Hollywood Undead

Formation (2005–2007)

The band originated in 2005 from a song titled "The Kids" that Jorel Decker (J-Dog) and Aron Erlichman (Deuce) posted on the band's MySpace profile to positive reviews, leading them to form the group Hollywood Undead with their friends "Shady" Jeff Philips, George Ragan (Johnny 3 Tears), Jordon Terrell (Charlie Scene), Dylan Alvarez (Funny Man), and Matthew St. Claire (Da Kurlzz). In an interview with Shave magazine, J-Dog explained that when forming the band "Whoever was in the room at the time and played an instrument was in the band."^[2] Shady Jeff was later voted out of the band for reasons currently unknown to the public. He currently works as a mechanic and is working on converting diesel cars into vehicles that can run on vegetable oil.^[3]

Swan Songs, Desperate Measures, and Record Deal (2007–2009)

The band only took one year working on their debut album, Swan Songs. The other two years were spent looking for a company that wouldn't try to censor the album. They first signed a record contract with MySpace Records in 2005 but they left the label after the label tried to censor their first album.^[4] They then signed a contract with A&M/Octone Records and their first album, Swan Songs was released on September 2, 2008^[5] and reached No.22 on theBillboard 200 in its first week of release, selling 21,000 copies;^[6] which was later on released in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2009 with two bonus tracks.^[7] On June 23, 2009, Hollywood Undead released Swan Songs B-Sides EP through iTunes.

The band released a CD/DVD set entitled Desperate Measures on November 10, 2009. The set includes a CD of previously unreleased six new songs, three of which are cover songs, as well a previously unreleased remix of "Everywhere I Go", and six live recordings of songs from Swan Songs, and a DVD of a full live performance by the band.^[8][9] In December 2009, the band won Best Crunk/Rock Rap Artist at the Rock on Request Awards.^[10]         

Departure of Deuce

In early 2010, the band announced that singer, Deuce, had left the band due to musical differences. Hints of Deuce's departure were noticed when he did not take part in the Vatos Locos tour. After a couple weeks on tour, the band asked long-time friend, Daniel Murillo, to fill in for Deuce's role. This was not too long after Murillo had just advanced past the auditions for season 9 of American Idol.^[11]Murillo decided to drop out of the competition and join the band. Daniel Murillo was also the lead singer of the band, Lorene Drive, which is currently on hiatus due to his involvement with Hollywood Undead.^[12] Deuce later released a song titled Story of a Snitch against the group, claiming he was kicked out. The band stated that they didn't want to "stoop to his level" and chose to simply ignore the controversy. In mid-January, the band announced Daniel Murillo was an official member, going by the nickname of "Danny".

Not much was known about the situation until the subject was brought up by interviewer Byan Stars on YouTube.^[13] Johnny 3 Tears and Da Kurlzz told the interviewer that the band had to constantly satisfy Deuce while touring. "It was so bad, that I don't think there would've been another record if he was still with us", Da Kurlzz told the interviewer. "We bent over backwards to accommodate Deuce", he said. Johnny 3 Tears, growing weary about the subject, said, "It was just that he didn't like being on the road, so we would have to do things to make him happy. He also claimed to be writing all the songs, and all this B.S.". The band decided to drop the subject afterwards, saying that they have moved on from the situation and would prefer not putting in too much detail.

Martini Beerman of rock.com interviewed Charlie Scene and J-Dog, and the two decided to explain the final events that led up to the split.^[14] Charlie Scene told the interviewer, "He wanted to have his personal assistant come on the tour. None of us have personal assistants, we're not egomaniacs. We don't need that, and he wanted the band to pay for it and we did for like four months. After that we were like, 'we're not gonna pay $800 a week to have your buddy out on tour. We went to the airport to fly out for our next tour, and he didn't show up. We were like, what the fuck do we do? We called him and he didn't answer. So for the first 2 weeks of that tour, I sang all his parts."