Main soloist of the Ramstein group. Till Lindemann: biography and personal life of the lead singer of Rammstein

Over the 22 years of its existence, the German band Rammstein has become one of the most famous groups in the world. Even if you have never seen provocative speeches Rammstein, you’ve probably heard their songs more than once and know the name of the vocalist Till Lindemann.

The German rocker came to Moscow to present a collection of his own poems entitled “In good night. Lyrics". This is Till’s first book published in Russia; it contains the rocker’s previously unpublished works in the original, their translation into Russian and provocative illustrations by his friend, the artist Matthias Matthies.

On the eve of the presentation of the book, Till met with a journalist from AiF.ru and talked about his work.

Photo: Eksmo Publishing House

“In Germany, few people are interested in the writers of the past”

Elena Yakovleva, AiF.ru: This is your first visit to Russia as a poet. How do you think your book will be received by Russian readers?

Till Lindemann: Russia and Russian culture can probably be compared with Bulgarian, they have a lot common features. I was just recently in Bulgaria (in the city of Sofia we filmed materials for our Lindemann project). So, there are a lot of small shops where they sell books, and people read them everywhere: in banks, in parks, on the street. I think that in Russia the situation looks like in a similar way. As far as I know, people here still love to read, which means they will read my book.

Here literature and books have a different status than in Germany. Young people in Russia still know and read those writers who belong to the gold fund national literature: Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Tolstoy. In Germany, to be honest, few people are interested in writers of the past.

— Have you yourself read Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in the original? It is known that you know a little Russian.

— No, unfortunately, I haven’t read anything in the original Russian. In Russian, I know mostly curse words, and my friends are always happy when I utter such expressions (laughs).

— Speaking of swearing, the Russian publishers of your book warn that the collection contains obscene language and is intended for readers over 18 years of age. Is your work really impossible without obscene language? Why don't you avoid these phrases, replace them with more literary expressions?

“I’m not replacing it, because it’s hardly possible to express the same strong emotion in other words.” Strong curse words exist to express strong emotions.

Plus, maybe it’s such a childishness in my character. Like in school when the teacher tells you: “You shouldn’t do that.” And you disobeyed and get a thrill from it.

— Your father wrote good fairy tales for children. Have you ever wanted to write a children's book?

— In fact, I have already written a book for children and even drew illustrations for it, but it is not yet clear when it will be published. Sorry, but I need to watch my reputation (laughs).

By the way, my children's book also turned out to be “evil.” Its main character is my grandson Fritz. Every poem in it is dedicated to him. It all starts like this: “Dear Fritz, take my hand.” Then he and I go to the zoo, ride on railway, we fly on a plane... In the zoo, for example, we watch how someone is devoured by lions, a plane crashes, train collisions occur on the railway, and so on. But nothing happens to us: we come out of any situation alive and healthy.

Thus, for little Fritz I become big hero, because I help him avoid bad consequences.

— Yes, an unusual children's book... Have you already read it to your grandson?

— Yes, and he was a little shocked (laughs).

— It turns out that you already have two poetry collection(the first of them, called “Knife,” was not released in Russia— editor's note) and a children's book. Anything else planned?

— Yes, perhaps a collection will appear in 2018 short stories. But we are still discussing this with the publisher.

— Is there a difference for you between writing a poem and writing lyrics for a song?

— Writing poetry is something that is free from any corset. As for writing lyrics for songs, you need to take into account a lot of different factors: you need to pay attention to the structure, the rhythm, the musical mood. Writing lyrics for a song is like a tailor making a suit. Each song text is written to specific music. And in ordinary verses more freedom: put on my swimming trunks and went.

— You write lyrics for songs that you perform yourself. But I know that you don't like to read your poems out loud. Why?

— Singing your own lyrics is also not always easy, but I have the support of the group behind me, we are together. And here you are standing alone, with people in front of you... This is really like a nightmare for me.

I'm with great interest I’m looking forward to tonight when my poems will be read by the artists on the stage of the Gogol Center Theater. I'm very curious to see how they do it because I can't imagine how I would do it. I saw a video on the Internet, in which one of the actors reads my poem. He does it fantastically. You can see both passion and work with your hands... I can’t do that.

“My father would be happy for me, but not without envy”

— I’m interested in your opinion about the Nobel Prize in Literature, recently awarded to Bob Dylan for “creating new poetic expressions in the great American song tradition.” To be honest, many in Russia were surprised by this decision, and not everyone considers it fair.

