Down the Memory Lane of an ICONIC, Legendary Type O’ Negative Legend!! All fans Need to Know

Petrus Thomas Ratajczyk (January 4, 1962 – April 14, 2010), known professionally as Peter Steele, was the lead singer, bassist and composer for the gothic metal band Type O Negative. Before forming Type O Negative, he had created the metal group Fallout and the thrash band Carnivore.

Early life Steele was born in Red Hook, Brooklyn into a Roman Catholic family and attended Edward R. Murrow High School located in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. His father was of Russian and Polish descent and his mother of Scottish-Irish, Norwegian, and Icelandic ancestry. He was raised in the Bensonhurst and Brighton Beach neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Steele was the youngest of six children, with five older sisters. His father fought in World War II and later worked at a shipyard. Steele started taking guitar lessons at age 12, moving on to bass six months later.

Steele worked for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation up until he began touring with Type O Negative in the summer of 1994. He was based at Brooklyn Heights Promenade, where his job involved park maintenance,driving vehicles including garbage trucks and steamrollers, and eventual promotion to the role of park supervisor. Steele considered his days working for the parks department to be among his happiest.

Fallout and Carnivore (1979–1987) In 1979, Steele formed the heavy metal band Fallout. In 1982, after the split of Fallout, Steele formed the thrash metal band Carnivore. With Carnivore, Steele’s lyrics were often harsh, dealing with religion, war, race and misogyny. Carnivore released their debut self-titled album in 1985. In 1986, Steele wrote lyrics for several songs on hardcore punk band Agnostic Front’s second album Cause for Alarm. In 1987, Carnivore released Retaliation, before splitting up later that year.

Type O Negative Steele formed the band in 1989 along with his childhood friends Josh Silver, Kenny Hickey and Sal Abruscato (later replaced by Johnny Kelly). The band originally used the name “Repulsion”, but had to change it in 1990 due to legal issues with the American grindcore band of the same name. The band then used the name “Subzero”. Steele had a tattoo in mind of a minus sign contained within the number 0 that he originally intended to represent the Subzero band logo. After discovering that another band was already using the Subzero name, and with his tattoo in mind, Steele came up with the name “Type O Negative” after hearing a radio advertisement requesting donations of type O negative blood. When Type O Negative signed with Roadrunner Records, Steele signed his recording contract with a mixture of his blood and semen.

Further appearances:

Playgirl Following the success of Bloody Kisses, Steele began to receive attention outside of music. He appeared as a nude centerfold of Playgirl in 1995.

Television and film Steele went on to appear as a guest on the talk shows Ricki Lake, The Jerry Springer Show, and The Howard Stern Show. In 2003, Steele had an acting role in the episode “Exeunt Omnes” of the HBO drama series Oz. Also in 2003 he appeared in the film Dirtbags (Armpit of Metal). He followed this with a role in the 2005 film Bad Acid. Steele is among the musicians featured in the 2011 documentary Living the American Nightmare.

Personal Life Steele stood 6′ 8″ (203 cm) tall, giving him a menacing stage appearance. Despite that perception, Steele admitted to suffering from stage fright, which he overcame by drinking alcohol before shows, and by drinking red wine when on stage. He was also described as a person who was “friendly, funny and had a reputation for being generous to his longtime bandmates … and kind to the bands he toured with.”

Outside of music, Steele spent time lifting weights both at home and on his tour bus. Steele also enjoyed reading books on the subject of science and he had an interest in European culture. Steele liked working on his house and was interested in architecture and civil engineering. Steele also worked on his cars, including a heavily modified 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix he customized himself. Steele had a love for cats and kept several as pets.

During 2005, Steele disappeared for an extended period with no explanation. Rumors of his death, terminal illness, and other speculations increased until the mystery was dispelled in an interview on the 2006 DVD Symphony for the Devil. In the interview Steele briefly mentions his incarceration in Rikers Island and “the psych ward at Kings County Hospital”. Steele’s family members had staged an intervention and insisted he check into a mental institution.Steele later confirmed he had been suffering from paranoia caused by his heavy substance abuse. Steele had been using cocaine since the age of 35, a decision he expressed great regret about. Steele then attended rehab for cocaine and alcohol addiction,and later served a 30-day prison term for assaulting a love rival. Steele made light of his incarceration by wearing a prison uniform on stage during live performances.

Steele stated in a 2003 interview that he had bipolar disorder, and linked his mood swings to the types of songs he wrote. He also received occasional psychiatric treatment for depressive episodes. During a 2007 interview Steele explained:

"I've always been a very depressed person, but that's only one side of me, you know. It makes me feel better when I can express my depression, my anger, my frustration through music ... sonic therapy."

In April 2007, Steele revealed that he began identifying himself as Roman Catholic in recent years, after decades of self-professed atheism. In an interview with Decibel magazine, Steele explained:

"There are no atheists in foxholes, they say, and I was a foxhole atheist for a long time. But after going through a midlife crisis and having many things change very quickly, it made me realize my mortality. And when you start to think about death, you start to think about what's after it. And then you start hoping there is a God. For me, it's a frightening thought to go nowhere. I also can't believe that people like Stalin and Hitler are gonna go to the same place as Mother Teresa."

Death Peter Steele died of an aortic aneurysm (initially reported as heart failure) on April 14, 2010 at the age of 48. Prior to his death, Steele was preparing to write and record new music. The remaining members of Type O Negative decided to dissolve the band rather than replace Steele, with Johnny Kelly stating “Even if there is somebody who could take his place it wouldn’t matter. We don’t have any interest in continuing. It’s impossible – it hasn’t even come up in any kind of discussion. When Peter died, Type O Negative died with him.”

An oak tree, upon which fans have hung tributes, was planted in Steele’s memory in 2011 in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.