Kenneth "Ken Jay" Lacey (born June 10, 1966) is an American musician, best known as the original drummer and the co-founder of

industrial metal Industrial metal is the fusion of Heavy metal music, heavy metal and industrial music, typically employing repeating Heavy metal guitar, metal guitar riffs, sampling (music), sampling, synthesizer or music sequencer, sequencer lines, and Distor ...

band

Static-X Static-X is an American industrial metal band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1994. The line-up has fluctuated over the years, but was long-held constant with band founder, frontman, vocalist and rhythm guitarist Wayne Static until his d ...

Biography

Jay was born in

Vermilion County, Illinois Vermilion County is a county in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Illinois, between the Indiana border and Champaign County. It was established in 1826 and was the 45th of Illinois' 102 counties. According to the 2020 United States censu ...

. Jay began playing drums early on and had played drums in a couple of metal bands early in his career in central Illinois before heading north to Chicago. Jay was the drummer in Deep Blue Dream, a band that also included Wayne Static and had auditioned at one point for Smashing Pumpkins but was told by Billy Corgan he was "too metal" to be in the band. He co-founded Static-X with

Wayne Static Wayne Richard Wells (November 4, 1965 – November 1, 2014), known professionally as Wayne Static, was an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, and primary lyricist for the industrial metal band St ...

in 1994. Jay played drums on the band's first two albums, ''

Wisconsin Death Trip ''Wisconsin Death Trip'' is a 1973 nonfiction, historical nonfiction book by Michael Lesy, originally published by Pantheon Books. It charts numerous sordid, tragic, and bizarre incidents that took place in and around Jackson County, Wisconsi ...

'' and ''

Machine A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromol ...

'', but before Static-X could begin recording their third album, ''

Shadow Zone A seismic shadow zone is an area of the Earth's surface where seismographs cannot detect direct P waves and/or S waves from an earthquake. This is due to liquid layers or structures within the Earth's surface. The most recognized shadow zone is ...

'', he left the band because of musical and political differences. However, Jay still contributed additional keyboards to the album. Shortly after his departure, he joined Godhead as a replacement drummer for a brief time. He had kept out of the media limelight for several years. In 2010, Jay stepped back into music to produce the debut album for Texas-based band, Blood Red Summer. He connected with the band through their guitar player, Erik Fincher, who had worked with Jay at a Virgin Records store in Los Angeles, California, and later became Static-X's long time guitar tech. After a viral infection, he lost most of the hearing in his right ear. On October 23, 2018, it was announced that Jay – along with the other two surviving original members, bassist

Tony Campos Antonio Campos (born March 8, 1973) is an American musician. He is the current bassist for the industrial metal bands Static-X and Fear Factory and the vocalist and bassist for the extreme metal band Asesino. He has previously played with Prong ...

and guitarist

Koichi Fukuda Koichi Fukuda (born July 1, 1975) is a Japanese musician, best known as the lead guitarist, programmer, keyboardist, and co-founder of the American industrial metal band Static-X; he has been a member of the band three times, initially from 1994 ...

– would reunite with Static-X, who plan to release a new album and tour in 2019 in honor of the memory of

. In June 2019, Ken Jay and Ross Hamil (singer of Blood Red Summer) reconnected in Dallas, TX at one of the Wisconsin Death Trip 20th Anniversary Memorial Tour. In early 2020, Hamil approached Jay about contributing programming/sampling to a song called "The Monster Within" for Hamil's new band LABOR XII on their debut album MONSTERS. "The Monster Within" is a tribute to Wayne Static and features keyboards and programming from Ken Jay.

References

1966 births American heavy metal drummers American heavy metal keyboardists Industrial metal musicians Living people Nu metal drummers Static-X members Godhead (band) members 20th-century American drummers American male drummers 21st-century American drummers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians Drummers from Illinois {{US-drummer-stub