Ray Toro
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Raymond Toro-Ortiz, most known as Ray Toro (born on July 15, 1977 in Kearny, New Jersey) is the lead guitarist and backup vocals for My Chemical Romance. He is recognized in the band by his signature afro.
Biography
Childhood
Growing up, Toro lived on a "dead end" street where he grew up in a Puerto Rican household. "There was definitely a funny collection of people hanging around my block," the guitarist told the magazine Alternative Press. "There was this guy who was this drug addict. Every couple of weeks he would OD outside my house. I would see the ambulance come and take him away." In the My Chemical Romance DVD Life on the Murder Scene he talks about how he wasn't allowed to go and play because they were finding bodies in the local parks, and in the lake near where he lived. Toro says that due to incidents like this, his parents didn't want to let him out of the house onto the streets by himself.Music
Toro attended Kearny High School with My Chemical Romance's lead singer Gerard Way and his brother Mikey Way, but they were " loose friends". He reconnected with Gerard at an Iron Maiden concert, which is where the formation of My Chemical Romance began.Toro is major contributor for all the My Chemical Romance instrumentals, as well as writing the majority of their music, and he often helps rhythm guitarist and a backup vocalist guitarist, Frank Iero, write his guitar music. Toro often harmonises his guitar solos, as heard on I'm Not Okay (I Promise). He has also been credited by Mikey Way as a "metalhead" due to his love of Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne. Unlike his bandmates, Toro is not a fan of punk or emo music. Toro cites Randy Rhoads, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Slash, Jimi Hendrix, Kirk Hammett and Jimmy Page as his guitar influences and had been quoted saying, "I'm into the classic rock and metal stuff. It's either gotta be old or heavy. All of my style is patterned after these guys." He also had a large role in the music video for My Chemical Romance's first single off of Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)". He plays an Epiphone Elitist Les Paul guitar which has a mahogany body with maple cap and rosewood fingerboard.
Guitar playing style
Toro's guitar style has been heavily influenced by heavy metal of the 80's such as Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth. This can be heard in many of the rythmic parts he plays with Frank Iero. A lot of his solo's are based on hard rock and blues metal from the 70's, but have a very pop sound influenced by Johnny Marr, as mentioned on the Life on the Murder Scene DVD.Trivia
- He does most of the guitar solos on My Chemical Romance songs.
- His nose has been broken three times.
- He has been asked by the band Alkaline Trio to play on a song.
- He started playing guitar when he was a sophomore in high school.
- Toro has been injured several times on stage, some examples being:
- During a particularly complicated move, guitarist Frank Iero's guitar flew away from his shoulder and hit Toro in the side of the head (One of the two injuries so far meriting a hospital visit) that ended in Toro getting a concussion and minor blood loss. This has happened many times; however, this is the only incident that required a hospital visit. He played the rest of the show despite his injury. Fortunately, the remainder of the set only consisted of three more songs.
- A more recent addition to Toro's many head injuries, the snare drum in drummer Bob Bryar's drum kit fell from a height of eleven feet, hitting Toro. It was the first and last time Bryar decided to be elevated above the rest of the band.
- One of the first moments of My Chemical Romance live, captured on film consisted of Toro getting hit in the face with lead singer Gerard Way's microphone as he swung it (which would later become a trademark move), resulting in a torn lip and bloody nose. This was the only other injury that ended in a hospital visit due to the need for seventeen stitches in his lip.
References
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