Jess Margera

Jess Margera was born as Jesse Phillip Margera in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on August 28, 1978, to Phil Margera and April Margera. Both of his parents are connected with the show business. His younger brother Bam Margera is a professional skateboarder and filmmaker. Jess acknowledges that he is deeply influenced by ‘Led Zeppelin’ drummer John Bonham as well as by jazz drummer Elvin Jones.

He married Kelly on October 29, 2005, and has three children named Ava, Scarlett, and London Philip Margera.

Jess Margera started playing for different bands in 1991; one such band was ‘Soalroach’ which also had his brother Bam and friend Ryan Dunn. He later formed a band named ‘Foreign Objects’ with his friend Deron Miller who would eventually become the lead guitarist and vocalist of ‘Camp Kill Yourself’. In 1995, the band released its first EP titled ‘The Undiscovered Numbers & Colors’, containing five tracks, all written by Deron Miller.

The duo later collaborated with Chad I Ginsburg (a guitarist and vocalist) and decided to change the name of the band to ‘Camp Kill Yourself’ (Aka CKY). Jess performed as the drummer of the band and also wrote songs for one of its recordings ‘Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild’ in 2002. The same year, Jess also joined the comedy band named ‘Gnarkill’ which had his brother Bam on keyboards, Rich Vose as the guitarist, and Brandon DiCamillo on vocals. It released two studio albums: ‘Gnarkill’ in 2002 and ‘GnarKill vs. Unkle Matt and the ShitBirdz’ in 2006.

With ‘Camp Kill Yourself’ going strong, Jess also associated himself with other bands and collaborated on a number of recording projects. In 2007, he performed in two of ‘Viking Skull’s studio recordings named ‘Chapter Two’ and ‘Blackened Sunrise’. He also performed for the band later in its two other recordings ‘Doom, Gloom, Heartache & Whiskey’ and ‘Cursed By the Sword’.

In 2007, Jess Margera formed ‘The Company Band’, a supergroup featuring ‘Fireball Ministry’ front man James Rota and Clutch front man Neil Fallon. With the later recruitment of Dave Bone and bassist Jason Diamond, the band became official and released their debut EP ‘Sign Here, Here and Here’ in 2007. The band also recorded two more EPs, ‘The Company Band’ and ‘Pros & Cons’ in 2009 and 2012 respectively.

After the release of ‘Camp Kill Yourself’s fourth studio album ‘Carver City’ in 2009, the band started facing some problems and each member became concerned about the future of the band. While the other members were interested in making further recordings, guitarist Ginsburg was more interested in releasing solos. Ginsburg soon left the band due to personal reasons (which were reported to be connected with his drinking problems) but later returned. The band released their most recent recording titled ‘The Phoenix’ in 2017.