John Lone

� John Lone� was born on(December 3rd 1962)� the lead� guitarist and� stage helper� of American� heavy metal/rock band Slipknot. Together with Chris Fehn, he is one of the founding members of the band.Musical Beginnings

John's� father was a computer software reviewer and would occasionally give Shimon some copies for personal use. One of these programs was a teach yourself to play guitar program. Shimon instantly became obsessed with learning how to play guitar. Shimon also later took guitar lessons, but says that he learned most of what he knows by just messing around. During this time, he also learned how to play drums. While attending Mosman High School on Sydney's north shore in the summer of 1997, he met Emma Anzai in the band room. They had both reserved the room at the same time and argued to determine who would receive access to the room. Through this argument they determined that they both had a strong love for Silverchair and Green Day. For the first few times they played, Shimon played the drums while Emma played guitar. They determined that in order to play any gigs, they would need a full time drummer. They used a few different drummers for small gigs, but none could keep up. One night Shimon met a taxi driver who nominated his son for the vacant drummer position. They recruited Chris Mileski to play drums, Shimon moved to guitar and Emma took up the bass guitar. Their initial influences were Red Hot Chili Peppers, Limp Bizkit, and Silverchair.

[edit] Triple J Unearthed
The Sick Puppies Entered the Australian band competition Triple J Unearthed 2000 in Sydney[1]. Their song, Nothing Really Matters, won the contest and helped them secure a management agreement and a record contract. They used this to tour Australia for the year until their record label folded and they became an independent band[2].

[edit] Welcome to the Real World
The band used the contract won at Unearthed to record their first studio album, Welcome to the Real World. This album featured their first few singles such as Rock Kids, Fly, Every Day and Nothing really Matters. Only a few thousand copies of this album were pressed and it has since become a collectors item.

[edit] All the Same
While working at a job that required him to wear a sandwich board that advertised half price shoes at the Pitt Street Mall, Shimon met a man who was walking around with a sign stating Free Hugs. Intrigued, Shimon gave the man a hug and asked him "Why was he doing this?" Juan Mann responded by saying "I like making people smile after leaving my company." Shimon thought this was the coolest idea he had even seen in his life. Shimon had just watched Morgan Spurlock's documentary on McDonalds and he decided to make a documentary on Juan Mann. Shimon had always been interested in making films and felt that such a beautiful act needed to be filmed. About three or four weeks after Shimon had met Juan, he began to film him for one day a week for two months. Shim used his dad's video camera to film Juan on his journey around Sydney and created the Free Hugs video, which was featured on YouTube. While filming around the city, several law enforcement agencies stopped them from filming due to their lack of liability insurance. Juan began a petition and within a few weeks he had received over ten thousand signatures. Moore originally made the video for Mann to cheer him up in the wake of his grandmother's death. But while editing the film, Emma Anzai suggested adding the song All the Same as a soundtrack to the film and posting it on YouTube for the whole world to see and enjoy. They posted the video on a Friday and by Sunday it had over two hundred and fifty thousand views[3]. It became a YouTube hit and inspired hundreds of other Free Hugs videos and movements across the globe.