Background
Yamashita was born in Osaka, Japan before moving to Tokyo.
山下 亨
Yamashita was born in Osaka, Japan before moving to Tokyo.
He was in the hip-hop group HEADS along with Ryota Kohama from ONE Oklahoma ROCK before they disbanded in 2002. With two others, Kohei and Takuya formed a hip-hop dance group HEADS when they were fifth and sixth-graders. They participated in dance competitions around the years of 1995–1999.
They debuted with a single entitled "screeeem!" in July 2000 and followed with "Gooood or Bad!" in November, produced for Amuse, Incorporated.
The group performed every weekend in Osaka"s Kyoubashi and Tokyo"s Akihabara, shopping and amusement districts. HEADS disbanded in 2002 and in 2003 they took a break to improve their abilities.
They merged into a new group with seven other members and were called GROUND 0. In 2005 Toru took a main role in television series Shibuya Fifteen.
He contributed a cameo as a high school student in Kamen Rider Hibiki.
That year, he invited Ryota, their upperclassman Alex and his friend Koyanagi Yuu to form a rock band. Later, Toru become the leader of this band, later named One Ok Rock. He met Takahiro Moriuchi when he performed with his previous band and insisted that he join ONE Oklahoma ROCK, despite repeated rejections.
After Alex quit the band, Yamashita took his place, playing lead-guitar.
He is heavily influenced by Foo Fighters, The Smashing Pumpkins, Enter Shikari, Linkin Park, Good Charlotte, Sleeping With Sirens, Nirvana, and The Used. Toru often uses various Gibson Les Paul guitars in One Ok Rock.
Recently he frequently used PRS Guitars. He started out with a Gibson Les Paul Standard Black and then purchased a Les Paul Custom Alpine White in 2009.
Toru first seen using PRS Guitars during the band"s final tour at Nippon Budokan in November 2010.
Four years later, this guitar was signed by the members of Fall Out Boy on the front side and Avril Lavigne on the rear side.
