All About Matty Healy, The 1975’s Lead Singer and Rhythm Guitarist
matty healy #mattyhealy
Here’s everything to know about Healy, including his A-list collaborations and eyebrow-raising on-stage antics
Get to know Matty Healy, the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of The 1975.
The musician, 34, is best known as the frontman of the English pop-rock band that originated in Manchester during his early high school years in 2002.
Since then, Healy and his 1975 members — bassist Ross MacDonald, guitarist Adam Hann and drummer George Daniel — have seen success with hits like “Chocolate,” their breakthrough hit and most successful single after its 2013 release.
In addition to topping charts and racking up awards over the span of their five studio albums to date, the English alternative band has collaborated with some of the biggest names in music, like Grammy-winning producer Jack Antonoff and 12-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift.
While Healy’s widely known for being a member of The 1975, he’s also created a name for himself independently — in part due to his bold statements and performance-art hijinks, often making headlines and sending Twitter a buzz as a result.
His on-stage antics aside, the musician has spawned a number of viral moments due to his show-stopping performances — literally. At his band’s At Their Very Best tour stop in November 2022, he stirred up conversation for calling out security for failure to help a fallen fan at a concert… and for doing so in autotune.
“Someone’s fallen down over there,” Healy said in the clip, sounding something like a robot. “Go and f—in’ sort ’em out. Stop standing there like a bunch of d—heads.”
Fans of the group have taken a liking to the song’s new impromptu lyrics, with the original uploader of the clip jokingly calling the singer-songwriter a “beautiful lyrical genius.” The video has since earned nearly 170,000 likes on the platform.
Related:The 1975 Frontman Matty Healy Reveals He Was Addicted to Heroin: ‘I Don’t Want to Fetishize It’
Here’s everything to know about Healy, from his A-list collaborations to his jaw-dropping performances on stage.
He’s the son of actors Tim Healy and Denise Welch
It may not surprise you to find out Healy comes from a long line of entertainers: Both of his parents are British television actors — father Tim Healy (of Auf Wiedersehen) and mother Denise Welch (of Coronation Street and now a panelist on talk show Loose Women).
They welcomed Healy in 1989. He was born in London and grew up in Newcastle before moving to Wilmslow. Tim and Denise welcomed a second son, Louis, in 2001. Healy’s brother, now 22, is an actor like their parents.
He was originally the drummer in The 1975
Healy met his current band members at England’s Wilmslow High School in 2002, and they’ve been making music together since age 13. Prior to becoming the band’s lead singer and rhythm guitarist with the occasional piano, Healy originally played drums.
The musician told GQ about The 1975’s beginnings, explaining that he was approached by Adam Hann’s girlfriend at the time, who was recruiting on Hann’s behalf: “‘My boyfriend wants to start a band and knows that you play drums,” Healy recalled her saying.
“We all met up, and I was the drummer, and I was singing,” he said, adding that their initial lead singer left to join another band and things began to shift, especially when drummer George Daniel came on board.
“I was originally the drummer,” Healy continued. “but then I met George and it changed my life.”
In addition to his signature onstage cigarettes and bottle of malbec, Healy has a reputation for performance art during the band’s shows, including mid-song snogs during “Robbers” and snacking on raw meat on stage in front of several thousand fans.
During his band’s November 2022 concert at Madison Square Garden, the musician went viral for eating bites from a slab of raw steak following a round of shirtless pushups in a commentary on toxic masculinity. (Healy repeated the stunt again during various dates of The 1975’s At Their Very Best tour.)
Related:The 1975’s Matty Healy Calls Out Security in Autotune After Fan Falls at Concert: ‘Stop Standing There’
Even Healy’s mother tweeted that she “saw it too,” in response to a journalist who wrote: “There is no way I could possibly explain to my 18-year-old self that I just watched Matty Healy grope himself onstage and eat a raw steak before crawling into a television.” “Couldn’t be prouder,” Welch jokingly replied.
In September 2022, he initially dismissed talk of joining forces with Swift as “fake news,” but later admitted that he and his bandmates actually did work with the superstar on her album Midnights. However, he clarified in an interview that whatever they did create didn’t make the cut.
“We actually worked a bit on that but then the version of it never came out,” Healy said in an interview with KROQ’s Klein/Ally Show for Audacy’s DTS Sound Space. After the crowd booed the news of their scrapped collaboration, the “About You” singer was quick to defend Swift.
“It was for reasons that are not to be criticized,” he said. “She’s amazing.”
Related:The 1975’s Matty Healy Says Rumors He’ll Appear on Taylor Swift’s Midnights Are ‘Fake News’
Their music partnership was a long time coming; the two had a history of supporting each other’s music via merch, and in 2019 Healy said on The Green Room podcast that he’d be down to produce an acoustic record for her if she wanted. “I would never slag Taylor off, I think Taylor’s amazing,” he said at the time.
In early 2023, she joined The 1975 during one of their concerts to perform “Anti-Hero” for the first time and cover the band’s song “The City.”
He shares producer Jack Antonoff with Taylor Swift, among other acclaimed artists
The pair share producer Jack Antonoff in common, who is also the lead singer of rock band Bleachers. The eight-time Grammy winner (who took home the 2023 Grammy for producer of the Year) is also known for his collaborations with chart-toppers like Lana del Rey, Lorde, St. Vincent and Florence and the Machine.
In an August 2022 Pitchfork profile of Healy, The 1975 frontman said that Swift got an early listen of their album Being Funny in a Foreign Language “through Jack.” She was quoted in Healy’s profile, describing the record as “so funny.”
Antonoff is not the only collaborator Swift and Healy have in common. Phoebe Bridgers is another, who surprised fans at The 1975’s Los Angeles show in November 2022 for an acoustic performance of “Milk,” an early deep cut off the 1975’s second EP. Swift, meanwhile, recruited Bridgers for a feature on “Nothing New (Taylor’s Version),” a vault track off Fearless.
The 1975 turned down a stadium tour with Ed Sheeran
Healy turned heads in September 2022 when he revealed that The 1975 declined an offer to open for Ed Sheeran on a four-month string of stadium concerts, despite a large paycheck.
“It’s difficult to be big and say — genuinely — that I have zero commercial ambition,” Healy told The New York Times of his decision. “I tend to say no to stuff for money.”
“I don’t know how you can write this up without it being rude or inappropriate, but I just got offered a four-month tour next year of stadiums with the biggest singer-songwriter in the world that would’ve made me money that I’ve never even seen or heard of in my life,” he said in reference to Sheeran.
Related:The 1975’s Matty Healy Explains Why Band Turned Down Lots of ‘Money’ to Open for Ed Sheeran’s Tour
Healy made clear that he doesn’t have anything against Sheeran, however. He was simply just not interested in the money. “I don’t care. It’s not worth it,” he said.
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