— My feelings are also ambiguous. I don’t know how in Russian, but in German“Nobel” is even a separate word, which means something that is head and shoulders above everything else: nobler, better quality, etc. It is clear that both the life and work of Bob Dylan are significant phenomena in culture. But on the other hand, literally this year a writer like Umberto Eco died, and this is on a completely different scale. Again, for me personally. When deciding who to give Nobel Prize in the field of literature, I would probably mention Eco. But we live in strange times when a real estate salesman becomes an American president...

— Do you yourself expect recognition of your literary creativity?

- In general, I don’t care. Best Prize for me it means that the entire print run of my new book is sold out. It's hard to find anything more pleasant about the book. As for the prizes, you receive them, put them on a shelf, they gather dust there - that’s it.

— By the way, do you think your father, a recognized writer, would be pleased if he read the book “In a Quiet Night. Lyrics"?

- I often think about this. I think he would be happy for me, but not without envy (laughs).

— And, of course, the inevitable question: what is Rammstein doing now, what are their plans?

— Now we are working in the studio, recording new record. I think that if everything goes without problems, then in the fall of 2017 we will be able to present new album. And if there are any delays, then in the spring of 2018. This spring we will go to tour and, by the way, we will come here to Russia again.

Till Lindemann is known to the general public as the frontman and one of the founders German group Rammstein, and also as the author of poems for the songs she performs.

Till was born in the city of Leipzig, at that time it was the territory of the GDR. Till spent his childhood in the small village of Wendisch-Rambow near the city of Schwerin.

His parents were creative people: father is a poet, writer of children's fairy tales, artist, and mother is an artist and writer.

By the way, my father published 43 of his own books, in addition, a book was published that was co-authored by both parents. In addition to Till, the family raised him younger sister. While living in the village, Till mastered many rural professions.

Father, Werner Lindemann, had an extremely difficult character, which was the reason for the parents' divorce. They separated when Till was twelve years old. Till does not like to remember his father.

After his death in 1993, he never visited his grave. It must be said that the father wanted his son to become a poet. His prophecy came true in full. A year after the divorce, the mother remarried an American.

Till grew up as a physically well-developed boy. He went in for swimming and achieved considerable success in this sport. When he was eleven years old, his parents sent him to a sports school.

At the age of 16 he became European vice-champion. In 1980 he graduated from school brilliantly and even had to compete at the Olympics. However, soon after that he left the sport.

There were two reasons for this. The first is an injury to the abdominal muscles received during training. The second is an incident that happened during a competition in Italy.

He left the hotel at night without permission along the fire escape and went with his girlfriend to walk around Rome at night. Afterwards he was summoned for questioning by the GDR security service. He was disappointed by how spy-ridden his home country turned out to be.

He decided to leave the sport and become a punk. He never regretted this, but playing sports did him good. Till still swims a distance of 2.5 km every day.

Over the next few years, Till managed to try a number of professions. He was a carpenter, a technician, and a loader, and successfully wove baskets.

In 1986 he began playing in a punk band, which recorded one album. And in 1990 he began to write lyrics himself.

Fatal career turn

A year after his father's death, he and Richard Kruspe founded the group Rammstein. It was Richard who initiated and insisted that Till become the vocalist in it. Expressing considerable surprise, Till agreed.

After the main line-up was formed and the group held its first rehearsals, the young people applied to participate in the Berlin music competition and became the best beginner group.

The victory gave them their first start, they recorded four tracks and moved to Berlin.

Till, as the lead singer of the group, turned out to be very successful. We can say that it was completely accomplished. The team was a huge success not only in their native Germany, but also in many other countries.

Personal life of a musician

Oddly enough, but in ordinary life Till is a completely different person. He is soft and quiet, and his voice is calm, without strain. He calls himself easily vulnerable and very romantic.

Till got married for the first time quite early - at 22 years old. It was then that his first daughter Nele was born. Till married his beloved after the birth of a girl.

However family life was short-lived, and subsequently Till raised his daughter himself. But he maintained a relationship with his ex-wife. Moreover, due to the ongoing concert activities he was not at home for several months, and the girl was taken care of by her mother.

