Ronnie Radke's Real Name: Ronnie Radke

Quick answer: The singer is known as Ronnie Radke, and the music press reviewed uses only that name. Metal Hammer, writing on Louder, says he was born just outside Las Vegas in December 1983. He fronted Escape the Fate, served a prison term for a probation violation, and then launched Falling in Reverse.

Real name and early life

Every source used here, including Rolling Stone, the Las Vegas Weekly, Metal Hammer, and AllMusic, calls him Ronnie Radke. No longer legal name is confirmed by these sources.

Metal Hammer's 2015 feature says he was born just outside Las Vegas in December 1983 and grew up poor, with a father who went from drug addiction to born-again Christianity and a mother who left when he was less than a year old. The Las Vegas Weekly says he formed Escape the Fate with friends from Mojave High School.

Career highlights

The Las Vegas Weekly says Radke formed the post-hardcore band Escape the Fate in 2004 with Max Green, Robert Ortiz, Omar Espinosa, and Bryan "Monte" Money. It says the band signed with Epitaph Records and released the 2006 EP There's No Sympathy for the Dead and the album Dying Is Your Latest Fashion, which reached No. 12 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. The band later replaced him with Craig Mabbitt.

Legal case and prison term

The Las Vegas Weekly says Radke was present at a May 2006 fight in Las Vegas that ended in a fatal shooting, but he was never accused of firing a gun. It reports that in January 2008 he pleaded guilty to one count of battery with substantial bodily harm and was sentenced to five years' probation, ordered to pay restitution and enter drug treatment, and that he violated probation that August and went to prison. Rolling Stone and Metal Hammer both say he served about two and a half years. The Weekly, writing in May 2011, says he served the term at High Desert State Prison and was released the previous December.

Falling in Reverse

Metal Hammer says he developed the idea for Falling in Reverse while incarcerated, writing material for the debut album there and recruiting guitarist Jacky Vincent from a YouTube video. Rolling Stone reported in 2012 that the debut, The Drug in Me Is You, opened at No. 19 and that the band was moving to the Warped Tour main stage. Metal Hammer names later albums Fashionably Late (2013) and Just Like You.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Ronnie Radke, the Falling in Reverse singer, or the former Escape the Fate vocalist are looking for the same musician. Escape the Fate and Falling in Reverse are band names.