KING DIAMOND BIOGRAPHY

KING DIAMOND
Biography

King Diamond is a heavy metal band formed in 1985 by the Danish singer of the same name. King Diamond had made his name as the frontman of Mercyful Fate, a band formed in Copenhagen in 1981, and when Mercyful Fate came to an end in April 1985 he started a band of his own, named after himself, with two of its members, the guitarist Michael Denner and the bassist Timi Hansen. On Roadrunner Records the band released five studio albums, from Fatal Portrait (1986) to The Eye (1990), and with the second of them, Abigail (1987), it began a long line of concept albums, each telling a single horror story. After the singer moved to Dallas, Texas, in 1992, the band came back in 1995 with The Spider's Lullabye, its first album in five years, and from then on its records came out on Metal Blade Records in America and, for most of them, on Massacre Records in Europe. Give Me Your Soul...Please (2007) was its twelfth studio album. King Diamond had heart surgery in 2010 and was back on stage in 2012. The single "Masquerade of Madness" followed in 2019, and in 2024 "Spider Lilly" was released as the first single from Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920, part one of a horror trilogy. On 24 July 2026 the band announced that Andy La Rocque, its guitarist since 1985, was leaving and that Gus G. of Firewind was joining.

King Diamond before the band, and Mercyful Fate (to 1985)

King Diamond's real name is Kim Bendix Petersen, and he was born on 14 June 1956 (Lex; Gaffa, 2016). As he told Louder in 2016, he came to music not as a singer but as a guitarist: in his first band, Brainstorm, he played guitar, already wore make-up on stage and took the name King Diamond, which he says has no particular meaning. He became a singer in his next band, Black Rose, where the make-up took on a more definite design (Louder, 2016). Gaffa likewise dates his taste for a theatrical, horror-themed stage act to the Black Rose years (Gaffa, 2016).

He then joined Brats, a punk band, where he met the guitarist Hank Shermann (Gaffa, 2016). Brats had a contract with CBS, and when the two pushed the band towards heavy metal, the label demanded something more commercial; Shermann and King Diamond walked out, and the band's other guitarist, Michael Denner, went with them (Louder, 2016). Mercyful Fate was formed in Copenhagen early in 1981 by King Diamond and Hank Shermann, and Michael Denner, the bassist Timi Hansen and the drummer Kim Ruzz soon completed it. After an EP on the Dutch label Rave On Records in 1982, the band signed to Roadrunner Records and released Melissa in 1983 and Don't Break the Oath in 1984 (Mercyful Fate's official site).

In April 1985 Mercyful Fate came to an end (Mercyful Fate's official site). Talking to Metal Forces the following year, King Diamond named musical differences as the main reason, Hank Shermann having wanted more commercial songs on the next album, and said he had left on 11 April 1985, the day after the band played the Saga in Copenhagen (Metal Forces, 1986).

Forming the band, and Fatal Portrait (1985-1986)

The new band took two members from Mercyful Fate, the guitarist Michael Denner and the bassist Timi Hansen, and found its drummer, Mikkey Dee, in the Danish band Geisha (Metal Forces, 1986). A Swedish guitarist, Floyd Konstantin, was in the band at first but was let go two weeks before the album was to be recorded. In his place came another Swede, Andy La Rocque, a friend of Dee's who was working in Gothenburg: called at three in the morning, he flew to Copenhagen the next morning, and the first solo he played, on "Dressed in White", is the one on the album (Metal Forces, 1986). In 2015 the band's website introduced La Rocque as the only member apart from King Diamond who had been there since the band began (the band's former website).

The band's first record was a Christmas single, "No Presents for Christmas". It had been recorded in June 1985, but the deal with Roadrunner Records was not finalised until early December, and the single came out later that month (Metal Forces, 1986). The new band's first concert was at the Saga in Copenhagen (Metal Forces, 1986), and its debut album, Fatal Portrait, came out on Roadrunner Records in 1986 (official site; Metal Forces, 1986).

The Roadrunner years and the concept albums from Abigail (1987-1990)

The second album, Abigail (1987), was the first of the many concept albums the band would go on to make (Decibel, 2015). It was played by King Diamond, Andy La Rocque, Michael Denner, Timi Hansen and Mikkey Dee (Decibel, 2015), and it was Denner's and Hansen's last record with the band (the band's former website). Denner left partway through the Abigail tour and Mike Moon took over; the only recording Moon plays on is In Concert 1987: Abigail, the live album from that tour. Pete Blakk then replaced Moon, and Hal Patino replaced Hansen on bass (the band's former website).

