1994-Courtney Taylor-TaylorVocals, guitar
Peter HolmströmGuitar
Zia McCabeBass
Eric HedfordDrums1994–1998
Brent DeBoerDrums1998-
The Dandy Warhols formed in Portland, Oregon when singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor met guitarist Pete Holmström while he was studying sociology, psychology, and music at Cascade College. Taylor-Taylor worked as a mechanic after graduating and also played drums in a local band called Nero's Rome before The Dandy Warhols took off.
The Dandy Warhols formed in 1994 but had some trouble finding a bass player at first. After an unsuccessful attempt to get lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor's girlfriend to play the instrument, the band invited Zia McCabe to join the band after Taylor-Taylor met her while she was working at a coffee shop.
David Bowie personally selected The Dandy Warhols to play at his Meltdown festival in 2002. Bowie also joined the band onstage to perform "White Light/White Heat" during the gig. The Dandys later supported Bowie on his 2003 A Reality tour.
The Dandy Warhols bassist Zia McCabe is so dedicated to her art that even she toured and recorded with the band while she was pregnant. McCabe finished her work on the band's 2005 album Odditorium or Warlords of Mars just one week before giving birth to her daughter, Matilda Louise.
In 1998, original Dandy Warhols drummer Eric Hedford left the band due to a dispute over royalties. Hedford was quickly replaced by frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor's cousin Brent DeBoer on drums.
Lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor from The Dandy Warhols once appeared on an episode of the TV show Vernoica Mars. The episode was called "Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang" and on it, Taylor-Taylor performed the song "Love Hurts." The Dandy's hit "We Used To Be Friends" also served as the show's theme song.
In 2010, The Dandy Warhols lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor contributed to a book called Sex Tips from Rock Stars by Paul Miles. The book chronicled the sexual adventures of twenty three rock stars and also included quotes from bands like Buckcherrry, Hoobastank, The Donnas, Eagles of Death Metal and Korn.
The Dandy Warhols lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor was born Courtney Taylor, but he informally added another "Taylor" to his name in 1999. It's unclear as to why exactly the singer took on the extra moniker, but one theory suggests that it came from an incident where he repeated his name for clarity while leaving a phone message. The recipient then mistook his last name as "Taylor-Taylor."
The 2004 movie Dig! followed The Dandy Warhols and another emerging band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre. The documentary, which was directed by Ondi Timoner, focused on Brian Jonestown Massacre lead singer Anton Newcombe and his wild behavior. Taylor-Taylor renounced the film, and told us that when he wrote the line "My darkest past is fading fast" in their song "I Am Free," it dealt with his reaction to the film. Said Taylor-Taylor: "After the major bulls--t dupe that was Dig! and being lied about and dragged thru the s--t so dishonestly in order for her to have a brief career sponged from the genius of Anton Newcombe. It took about five years till I realized that on tour we were back to being surrounded only by people I liked. It was amazing. We did a US tour and we tend to meet new people every day and it was extremely cleansing to find that we were back to meeting really interesting people everywhere again. When you do what you want you will attract people like you. When someone invents a persona for you and puts it into the world you will be surrounded by f--kheads until that false persona is forgotten."
After two decades on the road, the grind was beginning to wear Zia McCabe down. However, rather than taking the traditional rock 'n' roll route of escaping through drink or drugs, she became a licensed real estate agent. McCabe later combineed the two careers, selling homes in the daytime and gigging with the Dandy Warhols at night.
