NAME: Kevin Michael [The Z Man] Griffin
AGE: 31
HEIGHT: 6'4"
EYE COLOR: blue
HAIR COLOR: curly brown locks
OCCUPATION: lead singer, guitar, and primary songwriter for Better Than Ezra
"I don't read music, and I don't think anybody in the band reads music. We listen to a lot of music, but we don't read." --Kevin Griffin, 8/25/96, Modern Rock Live
In 1980, Kevin Griffin was the thirteen year old guitarist for a band called Aces Up. They played a battle of the bands and won first prize: the opportunity to record a 45 (an original single entitled "Seek, Find, Destroy" as well as a cover of Kiss' "Cold Gin.") --excerpt from Irving Plaza Online webpage
Musical Influences?
"Certain things, when I close my eyes and think about bands that just stick out, um...I started playing guitar because of KISS because I wanted to be able to lean back as far as Ace Frehley could and play guitar. So I had those albums, I had Led Zeppelin "House of the Holy" 'cause I had an older brother who was into all this really classic-rock stuff. Um, Elton John "Goodbye Yellow-brick Road" was like, definitely a formative album for me. And then I grew up, then I was in junior high and then it was bands like REM and stuff that kind of showed me that I didn't have to have a four-octave range voice to sing in a band. And also, I think those bands and their ilk kind of re-inspired a whole generation of musicians who showed that you didn't have to have a lot of studio trickery like bands like Boston who were really big at the time. And it kind of inspired artists to go and say, you know you could get a good recording and the bottom line is, they kind of brought back songs, the song-structure which was important before the multi-tracking in the 60's and early 70's."
--Kevin Griffin, 11/11/96, ROCKLINE radio program
USUAL ATTIRE: anything from baseball to button down shirts, especially ones that don't seem to match with anything else.
EDUCATION:
COLLEGE: Kevin was set to go to film school at NYU, but his parents couldn't afford it. He clung to the dream that "I'm going to get into the entertainment industry somehow." He was briefly an agent-in-training at the Creative Artists Agency. He also considered going to law school to become an entertainment lawyer. "But I knew the quickest route would be Better Than Ezra."
--excerpt from Details Magazine, Sept. '95
COLLEGE ATTENDED:
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA (1986-1990)
Kevin was also an alumnus of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.
CURRENT RESIDENCE: New Orleans [sound familiar?]
WORDS OF WISDOM:
"There's such a fine line between being clever and being stupid"
"I'd sell my womb to have dinner with you"
ADDITIONAL INFO: Kevin is Left-handed, but plays guitar right-handed.
EQUIPMENT: Griffin pumped up the trio's sound by trading in the clean tones of his [Fender] Telecaster for the grungier, fatter chords of a [Gibson] Les Paul. [Also uses Marshall amplifiers.]
--excerpt from Offbeat Magazine, August 1994
PHOTO FILE