When Till was 30 years old, his second daughter Marie-Louise was born from the same ex-wife Anja Köseling. Soon Ani started loud scandal, accusing Till of failing to pay child support and abusing her. Till did not respond to these attacks.

Almost nothing more is known about the musician’s personal life. It is worth adding that he has another son and another child, whose gender is unknown, as well as age.

He also says that he currently has a woman with whom he would like to live together for the rest of his life.

Who else is a member of the Rammstein group? read on

He is Schole (a nickname from the days of wrestling), he is also Sven (a middle name, like all Germans, instead of a patronymic), he is also Fuchs (Fox - a nickname he personally invented). He was born on June 24, 1967 in a place called Witenburg, but also considers Schwerin to be his hometown. He lived in a fairly large family, which included two more sisters and one brother. According to tradition, one day the parents divorced, and the mother - what? That's right, she remarried. Richard's stepfather was an extremely nasty type and even went to the extent of traumatizing the child's psyche by tearing up a poster of the group "Kiss", which Richard literally raved about, as well as all of America as a whole. Most likely, out of resentment and a desire for revenge, Richard began to play sports, gaining weight and authority. He gained weight at wrestling competitions, where Richard became the champion. Until now, this gentleman skimps on former competitions. Therefore, now you can hear something like: “I can’t lift this, I have (a list of almost all the vertebrae) knocked out.” At the same time, Richard peacefully worked as a cashier at a glass container collection point, and to this day he also has a degree as a qualified chef. By the way, it is he who prepares the donuts, because of which Till got his nickname. They say that you can always find something edible in Richard’s car. Authority was gained in musically. In 1988, Kruspe moved to Berlin with nothing to his name. He lived in a small house on Linerstrasse, studying music throughout his free time. The history of troubles would be incomplete if we did not continue to consider the vicissitudes of marriage and family. The story is as dark and twisted as Santa Barbara. In the early 90s, Richard had a certain group that created and recorded several test tracks on English language. Perhaps due to his excessive attraction to music, his girlfriend, who played the role of his wife, left him. Richard is survived by his daughter, Kira Lee Lindemann (she can be seen on LaB during the song Tier), who is now 12 years old. The confusion in surnames is explained by the fact that the mother is ex-wife Tillya, who did not want to change the surname of her former husband, and also did not want to become Richard’s legal wife. After grieving for some (long) time, Richard gathered his courage and married an American, Karen Bernstein, adding her last name to his own. Outraged fan minds interpret this in different ways, agreeing that it was a marriage of convenience, and also to protect the group from accusations of Nazism. The wedding took place according to Jewish custom. The rumors are supported by the facts that Karen lives in New York, and Richard lives in Berlin, practically in the same house as the group’s producer. In general, not everything is as beautiful as it was described in Bravo in 1999.
Having cuckooed in Berlin, in 1993 Richard decided that it was necessary to create own group and the first thing he did was rush to Schwerin, where it all once began. At the cost of joint persuasion, Till was dragged to Berlin, where all the other future classmates were hanging out. But so far three have gone to America: Till, Ollie and Richard. Realizing that the American industry was not for them, the musicians returned. By the way, before these wanderings, Richard was seen in the group "Orgasm Death Gimmick". In general, Richard can be credited with the sole glory of initiating the creation Rammstein as groups. But a lot of water passed under the bridge before the lead guitarist found mutual language with everyone else, in particular with the restless Paul.
You can scrape out something interesting from special signs and hobbies. First, the pierced right ear. Secondly, temporary tattoos that take place in the fighting past. In the same time period, he had a hairstyle that Till aptly described: “He had his hair cut short in front, and at the back he had a long ponytail with white stripes - overall he resembled a striped squirrel.” During 10 years of stay in Rammstein Richard managed as many as two times: from uncut strands to everyone’s favorite rabid hedgehog. The color ranged from natural dark to silvery blue and black with red tips. His eyes are standard blue, he likes to scare others with his Merlinmanson lenses. Height is 180 cm, the weight gained (along with authority) is already approaching 90 kg. Richard learned English using the Schneider method. In addition, the secretive lead guitarist, it turns out, has a certain weakness for the Russian language, but carefully hides it, apparently fearing that he, too, will be forced to talk about “kvass and pies.” The song "Engel" can also be attributed to personal merit. And the disadvantages are a terrible fear of large audiences. And this man plays in a band that tours all over the world! And most importantly, he plays well.
To calm my nerves, I once bought three cars. "Volkswagen Bora" 2002 dark blue, "Porsche" 2000 bottle color. And finally, "Rextor" 2003 black.

