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Robert Edward McCracken (b. February 25, 1982), professionally known as Bert McCracken, is the lead singer of the American rock band The Used.

Biography

Bert McCracken was born in Provo, Utah (U.S.) and raised in a Mormon family, living as a member of the Straight Edge community until age 15. He has three younger sisters (Katie, Melanie, Rachel) and one younger brother (Joseph Taylor). (See liner notes for The Used and In Love and Death.) He attended Timpanogos High School in tenth grade with bandmate Quinn Allman (with whom he attended the same choir class), before dropping out. Before joining The Used, he played the trumpet in a local band called I'm With Stupid, starting at age 12.

The eldest of four (presumably McCracken left home before the birth of Joseph Taylor), Bert enjoyed a happy home life as a child, but as he grew into a teenager his and his parents' views conflicted. As a teenager he edited a straight-edge magazine until he was beat up by fellow straight-edgers, driving the already drifting Mormon in a different direction by encouraging him to experiment with drugs as a method of rebelling against his religious friends and his parents. After becoming a drug addict, losing his virginity, and dropping out of high school, they kicked him out of the house at the age of 16 for rebelling against their Mormon upbringing. For some time he was homeless until he found enough money for an apartment, moving in with girlfriend Kate. After the relationship fell apart he was again living on the streets and sinking more and more deeply into drug addiction, until he finally chose to return to his parents' home in late December of 2000. In January 2001, when the band called Dumb Luck (which later became The Used, then consisting of Quinn, Jeph and Branden) were looking for a singer, Quinn remembered Bert and he was invited to try out. After being given music that the band had written without words, Bert wrote the lyrics to what would become Maybe Memories and returned the next day with a newly recorded version of the song. The band welcomed him immediately, and the band was renamed "Used." After their first gig they were discovered by John Feldmann and signed to Reprise Records; they became "The Used" when it was discovered that a Boston band had already trademarked the name "Used," and soon after they released their self-titled debut on June 25, 2002.

Relationship with Kelly Osbourne

In August 2002, Bert began dating Kelly Osbourne, appearing on an episode of the show The Osbournes called "Beauty and the Bert." The couple got matching heart tattoos on their pinkies (Bert's left and Kelly's right), which Bert has kept. However, he broke up with Kelly on Valentines Day of 2003 over the phone, giving rise to the belief among some fans that he was using her to promote his own band. He has denied this, confessing in an interview with Playboy that he was "just f***ing retarded. I'm 20 years old and scared of commitment, and I can't tell her that."

2003-2004 and In Love and Death

Drinking and some forms of drug addiction continued to follow Bert. According to an interview, he used to drink up to two bottles of Jack Daniels daily. Constant touring and alcoholism didn't mix well and while touring for The Used's self titled album, he collapsed on May 27, 2003 in the middle of performing "On My Own." After being rushed to the hospital, getting treatment for severe chest pain, nausea and vomiting, and consulting several doctors he was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis, a severe inflammation of the pancreas caused by autodigestion of pancreatic tissue by its own enzymes. The condition most often stems from alcohol abuse or gallstones, forcing McCracken to abstain from alcohol for several months afterward. To this day, he smokes marijuana daily and drinks one to three beers per day, though he has stopped doing drugs as of 2005.

On July 4, 2004 McCracken's former girlfriend Kate died of a drug overdose while eight months pregnant with his would-be daughter Paige, an event which, according to Jeph Howard, "basically destroyed him" in the middle of making the band's second album, In Love and Death. The tragedy "had a huge impact on the way it turned out. Regardless of how I wanted to put things down, they just came," giving the record a much more mature energy than the previous one.

Relationship with My Chemical Romance

It was in 2004 that Bert became close friends with Gerard Way, frontman of My Chemical Romance, a band that Bert had admired for some time. For several months the two were ferocious party buddies (Bert having begun to drink alcohol once more) until Way chose to become sober, officially abstaining from drinking and drugs as of August 11, 2004. The two remained friends regardless for several months afterward until they had a falling out in the spring of 2005, the true cause of which has been kept from the public.

While friends, the two bands collaborated repeatedly, McCracken even name-checking My Chemical Romance in the first track of In Love and Death, "Take It Away." In the beginning of 2005 they recorded a cover of Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure," which was dedicated to dying friend Sarah Meyler. All proceeds were given to a charity set up for the tsunami victims of December 26, 2004. McCracken also provided backup vocals for My Chemical Romance on their album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, for the song "You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison."

It was rumored that Bert and Gerard were in a relationship (which Gerard denied, saying that they went out "in a musical sense"), before their friendship turned sour. According to Kerrang!, Bert was "incensed" when "Under Pressure" was put on their 2005 re-release of In Love and Death without his knowledge, which contributed greatly to Bert's impression that Gerard, as a result of the immense popularity of Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, was becoming a new person that Bert did not wish to be around. In a 2006 interview with Blender, Way claimed that his decision to become sober caused them to have a falling out and McCracken soon began to trash-talk My Chemical Romance, grimly referencing the San Diego stop of Warped Tour 2005 (June 30), the last time that he and McCracken crossed paths. "It was really unfortunate," says Way. "We were about to take the stage and he was standing with a megaphone trying to get kids not to watch us. We just hit the feedback and drowned him out." In November 2005 McCracken stated in an interview with VH1, "I'd prefer not to say anything about My Chemical Romance, except that we did have a falling out. We don't speak at all any more . It's got nothing to do with their success. I'm completely comfortable with where our band is at. We used to be very close, but no more. We had a falling out. The rest of my band, they're still mates with all the guys in that band. But I'd prefer to say nothing more about My Chemical Romance."

