About CKY
CKY is an American rock band from West Chester, Pennsylvania. Formed in 1998 by vocalist and guitarist Deron Miller, guitarist Chad I Ginsburg and drummer Jess Margera, the group currently features Margera, Ginsburg, and bassist Ronnie Elvis James. CKY found initial recognition through its contributions to the CKY video series and Jackass TV series, both of which featured Margera's brother Bam.
After releasing its debut album Volume 1 in 1999, CKY signed with Island/Def Jam and issued Infiltrate•Destroy•Rebuild in 2002, which gave the band its first experience of US chart success. In 2005 the album An Answer Can Be Found followed, after which the group signed with Roadrunner Records and released Carver City in 2009. Miller left the band in 2011, after which Ginsburg, Margera and bassist Matt Deis released The Phoenix on Entertainment One Music in 2017.
CKY has been categorized in various genres, including alternative rock/metal, post-grunge, stoner rock and hard rock. The band's songwriting in the past was typically led by Miller, with production, engineering and mixing handled by Ginsburg. Since Miller's departure in 2011, Ginsburg has taken over as frontman. Miller has since reformed pre-CKY group Foreign Objects and founded 96 Bitter Beings, his own continuance of the material he previously played with CKY.
Deron Miller and Jess Margera originally met at high school in 1992 and later formed the band Foreign Objects together, releasing The Undiscovered Numbers & Colors in 1995. Within a year, the pair had moved onto playing in a band named Oil, which featured live bassist Andy Smith and later Ryan Bruni, releasing the EPs Lifelines and Oil in 1996 and 1997, respectively. The trio met Chad I Ginsburg, who was then working as an audio engineer, during recording sessions for their planned debut full-length album, and later enlisted him to finalize the first lineup of Camp Kill Yourself, a name which Miller conceived as "a perfect title for a horror movie". The first name Miller proposed for the band was I Dismember Mama, after the 1972 horror film of the same name. Ginsburg had previously performed in the band Rudy & Blitz, which had signed with Columbia Records sub-label Ruffhouse in 1995 and recorded an album, though it was not released.
The band recorded its debut album between November 1997 and February 1998 at The Ground Hog Studio in Holland, Pennsylvania. Speaking about the recording process to Guitar.com, Miller explained that the whole album took around two years to finish, mainly due to financial challenges, and that the writing process totalled up to four years. Many of the sessions were funded by the frontman's father. The music's first exposure came in one of Bam Margera's early stunt videos, Jump Off a Building, which featured the track "Genesis 12a"; Margera would later enlist the band to provide music for his later videos, including the first CKY video in 1999. CKY's debut albums, Volume 1 and Volume 2, were released in February 1999, made up mostly of the tracks featured in Bam's videos.
In promotion of Volume 1, CKY joined the 1999 Warped Tour, although after taking part in a protest started by fans regarding vending prices they were removed from the tour. Later in the year, the band signed a record deal with Volcom Entertainment, who reissued Volume 1 twice in early 2000 – firstly under the title CKY, crediting the group as Camp, and secondly under the title Camp, crediting the group as CKY. In February, the group fired Bruni as they were "disappointed by his abilities and performance" on the Warped Tour, and he was replaced by Vernon Zaborowski in July, after Ginsburg briefly filled in on bass. The band returned to the Warped Tour in 2000, and the limited edition EP Disengage the Simulator was released later in the year. CKY's music began appearing on Jackass in October 2000, which is said to have generated "a flood of new fans".
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