Childhood and family

When Till was 11 years old, his parents sent him to the Empor Rostock Sport Club sports school, which prepared a reserve for the GDR national team. For the last three years before graduation, from 1977 to 1980, Lindemann lived in a sports boarding school. Meanwhile, the relationship between Till's parents deteriorated. After 1975, Werner and Brigitte began to live separately, and soon divorced. For some time, Till lived with his father, but their relationship rapidly deteriorated, because... Werner suffered from alcoholism.

IN adolescence Till achieved some success in sports: in 1978 he participated in the European Youth Swimming Championships, which was held in Florence, finishing 11th in the 1500-meter freestyle and 7th in the 400-meter freestyle.

After this, Lindemann was included in the German national team to participate in the Olympic Games 1980 in Moscow, but he never managed to perform in the capital of Russia. After an abdominal muscle injury sustained during training, Till retired from the sport. Lindemann later said that he did not particularly like studying at the sports school because of the enormous workload.

Rammstein

After some time, Till left music studies, but not for long. In 1993, guitarist Richard Kruspe, a friend of Till's, invited Lindemann to try himself as the vocalist of his new band. After much persuasion, Till moved for a test recording from the city of Schwerin, where he lived last years, to Berlin.

Although Lindemann had difficulty getting used to new role, the young group immediately applied to participate in the Berlin Metrobeat competition. To participate in the festival, the guys prepared their demo recordings, which were created in their apartment. Unexpectedly for the young musicians, their group won the competition, and far-reaching prospects opened up for the guys.

Soon to new group musicians from Feeling B joined - rhythm guitarist Paul Landers and keyboardist Christian "Flake" Lorenz. For some time the band was nameless, but eventually the name “Rammstein” was chosen, which translated from German means “Tramming Stone” (the musicians later claimed that they named the group in memory of the tragic collision over Ramstein airbase in 1988).

One of Rammstein's first performances (1994)

In 1994, the group signed a contract with Motor Music and released their first album a year later. After the release of the disc, Rammstein went on a tour of Europe, still together with other musicians. The unusual voice of the soloist, unusual lyrics and crazy performances (the musicians loved to stage pyrotechnic shows) did not always find a response in the hearts of the audience: for example, in Poland “Rammstein” was pelted with bottles.

For two years I took lessons from opera singer, stars of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. I hated traveling to see her. She was very strict: she ordered me to sing while holding a chair above my head, or to do push-ups while performing parts.

The album Mutter, released in 2001, instantly inscribed the group in music history. A video was recorded for the lead single of the album of the same name, in which the narration was told from the perspective of a man conceived in a test tube who killed his mother.

Rammstein – Mutter

Every year its popularity only grew, and the musicians never tired of shocking the audience with spectacular performances and dark video clips. Lindemann was ready for any tricks to stun his fans. For example, during the filming of the video for the song “Ich tu dir weh,” Lindemann wished for light to come from his mouth and asked to make a cut in his left cheek for a wire and a light bulb.

In 2005, five Rammstein albums went platinum, and the group received the World Sales Award for selling more than 10 million copies worldwide.

Rammstein – Du Hast (1997)

Over the years of activity, the Rammstein guys have earned quite scandalous reputation in the eyes of individual religious and social activists. They tried to ban Rammstein songs and videos in many countries, and Russia did not escape this fate. In 2016, parliamentarian Roman Khudyakov appealed to the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky with a request to ban the performances of the German group in the country due to the propaganda of sadism, cannibalism and homosexuality.

One of the group's most famous videos, for the song Mein Teil ("Part of Me"), was based on real events. In 2001, the German Armin Meiwes searched through the World Wide Web for a person who would agree to be eaten. Programmer Jurgen Brandes responded to the ad. They became lovers; Meiwes subsequently killed Brandes, stored his meat in the freezer and gradually ate it.

Rammstein – Mein Teil

Upon learning of this act of cannibalism, Till was inspired to create a song. In some countries, the clip was severely censored, for example, the scene in which the angel orally satisfied Lindemann was removed. The theme of cannibalism was played out at live performances: Til came on stage in a leather apron and with a butcher knife in his hands, and a huge cauldron with Flake sitting in it was brought onto the stage.