One of The Used's more recent songs, "Pretty Handsome Awkward" is rumored to be about Way. Kerrang! magazine has speculated that Bert's and Quinn Allman's comments relating to the song pointed to him; Quinn's statement that it concerned "a guy with short blonde hair," and Bert's that the subject would not be offended, but "love it and wish he wrote it" raised more than a few eyebrows, though Bert has consistently denied that the song pertains to Gerard. He did, however, admit in the July 2007 issue of Alternative Press that he and Way are not friends any more, that he hates him, that he believes The Black Parade (released by My Chemical Romance in 2006) is a joke, and the friendship between them has been has over since its recording.

Despite rumors that Bert and Gerard were engaged in a homosexual relationship, it should be noted that Bert acquired a girlfriend in Australia around this time named Allison, whom he took to the United States with him after the band had finished touring. In 2005 they became engaged, and to this day live together in Los Angeles, California.

2006-2007 and Lies for the Liars

In the first half of 2006 the band took a break from touring and settled down to write their new record. During this time Bert, whose naturally ginger-blond hair he had dyed jet black since first joining The Used at age 19, dyed it a golden blonde, a change that made him greatly resemble deceased Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain (he has since gone back to black). Around the same time, he moved from Orem, Utah to Los Angeles, California, a city that fascinated and disgusted him at the same time. "I met the most fake people I had ever come across on the whole planet," McCracken stated. "They’re all just liars, and they’re so used to doing it, half the time I don’t think they even know they’re lying. Being in that environment had a direct effect on the tone of this new record, which is a little more vicious, but in a strange way, also more loving and caring." Such an environment invoked many songwriting ideas for the writer, inspiring songs such as "Pretty Handsome Awkward" and "Liar Liar (Burn In Hell)."

At the beginning of August 2006, The Used's drummer Branden Steineckert was kicked out of the band, for reasons that to this day are not entirely clear. Whilst Quinn Allman has used the term "creative differences," Bert has hinted at more personal sources of discontent with Steineckert by describing it as a "conflict of personality" between bandmembers other than himself, as he "loves him to death."

Due in part to the lack of Steineckert, the sound of the band's third record Lies for the Liars (see article for album for full description) has a distinctively different sound with more experimental styles of playing explored in the making of the record. This is also influenced by Bert's more mature songwriting style, with less overdramatization and more subtle antics. The change, however, was too much for some of The Used's fanbase, made up of people who felt that the newer antics implicated that the band had "sold out," a claim that McCracken has angrily rebutted on more than one occasion.

Trivia

• He is the youngest member of The Used.

• Michael Jackson was his first and greatest musical influence Other singers that have influenced him are Robert Smith, Madonna, Robert Plant, Refused's Dennis Lyxzén and Walter Schreifels.

• He stands at about 5' 7" (1.70 m)

• Dedicated the song "All That I've Got" to his dog, David Bowie, when it was run over by a truck.

• Took gymnastics from age 7 to age 14.

• Bert has openly stated on tasteittv.com that he is a marijuana user.

Discography

Used

• 2001: Demos from the Basement

The Used

• 2002: The Used
• 2003: Maybe Memories
• 2004: In Love and Death
• 2007: Berth
• 2007: Lies for the Liars
• 2007: The Used's EP
• 2008: The Used's 2nd EP

Collaborations

• Goldfinger featuring Bert McCracken - "Open Your Eyes" - Open Your Eyes (2002)
• My Chemical Romance featuring Bert McCracken - "You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison" - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2004)
• The Used and My Chemical Romance - "Under Pressure" originally performed by Queen and David Bowie
• Street Drum Corps and Bert McCracken - "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)"

References

1. Blender- "I'm Out Of My Head!" http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=1051
2. "The Dirty Dozen" http://www.playboy.com/sex/d12/bertmccracken
3. Blender- "I'm Out Of My Head!" http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=1051
4. "The Dirty Dozen" http://www.playboy.com/sex/d12/bertmccracken
5. "The Used Evolves" http://www.straight.com/article/the-used-evolves
6. "Tension, Tragedy Spawned The Used's In Love and Death" http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1491932/20041004/used.jhtml
7. "My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge" http://www.decapolis.com/music_/pages/MyChemicalRomance-ThreeChe.shtml
8. http://trig.com/theused
9. "Backstage With Bert" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jMO8j15zfI
10. "Bert-oholics" http://www.myspace.com/bertoholics
11. http://www.tasteittv.com/

External links

• Bert McCracken profile at the Internet Movie Database
• Bert McCracken profile at the Notable Names Database

• 1982 births
• Living people
• American male singers
• American rock singers
• Utah musicians