With the albums Them (1988), Conspiracy (1989) and The Eye (1990), the band released five studio albums on Roadrunner Records in all (Mercyful Fate's official site; Lex), and the EP The Dark Sides came out in 1988 (Metal Blade Records; MusicBrainz). Mikkey Dee left after Them but was brought back to record Conspiracy, and Snowy Shaw played the drums from the Conspiracy tour onwards. The band's former website reports that most of The Eye was recorded with a drum computer and that Shaw played on only parts of it (the band's former website).

The silence after The Eye, and Mercyful Fate's return (1990-1994)

After The Eye, the band released no new album for five years. For a time in between, the band had a line-up that included the guitarist Mike Wead, who would later become a full member, and according to the band's former website it was this line-up that was meant to record the next album, The Spider's Lullabye (the band's former website).

In the summer of 1992 Mercyful Fate decided to reunite, signed with Brian Slagel's Metal Blade Records and in 1993 released In the Shadows, followed by an American tour (Mercyful Fate's official site). The reunited band made five albums by 1999 (Gaffa, 2016), and after 9, released that year, it toured Europe with Metallica; on that tour King Diamond and Hank Shermann joined Metallica on stage several times for the medley of Mercyful Fate songs that Metallica had recorded for Garage Inc. in 1998 (Mercyful Fate's official site). Mike Wead played with Mercyful Fate too, standing in for Michael Denner on the European tour for Into the Unknown (the band's former website).

To Dallas (1992-1995)

In 1992 King Diamond himself moved to Dallas, Texas. He later recalled that Vinnie Paul and Pantera were among the very first to welcome him there (Blabbermouth, 2018). In 2015 the band's website described him as living in Dallas with his wife (the band's former website), and in 2010 his home base was Frisco, a suburb of Dallas (Blabbermouth, 2010; Louder, 2016).

The band came back to life with a new line-up. In September and October 1994 the singer recorded and mixed The Spider's Lullabye at The Dallas Sound Lab with Andy La Rocque, the guitarist Herb Simonsen, the bassist Chris Estes and the drummer Darrin Anthony, and La Rocque also served as assistant producer (the band's former website). Simonsen, Estes and Anthony had all played in a band called Mindstorm (the band's former website).

Massacre Records and Metal Blade Records (1995-2000)

The Spider's Lullabye was released in 1995 by Massacre Records in Europe and Metal Blade Records in America (MusicBrainz; Metal Blade Records), and The Graveyard (1996), Voodoo (1998) and House of God (2000) came out on the same two labels (MusicBrainz).

Over these years the line-up changed bit by bit. Darrin Anthony left after a serious car accident, and from the European tour for The Graveyard the drummer was John Luke Hebert, formerly of Chastain. Herb Simonsen was replaced by Glen Drover during the Voodoo tour, and Chris Estes by Dave Harbour on the House of God tour (the band's former website). In 2026 King Diamond said that Estes and Simonsen, like most of those who had left along the way, had gone because long tours could not be reconciled with family life (Blabbermouth, 2026).

On the European tour for House of God, Mike Wead took over the guitar from Glen Drover and Matt Thompson the drums from John Luke Hebert, and Hal Patino came back in place of Dave Harbour (the band's former website). Wead and Thompson were still in the band in 2026 (Blabbermouth, 2026).

From Abigail II: The Revenge to Give Me Your Soul...Please (2002-2009)

Abigail II: The Revenge (2002) was the first album with Hal Patino back on bass, and the line-up of King Diamond, Andy La Rocque, Mike Wead, Patino and Matt Thompson held through Give Me Your Soul...Please in 2007 (the band's former website; Lex). The records of these years were The Puppet Master (2003), the double live album Deadly Lullabyes (2004) and Give Me Your Soul...Please (2007) (Lex; Metal Blade Records). In Europe, Abigail II: The Revenge came out on Metal Blade Records, and The Puppet Master and Give Me Your Soul...Please on Massacre Records (MusicBrainz).

"Never Ending Hill", from Give Me Your Soul...Please, was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Metal Performance category (Blabbermouth, 2014). The video for the title track, shot in September 2007, was the band's first video in seventeen years (Blabbermouth, 2010).

In August 2008 King Diamond joined Metallica on stage at Ozzfest in Dallas to sing the Mercyful Fate medley from Garage Inc., and in 2009 he appeared, alongside Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, as a playable character in the game Guitar Hero: Metallica (Metal Blade Records).

Heart surgery in 2010 and the return to the stage (2010-2012)

On 29 November 2010 King Diamond was taken to hospital by ambulance. According to the update published by his wife, Livia Zita, tests showed that he had had several heart attacks and that three arteries of his heart were blocked, and he underwent open-heart triple-bypass surgery. The operation took about seven hours, and ten days after the ambulance had taken him in he was back at home (Blabbermouth, 2010). He said later that he and his wife had given up smoking, that he had changed his diet and that he walked five days a week (Blabbermouth, 2014).

