some riki lee headcannons !
• he dyes his hair ! his hair is naturally black but he’s been getting it dyed ever since he was younger. he also spends lots of money and puts a lot of time into his hair (since it’s one of his most defining traits, in his opinion), and he gets touch-ups on his hair once every two weeks
• his birth name is richard lee dodson, but his stage name growing up was, of course, riki lee landslide ! he was a child star and got his first dose of fame when he was part of the family band, the dodsons. after a huge fallout with his family, as well as some life-changing events and rough things that riki can’t discuss without getting emotional (during that time, he was on a hiatus and had completely disappeared from the music scene), he reappeared under the name “riki lee” and was doing a completely different music style than he was with the dodsons
• the dodsons, the aforementioned family band he was in, specialized in country/blues (think of “act naturally” by loretta lynn) and later started specializing in a pop/soul style singing style. despite the dodsons being so famous, all riki really wanted to do was rock music, like aerosmith. when riki expressed this to the rest of the family, they were not pleased with him and they slowly started to treat him more as like an object rather than a person. as the group went on, the rest of riki’s family started to become more money-oriented and stopped really caring about the family aspect of the group. the last straw for riki was when physical violence and verbal abuse started to become a normality in the family (riki becoming the punching bag of the family, eventually), and riki couldn’t handle it anymore.
• riki refers to these rough years + his hiatus as his “black years” due to the fact that he stopped dying and styling his hair (leaving it black and straight), as well as the fact that he physically can’t talk about it without choking up. during these years he struggled with addiction, struggled with his mental health, and he mainly just avoided the spotlight as much as he could. he still sang when he spent all of those years at his home, but he didn’t plan on ever joining a band or even stepping on stage ever again. his inspiration to go back into music came when he saw various rockstars, such as axel steel and izzy sparks, start to get spotlight on channels such as MTV. from that point, he was inspired to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a world famous rock vocalist to both make himself happy, and to regain the power that he felt like he never had.
• riki made his return to music in 2007, starting off as a solo artist and slowly gaining the fame he once had. in 2009, his career took off once more when he formed a band with marcus fretshreder, shirley crowley, and matty cannz. when their first album debuted (titled “love kills slowly”, named after the perfume that shirley wears), they managed to get onto the billboard hot 100 in the first week.
• personality wise, riki is quite the character. he’s an extrovert to the core, always happy to be drawn in conversation about basically anything. to add onto that, he’s also quite boisterous and fun-loving. the snazzy and wild persona that he has while he’s on the stage is actually just him but a little bit amplified. he also seems to have endless stamina, is energetic, and is in other words completely insane. even with his rough past, riki finds solace and joy in music, and he’s proud to have made it as far as he has.
snowghoul
baratheonpilled
gummygunk
tangentwithtanner
ellievsbear
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind