Ivan Moody

Ivan L. Moody (born Ivan Lewis Greening on January 7, 1980) is an American singer and songwriter who is the lead vocalist of heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch (FFDP).

He performed for several other bands including Motograter and Ghost Machine before joining FFDP.

Moody was known by the pseudonym "Ghost" during his time with Motograter.

Moody was born Ivan Lewis Greening in Denver, Colorado.

Growing up, he lived in several smaller cities in the area, including Arvada, Castle Rock, Lakewood, Wheat Ridge, and Northglenn.

He said he spent a few summers with his grandmother in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

"My grandmother put me in choir when I was about seven years old. I was only in it about two or three years. Music's always been real close to my heart. Like anybody else, there were ups and downs in my life and music just always seemed to be consistent, so it was easy to latch on to. I started singing in bands when I was 16 years old. They used to kick me out of bars after my set was done."

Moody was interviewed for the book Full Metal: The 50 Most Influential Heavy Metal Songs of the 1980s and the True Stories Behind Their Lyrics.

He discusses the impact of Metallica's "Fade to Black" on him as a lyricist in a chapter about the song that also examines its social and cultural significance.

Moody has two daughters, born in 1998 and around 2013.

He owns a CBD dispensary called Moody's Medicinals.

Moody moved to Los Angeles in 2001, adopting the surname of Billy Moody, who had married his mother and was "like a father to me".

There, he joined his first band called Toiz.

The band played a few shows around the Los Angeles area in 2002 and made a demo which was not released.

The following year, Moody joined the nu metal band Motograter.

They released their self-titled studio album in June 2003, and gained some mainstream success playing the second stage at Ozzfest 2003 and touring with bands like Korn, Disturbed, Marilyn Manson, Nothingface, Slipknot, Mushroomhead, and Killswitch Engage.

Motograter went on a hiatus in 2005 but played a one-time reunion show in 2006 at the Delicious Rox Festival.

Moody also made songs with old roommates and family members, Ryan Morrow (bass), Bill Stonebraker (guitar), and Jim "Dugan" Demongey (drums), calling themselves Black Blood Orchestra.

Moody joined the heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch and his side project Ghost Machine released their self-titled debut album in July 2005.

Ghost Machine released their second album, Hypersensitive, in November 2006.

In the same year, Five Finger Death Punch entered the studio to record their debut album at Next Level Studios and Complex Studios in Los Angeles with Steve Bruno and Mike Sarkisyan.

The album was produced by guitarist Zoltan Bathory and drummer Jeremy Spencer and was mixed by former Machine Head and Soulfly guitarist Logan Mader.

Five Finger Death Punch achieved rapid commercial success: their debut album, The Way of the Fist (2007), has sold over 600,000 copies in the United States and spawned three top 10 singles.

Five Finger Death Punch played many major tours and festivals, including Korn's Family Values and Bitch We Have a Problem tours, the Jägermeister Stage at Mayhem Festival in 2008 and the main stage at Mayhem Festival in 2010 and 2013.

Their second album, War is the Answer (2009), sold more than 44,000 copies in its first week of release, spawned five top 10 singles, and has gone on to sell more than 700,000 copies.

Their even more successful third record, American Capitalist, debuted number 3 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold over 90,000 copies in its first week.

It was the band's third consecutive RIAA-certified Gold record.

They also performed at Download Festival in 2009, 2010, 2013, and 2015, and the Monster Stage at Rock on the Range in Columbus, Ohio in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014, as well as at Rockfest 2012 in Kansas City.

In 2009, Moody starred in the horror film Bled, playing the role of Incubus.

He also co-starred alongside Shawn Crahan in Darren Lynn Bousman's short horror musical film The Devil's Carnival, which screened in April 2012.

In 2012, Moody revealed that his alcoholism nearly got him fired from Five Finger Death Punch.

Moody said he would perform drunk and not remember any of it the next day.

Moody says that he "felt like a junkie and from that extreme, it takes a lot of effort to go back."

Moody references his alcoholism and its battles in the video "I Apologize", where Moody is walking through a graveyard filled with musicians that have died struggling with addiction.

in July 2013, The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1 was released, selling over 210,000 copies.

Roughly four months later, The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 2 was released, rising to number 2 on the Billboard 200, and notable for its single, "Battle Born".

On June 12, 2017, Moody stated during a concert in Tilburg, Netherlands, that it will be his last show with Five Finger Death Punch.

The band released a statement saying they would keep moving forward.

Moody checked himself into rehab and was replaced for the remaining dates by vocalist Tommy Vext.

As of December 2019, Moody had returned to touring with Five Finger Death Punch, stating he had been sober for the past 22 months (since early 2018).