Discography

GnR Discography

N/A

Notable Appearances

History

Daren Jay Ashba was born November 10, 1972 in Monticello, Indiana. DJ's mother began teaching him how to play the piano at age 3 and by age 5 he had played in his first piano recital (Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"). By age 6 he started playing drums and at age 9 he bought his first guitar (A Harmony Flying V) and he learned how to play from a freind who played in a local band. Since there was not a TV in his house, he occupied his time by practicing playing guitar for up to 17 hours each day. For his 16th birthday his father took him to see Motley Crue on the Girls, Girls Girls Tour and that night changed his life forever, he knew he wanted to be a professional guitarist. At age 19 he packed his bags and headed to Hollywood, California to fulfill his dream.

While in Hollywood he eventually hooked up with a band called Baracuda, but after two years he left and concentrated on solo work, which by 1996, he had written, recorded and released his first album, an instrumental effort, entitled Ashba - Addiction to the Friction. This release eventually landed him his first record deal. In 1998 DJ joined the band Bullet Boys for a breif stint and even played with former Guns N Roses Drummer, Steven Adler, during this time. His stay with the Bullet Boys was short lived, and by 1999 he had left to form another band called Beautiful Creatures.

Beautiful Creatures was signed to Warner Bros. Records after opening for KISS during their reunion tour. The band went on to release their self titled debut album and had a couple singles used in movie and television soundtracks, unfortunately though, after appearances in Ozzfest and the Rolling Rock tour, the band was dropped fromt he label due to poor album sales. In February 2002, DJ left the band to concentrate on another solo effort.

After leaving Beautiful Creatures, DJ started two coprorations, Ashba Media Inc. (Which deals which handles his art endeavors) and Ashbaland (Which handles his musical effort). Ashba Media Inc. has many clients incluiding Virgin Entertainment, Ovation Guitars and Royal Underground.

In 2006 DJ, along with Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx, set up Funny Farms Studios. it was during this time that DJ, Nikki and fellow producer James Michael began writing material which would eventually become Sixx:A.M. Inspired by Sixx's auto Biography, Sixx:A.M.'s critically acclaimed debut album, The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack, was released in August of 2007. The lead single, Life is Beautiful, reached #2 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Following the success of Sixx:A.M. DJ went on to collaborate with Nikki again for the writing of Motley Crue's 2008 release, Saints of Los Angeles, DJ received a writing credit on avery album track except one. A follow-up album is currently in the works from Sixx:A.M.

In March of 2009, DJ was named the replacement for former Guns N Roses guitarist Robin Finck. After months of rehearsals, DJ played his first show with GnR on December 11, 2009 in Taipei, Taiwan.