Love him or hate him, but if you’ve been listening to the alternative/rock genre of music for a while you most definitely are familiar with the name Ronnie Radke. Rock sensation? King of the Music Scene? This is for you to find out and fans (or haters) to decide. If you haven’t heard of the infamous Ronald Joseph Radke you may have not been into music news much, but that is soon about to change.
The Beginning of his Journey:

Ronnie Radke was first introduced to the music scene with his band Escape the Fate, back in September of 2005 when they won a local radio contest. Ronnie was the lead singer and created the band with his long time friend Max Green, who played bass for the band as well. This wasn’t any old contest, however, as it was judged by the popular punk band, My Chemical Romance. They received possibly the biggest honor a striving band could want at that time- a gig to open for My Chemical Romance on their tour with Alkaline Trio and Reggie and the Full Effect. This ultimately lead them to sign a record deal with Epitaph Records, and by 2006 their debut album, Dying is Your Latest Fashion, was released. It seemed as the band, with Ronnie in it, was only heading uphill. However, this was shockingly not the case. Ronnie and Max had addiction problems, which pulled them down immensely.

It seemed as this was the summit of his band (and life) but it was rather rock bottom for Radke. In May of 2006 he got involved in an altercation that led to the death of Michael Cook, a young 18 year old, and even though he was not directly involved in this shooting he had battery charges against him. Because of his past troubles with rehab this mixed with the charges, and he was put on five years probation. He failed to meet with his parole officer in 2008 and was sentenced to two years in jail. By mid-2008 he was fired from the band he created with his once dearest friend Max, Escape the Fate.

Carrying On:

Many would call this an all time low for Radke. Most people wouldn’t look at being in prison as a good thing in a million years, but paying his time truly paid off for Ronnie in the long run. During his two years in prison he became clean and started writing music for a new band. He didn’t give up hope, and continued on with the career he loved…making music. He wrote over 25 songs during his time in prison and even set up a new band, Falling in Reverse.

Radke has committed himself to staying sober, and makes it strict that he wants to be as far away from drugs as possible. He vows to never again be sucked into the life controlling addiction that he once was under. He kept pressing forward, becoming an inspiration for many fans that look up to his music and even himself as a person.
Fans looked up to the fact he was continuing on with life. Even before Escape the Fate he had a rough life, including the fact his mother left him and his brother, never returning. He was raised by a father who dealt with drug problems himself, and his mother was also an addict when she was there. However Ronnie went on. He kept breaking barriers and trying his best to continue on with life, not allowing his rough past to affect his future.
While still pressing on, by 2011 Radke was at his prime: front man of Falling in Reverse, their debut album was out (selling over 18,000 copies in its first week in the United States), and they were on their way to headlining tours across the country. Falling in Reverse had hundreds of fans that would do anything to meet their heroes. So Ronnie wouldn’t do anything to mess that up, right?

True Self?:

An attitude that many call egotistic started coming out of Radke, causing many fans to question why they even looked up to him. Someone who kept holding himself higher than others wasn’t a good role model in some people’s perspectives. Some of the many examples of when he proved to have an ego larger than himself were that he kicked out people at one of his concerts, who paid for their own ticket. They were chanting the name of a band that was kicked off of the tour by Radke, I See Stars. He even once tweeted, “people at our shows come to see us everything else is irrelevant. Nuff said,” This just proves how self absorbed he was. Instead of thanking other bands for touring with him on Falling in Reverse’s headlining tour, The Thug in Me is You, he said how they weren’t that important. How could one be so disrespectful to fellow bands that played on the same stage as him every night. He even implied that Falling in Reverse was the only band that mattered on the tour.

No matter, he still thanked and acknowledged the fans that were sticking with him. He thanks them, to this day, for loving him and caring so much for him. He respects them immeasurably but this just adds on to the mixed signals he gives off. Many don’t know how to feel about Radke, while others either despise or admire him.

Music Evolution:

No matter how many love the singer, he has lost and gained new fans from the new music he’s been posting. The album: Fashionably Late is set to release on June 18th, and what has been heard from it so far is as controversial as it can get.

The first single, “Alone”, was released with a music video on May 7th, and what it contained shocked and confused many fans. The once “rock” sound was practically gone: instead there was more of an electronic sound paired with rap. Many didn’t like this sudden jump, and there were many mixed reviews. Currently there is 36,227 likes on the music video (located on YouTube) and 33,238 dislikes. Comments are even disabled, not allowing opinions on this shift of music. These statistics are surprisingly close to one another, as previous singles were never so split with ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’.

On the music video for “Situations”, released by Escape the Fate when Ronnie was still in the band (to be specific it was uploaded on October 2, 2007), there is only 7,415 dislikes compared with 143,186 likes. There is a huge difference, showing that many enjoyed this song and weren’t undecided about it. Even on the official music video for “The Drug in Me is You” (uploaded on June 28th, 2011) there is now 118,249 likes with only 5,836 dislikes. Never were one of his singles so split, and some fans are upset with his shift in music that came from nowhere.

Reasoning Behind the Shift:

"My dad raised me on metal, but my first serious love was hip-hop…When we added hip-hop elements I was thinking, ‘Should I do this?...Are people going to like this?’ Now I’ve never been so proud of something. The final product… is the best work I’ve ever done.” This was part of an official statement by Radke explaining the sudden jump into such a new genre of music.

Other’s Opinions:

Once again he is sounding entirely sure of himself, and others have different opinions on what they have heard from the album. “(Alone) features…Radke rapping about how much better his life is than yours, including the line ‘what you spend in fifteen months is what I spend in fifteen minutes.’... For a man that has been through and accused of as much as Radke, he seems to have almost nothing original to say. God forbid he ever loses track of his ego…” this quote was taken from an article written by James Shotwell the same day the single was first released, and it shows how he feels about the sudden change, along with who he thinks Ronnie truly is.

Working on the Future:

There are not strict facts stating if Ronnie is egotistic or not, however it all depends on one’s viewpoint of him. It is hard to deny his talents on previous albums, and he is always making news. Whether it is positive or negative he is always out there in some way, and that makes Radke unique in some angles. He keeps on going, no matter what comes in his way.
Ronnie is also expecting his first child, a daughter, with his girlfriend. I wish him luck, and hope that all goes well. As for what is to become of Ronnie after we can only wait to see what will come next for the popular yet controversial artist.

UPDATE: Ronald Joseph Radke and his girlfriend Crissy Henderson had their first child, a 7lb 6 oz baby girl, Willow Radke, on June 11th, 2013 at 8:40 A.M.