King Diamond first stood on a stage again on 7 December 2011, at the Fillmore in San Francisco, at one of the fan-club shows celebrating Metallica's 30th anniversary, together with his Mercyful Fate bandmates Hank Shermann, Timi Hansen and Michael Denner (Blabbermouth, 2012).

The band's own return came on 9 June 2012 at the Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg, where Hank Shermann and Michael Denner of Mercyful Fate, Michael Poulsen of Volbeat and Mikkey Dee, then of Motörhead, joined it as guests. On 15 June it played Hellfest in Clisson, France (Blabbermouth, 2012). According to Metal Blade Records, the band had never taken a bigger stage production on the road than at those two festivals (Metal Blade Records). In December 2012 it signed a new worldwide deal with Metal Blade Records for three albums (Blabbermouth, 2014).

Abigail again and Songs for the Dead Live (2013-2019)

Between 2013 and 2018 the band played festivals including Rock Hard Festival and Wacken Open Air in Germany, Copenhell in Denmark, Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium, Bloodstock Open Air in Britain and Psycho Las Vegas in the United States (Blabbermouth, 2026).

In July 2014 the bassist Hal Patino left the band: King Diamond announced that Patino had been relieved of his duties, while Patino said that he had quit. From the show at Gröna Lund in Stockholm on 25 July the bass was played by the Swede Pontus Egberg, known from The Poodles and Lion's Share, who became a full member in December (Blabbermouth, 2014).

November 2014 brought Dreams of Horror, a best-of album of 23 songs chosen from both the Roadrunner and the Metal Blade years and remastered by King Diamond and Andy La Rocque (BraveWords, 2015). From 29 October to 5 December 2015 the band toured North America with Exodus as the opening act, playing Abigail in its entirety (BraveWords, 2015).

Songs for the Dead Live, a DVD and Blu-ray released by Metal Blade Records in January 2019, captures two shows, at the Fillmore in Philadelphia in November 2015 and at Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium in June 2016, and Abigail is played in full at both. The line-up was King Diamond, Andy La Rocque, Mike Wead, Pontus Egberg and Matt Thompson (Blabbermouth, 2018).

Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920 and the singles (2019-2026)

After presenting a new stage show and new songs at European festivals in the summer of 2019, the band revealed in August the title of its first studio album in twelve years, The Institute, and said that a first single would come that autumn and the album in 2020 (Blabbermouth, 2019). That first single, "Masquerade of Madness", came out in November 2019 as the band's first new song in twelve years; the story was set in an asylum in the 1920s and was then to be told over two albums (Loudwire, 2019). Andy La Rocque wrote the music, and King Diamond reworked parts of it and wrote the lyrics (Blabbermouth, 2022). In November and December 2019 the band toured North America (Blabbermouth, 2019 and 2026).

In the years that followed King Diamond also sang with the reunited Mercyful Fate, which played 36 concerts in Europe, the United States and Mexico in 2022 (Loudwire, 2019; Mercyful Fate's official site). In October 2023 a music video for "Masquerade of Madness" was released (Blabbermouth, 2024).

The North American tour that opened at the Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas, on 15 October 2024 and ran to Dallas on 6 December carried the name Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920, with Overkill and Night Demon in support. "Spider Lilly" was played for the first time on the opening night, another new song, "Electro Therapy", was also in the set, and the Danish singer Myrkur joined the band on backing vocals and keyboards (Blabbermouth, 2024). According to King Diamond, the album's title changed from The Institute to Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920 around the start of that tour (Blabbermouth, 2025).

On 17 December 2024 "Spider Lilly" was released as a single, the first from Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920, part one of a horror trilogy. King Diamond wrote the music and the lyrics, Arthur Rizk mixed and mastered it, and Myrkur sings backing vocals on it. Part of the video was filmed at Pennhurst Asylum outside Philadelphia two days before Halloween, during the tour (Blabbermouth, 2024).

In the summer of 2025 the band toured Europe at length (Blabbermouth, 2026). In July King Diamond told fans that he had been diagnosed with strep throat, and four shows, in Dunaújváros in Hungary, Vienna, Bucharest and Sofia, were cancelled (Loudwire, 2025).

On 28 October 2025 Denmark's state arts foundation, Statens Kunstfond, named King Diamond as one of the five artists to receive its lifelong honorary grant that autumn, citing his work with both Mercyful Fate and his own band (Statens Kunstfond).

The new album was slow in coming. In March 2026 Andy La Rocque said the goal was to release it that year, but in June he admitted that nobody knew when it would arrive (Blabbermouth, 2026).

