Birth name David James Kennedy Name David Kennedy Years active 1997–2014 | Instruments Guitar, keyboards Role Guitarist | |
 | ||
Born July 8, 1976 (age 47) ( 1976-07-08 ) Occupation(s) Musician, guitarist, Emoji Poet, Coffeeman Albums | ||
Takelessons behind the scenes with david kennedy
David James Kennedy (born July 8, 1976) is an American guitarist, songwriter and performer. He is the former lead guitarist of Angels & Airwaves.
Contents
- Takelessons behind the scenes with david kennedy
- David kennedy no runners
- Instruments
- Motorcycle racing
- References
He was a member of Box Car Racer, a rock band formed by Blink-182 members Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker. Box Car Racer, then a side project to Blink-182, put out its only album in 2002. Kennedy was also a member of the hardcore group Over My Dead Body from San Diego, and worked with rock group Built to Last. With Angels & Airwaves he had released five albums. David and band member Tom DeLonge were close friends and grew up together in Poway, California.
Since late 2014 he has been inactive in the music industry so as to focus on his career with James Coffee co, a San Diego-based coffee house of which is he a part owner that specializes in producing handcrafted artisan roasted coffee beans.
David kennedy no runners
Instruments
While playing with Angels & Airwaves Kennedy was often seen playing his Gibson Memphis Custom Shop ES-335 Diamond Limited Run Electric Guitars, in all three colors in which they are available. He used Gibson Dirty Fingers Humbucking Pickups, the same bridge pickup Tom uses in all of his signature ES-333 models, in order to emulate Delonge's signature distorted, over driven tone when playing hand muted octave chords, often with delay effects. David played through Mesa Boogie triple rectifier heads and matching cabinets. Most of David's rig emulates that of DeLonge's, including the use of amps, preamp, cabs and effects, with the only exception being David's use of Ernie Ball Regular Slinky (10-46) strings as opposed to DeLonge's use of Ernie Ball Skinny Top, Heavy Bottom (10-52) strings.
From 2010 to 2014, David used one Fender '65 Twin Reverb for clean, and one Vox AC30 for overdrive, matching Tom's setup once again. David had also used the Tom Delonge Signature Gibson ES-333 in some 2012 live performances and is seen with it in the Surrender music video.
Motorcycle racing
David Kennedy is known to have a love of motorcycles. In July 2009 he entered and won his first race at the Willow Springs Motorcycle Club. Afterwards Kennedy stated,
“I was nervous at the start, feeling just like I do before I go on stage to play for a huge crowd. There's a lot to compare between playing on stage and racing. Once the race started I just wanted to perform as best as I possibly could. I always want to be the best at what I dedicate myself to doing. A lot of people have helped me get to this point with my riding and I couldn't let them down. So it felt as though my riding was a lot like doing a performance.”
He added that he wants to race as many tracks as he can.
On October 19, David placed second in his second race at Willow Springs, and managed to break his placement streak on November 14 by once again taking first.