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Erik Schrody (Birthday: 18. August 1969)

First steps

Erik "Everlast" Schrody is born at August 18th, 1969 on Long Island, New York. He rises in San Fernando Valley, South-California and grows up with his divorced mother. He only occasionally visits the Taft- and Canoga Park High Schools. In the mid-80's his musical awareness is very much influenced by Run-DMC's debut LP. As a member of Ice-T's Rhyme Syndicate Posse 21 year old Erik releases his first album in 1990: "Forever Everlasting". Towards the "Spin"-magazine Everlast confesses: "I thank God every day that record flopped. I could have been Vanilla Ice, dude. Then it really would've been over"

The time with House Of Pain

Erik's second try was more successful: with his friends Danny "Danny Boy" O'Connor and Leor "DJ Lethal" Dimant he founds the Hip-Hop-Band "House Of Pain". In 1992 HOP's debut album and the single "Jump Around" reach platinum-status. Two years later the second LP "Same As It Ever Was" reaches gold. In 1996 Everlast quits House Of Pain on the release day of their third album "Truth (Crushed To Earth Shall Rise Again)". "The fucked up thing about blowing up with a band is that you can only do it once," Everlast reflects. "Even if you stay huge forever, you only go through that process once - and I'm looking for that feeling again. You know, that thing that puts butterflies in your gut before you go onstage. It got to the point with House Of Pain where it was a machine. Get on stage. Do the show. Get off. Go to the hotel. It was too routine. The only reason I was going on the road was to make money. Once I stopped getting butterflies, that's when I knew things where going to get boring. I just got to a point where I wasn't having much fun and I needed to quit."

Tragic moments

After his splitting from House Of Pain two hard years follow. Financial and relationship problems put the 28 year old under pressure. Erik finds new strength in a new religion. 1997 he converts to the Islam. In this emotionally hard times Erik writes his second solo album. "Whitey Ford Sings The Blues". The LP saves his career but almost kills him. During the last day of making the record a muscle in his heart tears and he is rushed to the hospital, where he gets a heart valve replacement. "It was ill," he explains. "One minute I'm in my house and then I wake up in the hospital four days later." Everlast reflects on the eerie coincidences found throughout the album: "After the heart attack, I listened to the record and there's a lot of death on it. 'Death Comes Callin' is a song about watching what you do and what you say because you never know when death's gonna knock on your door. The song 'Painkillers' is all about winding up in the hospital. The funny thing about 'Painkillers' is that it's a fabricated story but there's a part of it that is so near-to-life as far as me getting wheeled into the hospital. One of my buddies said, 'You should die at the end of that story.' I said, 'Nah man, that's tempting fate.' It makes you wonder how much our mind knows that you don't know consciously. I listen to the record - and my mind and my spirit obviously knew something was coming."

Life goes on...

As if the heart attack has no effect on him he is soon on the road again to promote his new record. He does several long tours, e.g. with Santana. "It was like rehabilitation for me. It took my mind off my problems and allowed my body to heal.".
Proudly Everlast looks back on his highly acclaimed solo album and the Grammy nominated smash-hit "What It's Like": "Before 'Whitey Ford Sings The Blues' I didn't even know I was a songwriter. But then I had lots of time to work with my band. And to learn how to keep things easy." In the USA "Whitey Ford..." received triple-platinum.

Other projects

Beside his promotion for "Whitey Ford..." Everlast spends a lot of time in other studios. In "A Prince Among Thieves" (by Prince Paul) he plays a violent Bronx-cop or supports the Cypress-Hill-Track "Rock Superstar". His song "Life's A Bitch" is one of the highlights from the "Black And White" soundtrack. Among artists like Korn, Limp Bizkit or Eminem he also appears on the soundtrack for "End Of Days" with his track "So Long".
1999 Everlast releases his third solo project, the Five-Track EP "Today" (in Europe three live-tracks are added). The mini album not only contains the hit "Put Your Lights On" (with Carlos Santana) but also a great version of John Lee Hooker's classic "Blues For X-Mas".
The year 2000 gets especially successful when Everlast and Santana win a Grammy for the 'Best Rock Performance as Duo or Group' on "Put Your Lights On" (written by Everlast for Santanas "Supernatural"-LP).

Eat At Whitey's

In 2000 Everlast's third album "Eat At Whitey's" is released. The LP is dominated by a dark and heavy but not depressive sound. Songs like "We're All Gonna Die" or "Graves To Dig" are a reflection on the hard time in Erik's life. Beside death love is another very important theme in many songs. "Love For Real", "Black Coffee" and "I Can't Move" are a few examples that Everlast - more than before - concentrates on his songwriting skills. But Erik does not try (and want) to hide his hip-hop roots. Already the Intro "Whitey" introduces some hard, fast beats. They continue throughout the record especially on the collabos with B-Real ("Deadly Assassins") and Kurupt who is featured on the track "One, Two". But even after the release of the LP Everlast sees no need to rest. The offer to appear on the new Run-DMC album "Crown Royal" he (of course) can't refuse. So he features the song "Take The Money And Run", a cover of the Steve Miller-classic.In 2000/2001 there's also a huge tour in the USA and Europe where Everlast rocks clubs on both continents.