William Whitfield Crane IV is an American musician and founding member and lead singer of the hard rock bandUgly Kid Joe, which was formed in 1989 and disbanded in 1997, reforming in 2010. He has also worked extensively in music outside his band, from performing guest vocals on numerous songs to contributing to musical efforts with other rock bands such as Life of Agony, Another Animal, and Richards/Crane.
Early life
Whitfield Crane was born on January 19, 1968 in Palo Alto, California as William Whitfield Crane. His father left the family when he was little. After his father's departure, Crane started to be interested in rock music.
Work outside Ugly Kid Joe
During Ugly Kid Joe's inactivity, Crane went on a year-long tour with New York hard rock band Life of Agony before forming Medication with ex-Machine Head guitarist, Logan Mader. Due to a series of internal issues, Medication disbanded in February 2003. Over the years, Crane has performed guest vocals on several songs, including "Reaching Out" with Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray, "Born to Raise Hell" by Motörhead and "Voodoo Brother" by Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest. Crane's filmography includes Ellie Parker, in which he has a cameo appearance as an acting student, and Motörhead's 25 & Alive Boneshaker, where he appears as himself. In 2006, former Ugly Kid Joe bandmate Shannon Larkin asked Crane to join a side project he formed with members of Godsmack called Another Animal, as primary vocalist. Crane accepted, and the band released its self-titled debut album in 2007. In support of their debut, the band went out on tour, opening for labelmates Alter Bridge. However, they have suffered poor record sales, and the future of the band is currently unknown. In 2011, he performed with metal tribute band Hail! in Istanbul, Turkey. He made regular appearances with Motörhead - the last being at the O2 Academy Glasgow on 9 November 2012 singing "Killed by Death". In 2016, Crane collaborated with Lee Richards, formerly of Godsmack, to form a band called Richards/Crane. The band released an album titled World Stands Still.
Orchestra of Doom
On July 29th 2016 at the Teatro Ristori Theatre in Verona Italy, Whitfield Crane unveiled his new classical project Orchestra of Doom. Fronting the Machivelli 32 piece Orchestra, Crane sang classics by Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne as well as tracks from Ugly Kid Joe and his acoustic based project Richards/Crane. The Orchestra was Conducted by Andrea Battistoni and featured only acoustic instruments. In June 2019 it was announced that Crane along with executive producer Pat Cash would be bringing Orchestra of Doom to Australia in December for two shows in Melbourne and Sydney. Following the same format, Whitfield will be fronting the 35 piece Philharmonia Orchestra.
Possible replacement for Rob Halford in Judas Priest
In an August 2019 interview with Metal Rules, Crane said that he was once offered to be the vocalist for Judas Priest while the band was in search for a new vocalist after Rob Halford's departure in 1992. He said that guitarist Glenn Tipton offered him and drummer Shannon Larkin the gig if they wanted it during the recording sessions of Tipton's solo album Baptizm of Fire. Crane explained that he couldn't accept the offer, "because you can't be Rob Halford. You can't be David Lee Roth. It'd be cool, and considering my love for Priest, which is immense, that would have been cool to do it, but not really. It's not a good move. But to jam with Tipton and to know those guys — I mean, those are my fucking heroes. Judas Priest, I mean, fuck. But man, old-school Priest, Jesus, God. So, yeah, I got offered Priest, back in the day. I never said that to anyone."
