Name: Hideto "hide" Matsumoto
Birthday: December 13, 1964
Affiliations: Guitarist of X Japan; solo artist; vocalist with band Spread Beaver; vocalist with American-based band Zilch.
Deathday: May 2, 1998

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What can be said about a legend like hide? There's so very much to tell.
His favorite band was KISS, and his liquor of choice was bourbon. He was an amazing guitarist, a certified beautician, and a singer-songwriter like no other.
He wore skulls on his jewelry (which he also designed himself). Even today you'll see other Japanese rockstars sporting his trademarked skull-necklace.
He was a bizarre mix of emotions and expressions, seeming cheerful and bouncy one moment, angry and sarcastic the next. On stage he danced and clowned and screamed and snarled, and it made him seem too bright to be real, or maybe too real along with the brightness.
His smile was impossible, bratty, wonderful.
On May 2, 1998, after a night out drinking, he killed himself, for reasons still unknown.
In 2000, the hide Museum opened in his birthplace of Yokosuka, Japan.
On September 25, 2005, it will close, and we'll all lose a piece of rock and roll history when it does.