|| hide's life ||
Matsumoto Hideto was born on December 13, 1964 in Kanagawa, Yokohama Japan. hide was a Visual Kei J-Rock musician.

From when he was little, hide loved guitars. When he first started, he only played other peoples music, but slowly began to compose his own.

When he was enrolled in primary school, hide was overweight, and often teased by his classmates. He was somewhat of an outcast, keeping mainly to himself. In secondary II, hide went over to America to study, and that was when he first got into metal music. He listened to bands such as Kiss, that got him started on his musical carrier. In Secondary III, hide bought his first guitar. It was a Gibson, and he loved it so much, he would often bring it with him to school, thereby earning the nickname 'Gibson' from his classmates.

In his late teens, hide led the controversial indie act Saver Tiger (not to be confused with Saber Tiger; in the Japanese phonetic language, the v and b are interchangeable. Saber Tiger is a different band that is still active in the Japanese HM scene). In addition to handling the guitar-playing, hide also served as songwriter. Selections of Saver Tiger's recordings (credited as Yokosuka Saver Tiger, to avoid confusion with Saber Tiger) have recently seen official release.

Although popular in their native town of Yokosuka, Saver Tiger underwent several band member changes. Frustrated and convinced he would not succeed in the music business, hide began looking into a career as a hair stylist, inspired by his grandmother, who was the town's hairdresser at that time. hide said that he didn't like to work or learn, nor did he enjoy any sports, though he did like to watch wrestling on TV. He then received a call from Yoshiki, inviting him to join X. hide joined, spawning a decade as a songwriter and guitarist for the (soon to be) notable X (later renamed X Japan to eliminate confusion with the Los Angeles punk band of the same name), with bandmates Yoshiki, Toshi, Pata, and Heath (Taiji played bass until 1992). X Japan released multiple albums, including Blue Blood, Jealousy, and Dahlia, and numerous popular singles such as Kurenai, Tears, Forever Love and Art of Life.

Shortly after the release of Art of Life, the members of X Japan went on hiatus as a group and began solo projects. hide recorded his first album Hide Your Face in 1994. On the album he recorded all the guitars (including bass guitars) and vocals. He hired a band to play with him on his Hide Our Psychommunity Tour. Two years later, hide recorded his second album Psyence, which is widely considered his best album for its remarkable versatility. Thus began the Psyence A Go Go Tour involving the same back-up band.

A collaboration with American band members developed into Zilch, for which hide wrote songs, played guitar, and provided vocals. Zilch released one album 3.2.1. and an album of remixes BastardEYES containing mixes by artists including Praga Khan, Charlie Clouser, Pitchshifter, and Chris Vrenna. Although the plans never truly materialized, hide had hoped to bring Zilch to the North American mainstream. Nevertheless, one of their songs did see official release in the occident, as part of the soundtrack for Heavy Metal 2000.

Around the same time, hide decided that the back up band he'd had with him since Hide Your Face should simply become his band. He called them Spread Beaver, making their full name hide with Spread Beaver, for which hide composed, sang, and played surf guitar. They began recording Ja, Zoo, their first album. Midway through recording however, hide was found dead. The remainder of the album was recorded with pre-existing recordings and the help of hide's brother, Hiroshi Matsumoto. After this began a heartfelt tour with the band playing live while videos of hide's previous performances were projected onto a big screen. The tour sold out every night.

A wide array of hide tribute records have been released in the years after his passing. Shortly after his death, a hide tribute album called Spirits was released, which included Luna Sea's version of Scanner, BUCK-TICK's version of Doubt, and Oblivion Dust's cover of Genkai Haretsu. In March of 2000, an 18-track best-of was released, called ~Psychommunity~. A plethora of other singles, compilations, and mix albums have continued to maintain hide's presence in record stores across Japan and elsewhere in the world. 2004 saw the release of a new hide solo album, King of Psyborg Rock Star, a blend of remixes, live recordings, and hide-only versions of X Japan songs.

|| hide's death ||
On May 1st, he was taped at Fuji TV studios and his segment was scheduled to appear on ROCKET PUNCH!, a popular Fuji TV music program; the last promotional work towards his career he ever did.

hide died on May 2, 1998. A roommate put hide down in bed after a night of drinking, but when she went to check on him an hour later, he was not in his room. hide was found hanged with a ripped towel in his apartment bathroom, the towel wrapped around (or tied) to the doorknob. He was barely alive when the ambulance arrived, and later died in the hospital around 8:32 in the morning. He was 33 years old.

There is much debate as to the true nature of hide's death. Some say it was an accidental death, explaining that he was drunk; hide left no suicide note. Others cite the suicide of INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence, who was reputed to have died from hanging in an attempt to gratify himself through autoerotic asphyxiation. hide was known for performing stunts in attempts to scare others, and some suspect his death to be a stunt gone wrong. Taiji, who played in X Japan with hide for several years, offered a possible explanation for hide's death in his book X no Sei to Shi: Uchuu wo Kaeru Tomo e. He explained that after performing shows, the band members would often tie towels around their shoulders and necks to relieve muscle stress. Taiji implies that hide had most likely tied a towel on in such a manner (and one can subsequently assume that he had fallen against the door and was ultimately unable to free himself). Although many fans support Taiji's suggestion, others have preferred to see hide's death as a purposeful incident, not wanting to see hide's death as an accident. These fans have speculated that his song Pink Spider was a musical suicide note (the song was hide's final single and music video released before his passing. It features a woman jumping off a building to her death).

hide's funeral was held at the Buddhist temple, Tsukiji Hongan-ji, in Tsukiji, Tokyo on May 7th, 1998. Over 70,000 people attended. Streets were closed off, and police had to deploy boats, helicopters, 100 officers, and 170 security guards to the temple to control the emotional crowd. By the end of day, 26 people had been hospitalized for various injuries. There is still a small memorial and guest book at the temple you can find it on the far left on entering the main hall.

hide's death and funeral was announced by CNN and other TV channels around the world, despite only being a household name within Japan.

The remaining members of X Japan performed Forever Love at the funeral, and the band leader Yoshiki gave a speech. He was crying and shaking so hard that he was struggling to hold onto the paper he had written the speech on.

hide was known to be upbeat, a joker and party-loving, adding to the confusions as to why such a person would choose to escape his problems through suicide.