The Reverend Horton Heat
The Reverend Horton Heat is a three-piece American rockabilly and psychobilly band from Dallas, Texas and the stage name of its singer and songwriter, Jim Heath (born in 1959 in Corpus Christi, Texas).
The group originally formed in 1985, playing its first gigs in Dallas's Deep Ellum neighborhood. Its current members are Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath on guitar and lead vocals, Jimbo Wallace on the upright bass, and Paul Simmons on drums. Through relentless touring and a manic stage show, they have established themselves as one of the most popular underground acts in America. Their sound is self described as "Country-fed punkabilly." Their music is a mixture of country, punk, big band, swing, and rockabilly, all played loud and energetically with lyrics that are often very humorous.
While attracting a mostly cult audience, The Reverend's music has occasionally found its way into the main stream of American culture. "Big Red Rocket of Love" was used in a commercial for the Mazda Miata, and the instrumental which they often use to open their show, "Big Sky," was the music behind a commercial for Levi's jeans. A cover of the Guadalcanal Diary song "Watusi Rodeo" was in the Jim Carrey movie Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. The band's song "Like a Rocket" (with altered lyrics) was chosen as the official Daytona 500 theme song for 2002. In 2005, the song "Eat Steak" was featured in television commercials for Boston Market, along with the song "Turkey Gotta Gobble" featured for Thanksgiving 2005. They were the theme band, with accompanying video, of the popular cartoon Johnny Bravo. The song "I Can't Surf" was part of the soundtrack of the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 published in 2001, and a slightly altered version of "Psychobilly Freakout" is featured in the game Guitar Hero II. "Psychobilly Freakout" was used on a commercial for Buell American Motorcycles. Their song "Baddest Of The Bad" is featured on the soundtrack to Tony Hawk's Proving Ground. The 1997 PC video game Redneck Rampage also includes two songs: "Wiggle Stick" and "Nurture my Pig!".
Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath has a signature guitar from the Gretsch Guitar company.
Check out the [url=http://[officialsite]www.victorymerch.com/store/reverendhortonheat]Reverend Horton Heat merch store.
This artist is also on Last.fm as: 'Reverend Horton Heat' User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
