DJ Ashba

Ashba was born in Monticello, Indiana and was raised in rural Fairbury, Illinois by his religious single-mother, a classically trained pianist, who began teaching him about music as a toddler. Dj performed in his first piano recital at the age of five, where he played Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” Ashba’s next ambition was to learn the drums. He built kits out of garbage cans and pots and pans, until he finally acquired a real set at the age of six. When he was eight, Dj took a job detasseling corn in the fields in order to earn enough money to buy his first guitar out of the Sears catalog. He would ride to his job in the corn fields on the bus with a guitar player from a local band, who would teach him a new chord each day on a “fret” that they had carved into the back of a bus seat with a pocketknife. His friend would take the knife and make three holes in the fret and say, “That’s an A chord, go home and practice.” Dj sometimes spent 17 hours a day practicing guitar in his bedroom as a teenager. For his 16th birthday, Ashba’s father took him to his first concert, the Mötley Crüe Girls, Girls, Girls tour and his life was forever changed. “The crowd, the music, the lights! It was the night I realized that no matter what it takes, I was gonna be on that stage one day.” At the age of 18, Dj packed up his possessions and set out for Hollywood to make it as a rockstar.