Andy La Rocque leaves, Gus G. joins (2026)

On 24 July 2026 the band announced that it was parting ways with Andy La Rocque and that Gus G., the founder of Firewind and Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist from 2009 to 2017, was joining. King Diamond's statement said that after forty years the band and La Rocque had decided together to go separate ways. Gus G. was to write, record and tour with the band while carrying on with Firewind and his solo work (Blabbermouth, 2026). Two days later, on 26 July, Gus G. said in a video that he was a fan himself and that La Rocque had sent him a message wishing him well (Blabbermouth, 2026).

In September King Diamond told Metal Injection that the split was not about any one thing but the result of a gradual drifting apart, mentioned that he had sensed La Rocque was not keen on the band's new touring plans, and said the two would remain friends; La Rocque's other band, Lex Legion, had played no part in it. Gus G. had been suggested first by Hank Shermann of Mercyful Fate and then by Brian Slagel, the founder of Metal Blade Records. In the same interview King Diamond said that the new story would run over three albums, that the lyrics for all three were written, and that Mercyful Fate's new album would be finished first (Blabbermouth, 2026).

Members

The line-up announced on 24 July 2026 is these five (Blabbermouth, 2026).

Member	Role	Years
King Diamond (real name Kim Bendix Petersen)	Vocals	1985-
Gus G.	Guitar	2026-
Mike Wead	Guitar	For a time between The Eye and The Spider's Lullabye; from the European House of God tour
Pontus Egberg	Bass	2014- (a full member from December 2014)
Matt Thompson	Drums	From the European House of God tour

Former members (the band's former website; Metal Forces, 1986; Blabbermouth):

Member	Role	Years
Andy La Rocque	Guitar	1985-2026
Michael Denner	Guitar	1985 to the Abigail tour of 1987
Timi Hansen	Bass	1985 to Abigail (died in November 2019)
Mikkey Dee	Drums	1985 to Them; the Conspiracy recording sessions
Floyd Konstantin	Guitar	1985 (let go before the first album was recorded)
Mike Moon	Guitar	The Abigail tour of 1987
Pete Blakk	Guitar	Them to The Eye
Hal Patino	Bass	Them to The Eye; Abigail II: The Revenge to 2014
Snowy Shaw	Drums	The Conspiracy tour to The Eye
Herb Simonsen	Guitar	The Spider's Lullabye to the Voodoo tour
Chris Estes	Bass	The Spider's Lullabye to Voodoo (replaced on the House of God tour)
Darrin Anthony	Drums	The Spider's Lullabye and The Graveyard
John Luke Hebert	Drums	The European Graveyard tour to the American House of God tour
Glen Drover	Guitar	The Voodoo tour to House of God
Dave Harbour	Bass	The American House of God tour

Japan

The band's first concert in Japan was to have been at Loud Park 13, the two-day festival Creativeman Productions held at Saitama Super Arena on 19 and 20 October 2013, where the band was billed for the second day. On 2 October the festival announced the appearance as the band's first visit to Japan at last and promised the largest stage set the band had ever used, the one it had taken to festivals abroad (Loud Park, 2013).

The appearance was called off on 18 October, the day before the festival opened. According to the festival's notice, the ship carrying the band's equipment had been delayed and, despite every effort, the gear could not reach Japan in time; a show on substitute equipment was discussed, but the band was firm that it would play only on its own, so the appearance was cancelled. There were no refunds, and the second day's running order was redrawn (Loud Park, 2013; rockinon.com, 2013).

On the same day King Diamond himself posted a statement on the band's website saying that it was the promoter, not the band, that had cancelled. By his account the whole production, instruments and effects included, had been trucked from Copenhagen to the port of Hamburg and loaded onto a ship bound for Ningbo in China, whose arrival was then put back by six days; a plan to truck the cargo from Ningbo to Shanghai and fly it to Narita on a freighter was being worked out, with help from the promoter's side. The band would not accept the promoter's proposals to play two shows the following year on rented gear and without a fee should the cargo miss the festival, or to have the stage set rebuilt within a few days. Some of the band's party were already flying to Japan when the e-mail calling the show off arrived. Besides the money, the singer wrote, the band lost a planned ten-camera filming of the show for a future video release and the chance to show a Japanese audience what its concerts are like, and he apologised to the fans (the band's website, 2013).

About the sources

The sources are King Diamond's official website (kingdiamondcoven.com); the band's former website as preserved by the Internet Archive, with its members page and album pages (2015); Mercyful Fate's official website (mercyfulfatecoven.com); Metal Blade Records' artist page and release pages; the announcement of Denmark's state arts foundation, Statens Kunstfond; Blabbermouth.net; BraveWords; Loudwire; Louder (a Classic Rock feature); Decibel; a 1986 interview in the British magazine Metal Forces; the Danish music magazine Gaffa; and the Danish encyclopedia Lex. The European and American labels of the albums and the years of the singles, the EP and the compilations were checked against MusicBrainz, and the year of Abigail II: The Revenge also against the official Finnish chart.