Love Stricken Demise Biography

Nikki McKibbin – Lead vocals

Billy Blair – Guitars, backing vocals

Holly Wood – Bass, backing vocals

Rico – Drums

What do ya get when you throw together an across the board reality television star, an actor, a hair stylist and a skin basher from hell?  Well, you get a rock band that will tear your face off, glue it back on and tear it off again just for spite.

Dallas quartet Love Stricken Demise came into this world kicking and screaming in May of 2011 when guitarist, Billy Blair II reached out to longtime friend and top flight drummer, Rico.  The duo decided that moving forward was the right thing to do and that their next move would have to be to pull former American Idol finalist (and another friend from the past) Nikki McKibbin into the fold.  A short search turned up guitarist turned bassist, Holly Wood and the band’s lineup was complete.  A name had to be chosen and as Blair tells it, “I wanted the initials LSD in there so I came up with the ‘love’ and ‘demise’ parts of it” and McKibbin chimes in with “after a while I just blurted out Love Stricken Demise.  What does it mean? Not a thing!”

The band soon booked a show at Dallas’ House of Blues, drawing over 100 people on short notice and shortly thereafter entered the studio to track their debut single with producer Braxton Henry.  Entitled “Celebrity High,” the song is a direct line to McKibbin’s very public “private life” as she rattles off lyrics directed at her various reality show appearances and opens up about past drug issues.  “It’s a song about my personal life experiences,” explains Nikki.  “From using, to rehab,  to losing my mom, to addiction and now having 4 years sober and all of the heartache and happiness In between.  It’s been one hell of a wild ride.”  The band then turned to the rest of their Ep and enlisted Grammy Award winning producer, Sterling Winfield (Hellyeah, Damage Plan, Pantera, etc).  Blair recounts, “Nikki and I have both worked with Sterling in the past and we’ve known him for a long time so he seemed like the logical ‘go to’ guy for this.”

The band spent the next several months, writing and recording what would become Psychotrip.  Opening with the aural blast of the title track and rips straight into “Celebrity High“, The imposing, slow groove of “This Life” follows, which Blair describes as “this real sexual groove thing that makes you turn off all the lights and you just close your eyes and imagine where this groove can take you. It’s actually very therapeutic!”.  The Ep closes out with the modern melodic rock of “Love And Hate.” Mastered by Maor Applebaum, who has worked with the likes of Halford, Sepultura and Adrenaline Mob, to name but a few, Love Stricken Demise has built a pretty powerful team around themselves. “We are very fortunate to have a team that literally consist of  family and friends with experience and loyalty that has helped get us to where we are and where we are  going,” says Rico.. In the spring of 2012 the band extended their team when they signed with Down Boys Records, the brainchild of Jerry Dixon and Erik Turner from the supergroup Warrant. “Rico saw that Down Boys was looking for artists, ” says Billy, “so we had our manager send in a package – and they wanted to do a deal with us.  I was a huge Warrant fan since they first came out.  I even wore out my copy of ‘Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich’ back in the day!”

Even though the general public will naturally drift towards her, Nikki makes it plainly clear that this is not the Nikki McKibbin Show. “I have no ego, I don’t need to be the focal point.  There are four members of this band and every single one of us deserves recognition.  Guitarist, Billy Blair is a renowned actor who has been honing that craft for the better part of the past fifteen years. “There’s always room for making music and making movies.  So far it’s only been a conflict once when I had to cancel a show to make an Arnold Schwarznegger movie but, hey, you gotta do whatcha gotta do, right?!?!” Drummer, Rico is a family man through and through when he’s not pounding the skins with LSD, while bassist, Holly Wood, not only produces music herself, she’s also a celebrity hairstylist, “The hair industry has taken me across the entire world before,” she says. “it would be fun to do it again but this time with my biggest passion – music.” Aside from holding down Love Stricken Demise’s low end Holly has also been a master of ceremonies for several high profile events and has the distinction of being the hairstylist to the Bush family.  Think about it … yes, that Bush family.