At one time, many parents who decided to join the interests of their children were shocked by the video Pussy (slang for “pussy”, “female genital organ”). The 4-minute video contained many explicit angles, including scenes with naked musicians (although in some scenes they were replaced by stunt doubles).

This song is no less shocking live show- during its performance, Till, as a rule, sat on a device resembling a male penis and poured white foam on the audience.

In 2013, Lindemann announced the band's sabbatical. In May 2015, he also announced the start of work on a new album Rammstein. According to the singer, it was supposed to last until 2017. In March 2017, it became known that 35 compositions were ready, but the question of the release date of the record remained open.

Lindemann

On his 52nd birthday in 2015, Till announced the creation side project"Lindemann" with Peter Tägtgren. Debut album Skills in Pills was released in June 2015 and reached number one on the national music chart. Soon the friends presented the video “Praise Abort” (“Bless Abortion”), which was not inferior in shockingness to the previous videos invented by Lindemann.

Movie

Scene with Rammstein from the movie "Pola X"

In 2002, Till and the rest of Rammstein starred as themselves in the action film xXx, starring Vin Diesel.

Lindemann can also be seen in the German family film Amundsen's Penguin (2003) and the film Vincent (2004) as an animal rights activist.

Poetry and art

In 2013, Till’s second book of poems, “In stillen Nächten” (“In a Quiet Night”), was published.

In 2014, Till presented two sculptures and original drafts of his poems, included in the collection "In Quiet Night", in Dresden gallery Holger John.

Personal life of Till Lindemann

The musician’s second daughter, Marie Louise, was born in 1993 in a civil marriage with teacher Anna Közelin. In those years, the musician drank a lot and lost control over his emotions. He often cheated on Anna, and did not even hide the acts of adultery. Sometimes it came to assault. After her husband broke her nose, Anna created a scandal that was widely covered in the press. Since then, Lindemann has tried not to disclose details about his personal life.

Till Lindemann is the lead singer of the Rammstein group, a talented musician and a charming man. We know little about the singer’s personal life, as he tries to keep everything secret. But what more secrets, the more interest there is in them. Journalists managed to find some information.

Biography

Till was born in Germany small town Leipzig. He grew up in creative family, dad was a writer, and mom was an artist. The musician's father was difficult person. And in the end his parents had to divorce. Lindemann was only twelve at that time, and he and his sister remained to live with their mother. Till doesn’t like to remember his father; even after his death, he was never able to forgive his dad.

A few years later, the musician’s mother married a second time. The boy grew up in a good family, was fond of sports and even wanted to compete at the Olympics. But due to the injury he had to give up trying. And then a new passion took possession of him - punk. In the early 90s he began writing own songs. Soon he and his friend Richard created the group Rammstein, in which Till became the vocalist.

The group developed successfully and became the best beginning group in the next Berlin competition. Later group moved to the capital of Germany. There she was a huge success.

Personal life

It is known that Till got married at the age of 20. Marika became his wife. A couple of years after the wedding, she gave birth to her husband’s daughter Nele. At first, the girl was crazy about the crazy and charismatic artist. But after some time it became boring, Marika could not get along with such an expressive and emotional person.

Til divorced his wife, and she went to Til’s friend and bandmate, Richard Kruspe. But the daughter stayed with her father, they lived together until her seventh birthday. Then Till was just beginning the path to success, rehearsing at home in front of his daughter. But then he began to go on tour for a long time, and Nele had no one to leave with. Then she began to spend some part of her life with her mother and her husband.

The musician's next wife was teacher Anya Kezeling. Till at that time was already very popular, and his character only became more unbearable. He started drinking a lot and partying on the side. At first I tried to do it unnoticed, and then I didn’t hide anything at all. Anna knew everything, but could not leave her husband. Suddenly an opportunity arose: Till hit her and broke her nose. Then the girl caused a huge scandal, asked for a fine and filed for divorce.

Tillya's daughters - Nele with her son and Kira, daughter of his ex-wife

It was this incident that forced Lindeman to stop talking about his personal life in the press. From that moment on, there were many women in his life, but he was never able to build a relationship with any of them. new family. I haven't met you yet new love. She became the musician’s third wife, her name is not yet known. Till said in an interview that it was with this girl that he was ready to spend the rest of his days. The couple is not officially married, despite the fact that they have been in a relationship for quite a long time.