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NAME: Matthew James Bellamy
DOB: 9th June 1978
PLACE OF BIRTH: Cambridge, UK
MUSE STATUS: Lead Singer, Guitarist, Pianist
NICKNAME: Bells
In 2000 Matt stated that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was "extremely cool" to have been able to deceive people into believing she remained a virgin after conceiving.
Matt's first memory is of breaking a mirror after letting go of a bucket whilst spinning around with it, as a result of which his mother proclaimed that he'd cursed the family for seven years.
Matt watched Road Runner when he was around 4 years old. He claims that the way the road runner tortured the coyote constantly without self consequence "got" to him.
Matt's dad, George, was the rhythm guitarist in the 1960s English rock group The Tornados, who were the first English band to have a U.S. number one, with "Telstar".
Dennis Smith: “Matthew has an incredible range of thoughts. He’s got such an imaginative and creative mind, which was obvious in those early days, always challenging and wanting to get into very deep conversations that took 20 years of adult life to come to terms with. An older head on much younger shoulders is how I’ve always seen him.”
Matt's parents and older brother used an Ouija Board to contact the dead, which he discovered when he was wandering downstairs late at night. He then became interested in it after the divorce of his parents. “It was exciting to go to school and to tell 10-year-old kids all about it, as they found it all quite scary and I was quite impressed that I was doing something that was scary to other people but that wasn’t to me. I did get quite into that.” His beliefs changed after one correspondence predicted the first Gulf War a year before it started. “My beliefs in the whole thing changed. I now believe that you’re contacting something in your subconscious, which is quite different. Something that you might not have known was already there. That’s probably more realistic than thinking you’re contacting somebody who’s already dead. And I do practice that".
Matt uses Manson Guitars built and customized by Hugh Manson.
Matt was recently #29 in Total Guitar magazine's top 100 guitar players in the world.
According to Kerrang magazine, Matt likes to dress up very much. "As soon as I'm home I'm in costumes, start to finish," Matt begins, probably regretting that he has. "I like to dress up very much, but I don't really do it in public." Why not? "Um," he shudders to a stream of giggles. "The things I like to dress up in are not necessarily that cool." Go on! Chicken suits? Emperor Ming? "I can't I can't!" He wails, hilariously flustered for the first and only time during the interview. "It's all behind closed doors. Closed doors." He leans in, "And I have a very good time, trust me.
"Dom keeps making mistakes. We were in Santiago in Spain, and he came on stage and goes 'Hey, San Diego!' He thought we were in San Diego in California, which was pretty embarrassing for everyone!"
According to Dom speaking for an interview around Route du Rock 2001, a doctor once examined Matt's vocal chords and commented that they are unusually small, explaining how he managed to reach the high ranges that he does with relatively little practice or training. Matt stated in an interview that he used to, sometime prior to that interview, attempt to sing lower due to being embarrassed about singing using high ranges. He doesn't anymore, however, as he has lost that inhibition.
"It sounds strange, but I'm not sure where some of our song ideas come from," says Matt. "Obviously, they emanate from somewhere deep within me, but sometimes even I don't understand how I come up with them, and to be honest, I really don't want to find out. I'm afraid that if I figure out the answer, the ideas might stop flowing."
"There's probably a few confused people out there who think I'm a guitar God. I don't think I deserve that kind of adoration yet, maybe in 10 years if I get any better. [ex-Rage Against The Machine guitarist] Tom Morello [is a personal hero]. He's like the greatest guitarist around, I think I'd be nervous if I met him."
In 2007, Matt was mistakenly a nominee for 'The Sexiest Vegetarian' award held by Peta 2, even though he is not vegetarian.
Muse is about getting the hopes, dreams, desires, frustrations out of your system that you wouldn't normally be able to do. It's about showing people that there are things inside buried that should be exposed, and having no shame about them. We can communicate no matter the environment."
"I'm really into the mind games of poker. I'm more ruthless than the other two so I've been taking all their money. It can get boring. In Barcelona I had to go to a casino to play with some pros. I still made around 500 euros. You know the Channel 4 poker programme Late Night Poker? My ambition is to appear on that. But the stake is £1500 and I'm not quite good enough yet."
In April 2005, Kerrang! magazine ranked him #28 in their "50 Sexiest People In Rock" poll, as well as their in-house number one guitarist. Cosmopolitan also chose him as the sexiest rocker of 2003 and 2004. NME Magazine voted him the 14th Greatest Rock'n'roll Hero of all time, beating Lennon, Dylan and many musical greats. Matt also won the Sexiest Male Award at the 2007 NME Awards, beating the likes of Carl Barat and Pete Doherty to the top spot.
His riff from "Plug in Baby" was 11th in Total Guitar's poll of the Top 100 Riffs. This riff was also mentioned among the best-ever riffs in Q magazine's Rock and Pop Miscellany. As well as this, the riff for "Stockholm Syndrome" was voted the greatest riff ever by Australian radio station Triple J's Top 100 Riffs of all time, above Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and other iconic riffs. "Plug in Baby" made the top 20.
In March 2007, Total Guitar published "The 100 Greatest Riffs", which included three Muse songs; "Supermassive Black Hole" at #93, "Knights of Cydonia" at #21 and "Plug in Baby" at #8.
Matt uses an electric foot massager to prepare before shows, as well as treating nervousness, this helps him in regards to jet lag. He has also said that bubble baths are his favourite way to "warm up" prior to shows.
