Richard Patrick

• Name — Richard Patrick • Birth Name — Richard Michael Patrick • Born — 10 May 1968 • Birthplace — Needham, Massachusetts, U.S. • Instrument — * Vocals • guitar • Genre — * Industrial rock • post-grunge • alternative rock • hard rock • industrial metal • alternative metal • Occupation — * Musician • singer • songwriter • Years Active — 1986–present • Current Member Of — Filter • Past Member Of — * Nine Inch Nails • Army of Anyone • The Damning Well

After a chance meeting with Trent Reznor in a Cleveland music store, Patrick landed a gig as touring guitarist in Reznor's live incarnation of Nine Inch Nails from 1989 to 1993. His only recorded contribution can be heard at the end of "Sanctified" on Pretty Hate Machine. Patrick also appeared in the music videos for "Down in It", "Head Like a Hole", "Wish", and one of the two promo videos for "Gave Up" (along with Marilyn Manson), which was filmed in the living room of the infamous house where Sharon Tate was murdered in 1969, as Reznor had leased the house and installed a recording studio in it. Patrick chose to leave the band during the recording of The Downward Spiral in 1993 following a comment from Reznor to "get up off his ass and go write a record" in response to Patrick asking for more money, further suggesting Patrick to work as a delivery driver at a pizzeria. In September 2022, Patrick joined other past members of Nine Inch Nails onstage for a special performance, playing classic tracks from his time with the band as well as covering his Filter hit, "Hey Man Nice Shot".

Before his departure from Nine Inch Nails, Patrick formed his own band, Filter, with Brian Liesegang, who left the band after the recording of the band's first album, 1995's Short Bus. Four years later, Richard Patrick released Filter's second album, Title of Record, with help from guitarist Geno Lenardo. Filter's third album, The Amalgamut, was released in 2002, with Patrick canceling most of the supporting tour to check into rehab for alcoholism, a problem that had been plaguing him for years. An experience where he drank on an airplane inspired Filter's hit single "Take a Picture." After a five-year hiatus, Filter released a fourth record on May 13, 2008, entitled Anthems for the Damned. Patrick did the vocals and the majority of the instrumentation on the album except for the drumming, which was done by Josh Freese. He also worked with Wes Borland and John 5 on a few individual songs. For the first time in the band's history, the band released an album without a three-to five-year break in between, with their fifth record, The Trouble with Angels, which was released just over two years after Anthems on August 17, 2010. Patrick recorded the album with the Anthems for the Damned touring band, Mikea Fineo, Mitch Marlow, and John Spiker, but recruited a new guitarist (Rob Patterson) and bass player (Phil Buckman) for touring in support of the album. Patrick returned to the studio in April 2012, to work with producer Bob Marlette and Kill Hannah guitarist, Jonny Radtke, on his next Filter album, under the working title Gurney and the Burning Books. After Filter was signed to Wind-up Records in September 2012, Patrick released his sixth studio album The Sun Comes Out Tonight on June 4, 2013. In early 2015, Patrick reunited with Ben Grosse, Michael "Blumpy" Tuller, Brian Virtue and former Filter guitarist Brian Liesegang to begin recording Filter's most recent album. After launching a PledgeMusic campaign, Patrick and contributing artists Oumi Kapila, Chris Reeve and Ashley Dzerigian released Filter's seventh studio album Crazy Eyes on April 8, 2016. In 2018, Patrick reunited with Brian Liesegang to record a followup to Short Bus entitled Rebus, and funded the project using PledgeMusic. The project remains unreleased due to PledgeMusic going bankrupt. Patrick and Liesegang decided to mount a Title of Record 20th anniversary tour in the Fall of 2019, but the tour was cancelled due to scheduling conflicts with deadlines for film scores that Patrick was working on. In lieu of the Rebus release, Patrick instead released a new Filter album with a different lineup of musicians entitled The Algorithm. On August 1, 2025 Patrick was featured on the release of the single Blue Sky Mystery by the Canadian rock band Finger Eleven. He was also featured in the single's official music video, performing his guest verse. On the week of November 10, 2025 "Blue Sky Mystery" has currently reached the No. 6 position on the Canadian Rock Billboard music charts.

• Illustration — Patrick at a music video shoot for Army of Anyone in 2006 While writing songs for Filter's fourth album, Patrick called up the DeLeo brothers of Stone Temple Pilots to help him write a song. The result was a song called "A Better Place." Due to the chemistry the trio had while writing the song, they decided to form a supergroup, which became Army of Anyone. On September 29, 2005, the formation of Army of Anyone was announced. Along with Dean and Robert DeLeo, future drummer for Korn, Ray Luzier, was also added to the line-up. Army of Anyone's self-titled debut album was released on November 14, 2006. The album's first single, "Goodbye", peaked at number three on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. On May 26, 2007, Army of Anyone played their last concert to date in El Paso, Texas. The band has since been on hiatus.

On August 25, 2008, Patrick wrote an editorial, "Talking About War", for HuffPost. He has since started writing a column, called Filtering The Truth, for Suicide Girls. His first post, about politics and religion, was posted on Election Day 2008.

Patrick grew up in Bay Village, Ohio. His older brother is actor Robert Patrick. His father was a banker. He was inspired from his mother, whom he described as “Southern Belle from Little Rock” but “rebellious” and told him to be different. He desired to become a guitarist and started playing when he was around 7 years old. He graduated from Bay High School in Bay Village, Ohio in 1987. Patrick and his wife Tina have a daughter, born in 2008, and a son, born in 2009. After years of alcohol and drug abuse issues, he has been sober since September 2002.