Hideto Matsumoto came into the world on December 13, 1964. Not much is known about his childhood, though we know that he was an outcast in school because he was "chubbier" than the other children. He was used to being laughed at and teased. It was probably because of this that he took up guitar as a teenager. He was expelled later on for rebellious behavior and started a band. Members came and went, unable to cope with his high standards.
In 1987 he accepted an invitation from a man named Yoshiki Hayashi to join a band called X Japan. He couldn't have known then that this action would bring a huge course of change in his life. X Japan very soon became one of the most influential bands in Japan's history. Rock was unheard of in Japan at the time so "X" literally set the bar for Japanese rock as we know it today.
In 1995 "hide", as he had come to be known as, started his own solo project and was immensly popular. In his short lived solo career he produced his own record company, two cds, three new bands, and even a shop.
In 1997 X Japan disbanded after a ten-year reign. hide was crushed by the band's demise and, so I've heard, tried desperately to reunite the two band members whose dispute had split them, but it was to no avail. X played their last concert on December 30, 1997, one full of tears, and that was the end.
It would be little under six months later that hide would be lost to us forever...
