rock musician currently living in London, England and has recently released his debut album, also called Billy Maddison, which went to number one in the United Kingdom and remained in the top ten for 8 weeks. The album also went top 40 in the US.
==Background==
Billy Maddison was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Ella and Joe Maddison. He was raised in Brooklyn, where his parents still live and graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School. Billy is the oldest of three sons. Billy said he first began to sing seriously at the age of fourteen when he thought it would help him "pick up girls". Billy also travelled extensively during his childhood and teenage years. He was once quoted as saying "My mother is originally Polish and my grandmother on my father's side is of Irish and Italian decent so I have family everywhere, all through Europe and stuff, so I was forever visiting family in some part of the world. I think it was really important for my growth to see that much of the world. I'm very grateful for that experience". However, the extensive travelling took it's toll on the family's bank balance and his parents often had to take on three jobs at a time "just to make ends meet".
==Music==
Maddison, besides singing at the age of 14, also said he "jumped from band to band in High School but couldn't deal with working with other people. My music is very personal to me and couldn't deal with people suppressing or changing the way I wrote or how a song sounded, so I figured I'd go it alone". After years of playing small gigs, Billy gave up on trying to become famous after he graduated at the age of 18 and became a mechanic, only practicing music at home in his spare time. He began to follow his dream in 2003, at the age of 25, after his old roommate heard him playing and encouraged him to start playing live. Maddison listened to him and soon began to form a fanbase and earn money from gigs. He invested this money in his music and recorded a number of singles before he found his big break in "Going Nowhere" which sold over half a million copies. He signed to Spice Records this year and his first single on the label "A Long Time Dead" gave Maddison his first top 40 single. He is now working on a debut album which he hopes will give him elevation to superstar status.
==Private Life==
Not much is known about Billy Maddison's private life, except that he has been living in London, England, for the past three years, often splitting that time between London and Brooklyn. Maddison has said "I love Brooklyn. It's where I grew up, it's where I learnt to become who I am today and I do miss being away from it. I don't think I could ever move exclusively to another part of the world. I would always be back and forth to Brooklyn".
Throughout 2008 Billy dated Gemma Ferns, the then 18 year old Rebel Uprising frontwoman. It was rumoured the pair were engaged after Gemma became pregnant. Around this time, Billy reportedly said he had "never been happier" and joked that "If I get to 31 and I'm not married and expecting a child, my mother will be devastated!"
Devestation came, however, in June of 2008, when Billy discovered that the baby he was expecting with Gemma Ferns may, in fact, have been fathered by Raven, the lead singer of Heavy Metal band Thunderwolf. Maddison is said to have slipped into a deep depression, refusing to leave his home until, a few weeks later, he disappeared, taking no clothes, no money or any other personal possessions. Nobody saw or heard from him again for almost ten months, and he was officially classed by police as "missing, presumed dead", with officials, the media and fans believing he had taken his own life. In April 2009, Billy made a sensational return to London, asking Gemma for a DNA test after seeing the striking resemblence between himself and the then 7 month old baby. Billy ran a DNA test and discovered he was Kai's father afterall and Gemma and himself struck up a new, close relationship. However, that looked like it was to end badly when Gemma discovered that Billy had cheated on her. After two months apart, the pair finally reconsiled after Gemma discovered she was pregnant with her second child by Maddison. The pair now seem stronger than ever.
Billy is now living in West London with Gemma Ferns, the pair's adoptive son Caleb Keller and biological son, Kai Maddison as well as the family's pets: two guinea pigs, a lizard, a rabbit and two pet dogs - one half husky/half wolf called Judas and one golden laberador called Jaspaar. The couple also own a home on the Sunset Boulevard, just minutes away from the famous Sunset Strip and are due to marry in an extravagent ceremony on the 22nd August 2009, with their young baby due to be born in late January 2010.
Category:Artists
Category:Musicians
Category:American artists