Till Lindemann (born 4 January 1963) is a German singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and lyricist of Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein and solo project Lindemann. Rammstein has sold over 25 million records worldwide, with five of their albums receiving platinum status, and Lindemann has been listed among the “50 Greatest Metal Frontmen of All Time” by Roadrunner Records. Lindemann has also appeared in minor roles in films and has also published three books of poetry. He has presented some of his original poems and scripts to galleries.

Lindemann was born on 4 January 1963 in Leipzig (then in East Germany), the son of Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) journalist Brigitte Hildegard “Gitta” Lindemann and poet Werner Lindemann. His parents first met at a conference in Bitterfeld in 1959. He grew up in Wendisch-Rambow alongside his younger sister, Saskia. At age 11, Lindemann went to a sports school at the sports club SC Empor Rostock, and attended a boarding school from 1977 to 1980. His parents lived separately for career reasons after 1975, and divorced when Lindemann was still young. He lived with his father for a short time, but the relationship was unhealthy; in the book Mike Oldfield im Schaukelstuhl, his father wrote about his own problems with alcoholism and the difficulties of being a father to a teenage Lindemann.

In 1978, Lindemann participated in the European Junior Swimming Championships in Florence, finishing 11th in the 1500 m freestyle and 7th in the 400 m freestyle, swimming a time of 4’17″58; he was shortlisted to go to the 1980 Olympics in Moscow,[6] but left the sport due to an injury. According to Lindemann, “I never liked the sport school actually, it was very intense. But as a child you don’t object.” He later worked as an apprentice carpenter, a gallery technician, a peat cutter, and a basket weaver. His mother dedicated a letter titled Mein Sohn, der Frontmann von Rammstein (“My son, the frontman of Rammstein”) to Lindemann in 2009. The first album he owned was Deep Purple’s Stormbringer.

Lindemann started to play drums for Schwerin-based experimental rock band First Arsch in 1986, who released an album titled Saddle Up in 1992, and played one song (“Lied von der unruhevollen Jugend”) with a punk band called Feeling B, which was the former band of Rammstein members Paul Landers, Christoph Schneider and Christian “Flake” Lorenz in 1989. During his time in Feeling B, he played the drums in the band. In the 1990s, Lindemann began to write lyrics. In 1994, the band entered and won a contest in Berlin that allowed them to record a four track demo professionally. When questioned as to why Rammstein was named after the Ramstein air show disaster, he said he viewed images of the incident on television, and that he and the bandmates wanted to make a musical memorial.

Lindemann then moved to Berlin. During Rammstein’s early years, because of his use of over-the-top pyrotechnics, Lindemann has burned his ears, hair and arms. Bandmate Christoph Schneider commented, “Till gets burned all the time, but he likes the pain.” An incident in September 1996 caused a section of the band’s set to burn, and as a result, Lindemann got his certification in pyrotechnics so the band could perform with pyrotechnics more safely than it had previously.

During Rammstein’s US tour in June 1999, Lindemann and his bandmate Christian “Flake” Lorenz were arrested in Worcester, Massachusetts for lewd conduct performed during their song “Bück dich” (“bend over”), which consisted of Lindemann using a liquid squirting dildo and simulating anal sex on Lorenz. Both Lindemann and Lorenz were released the following day after bail was met. This incident did not stop Lindemann from performing in the same manner for future shows outside the United States, particularly in Australia when they performed at the 2011 Big Day Out, but the United States performances of this song were changed into a sadomasochistic theme that did not feature dildos, although this was not the case for all remaining US shows on the tour. For example, on 18 June 1999, “Bück dich” was performed in the same manner at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon. In 1999, the band was blamed for the 1999 Columbine massacre, but they denied their music was a factor. In November 2002, Lindemann’s poetry book Messer was published. It consists of 54 poems compiled by Gert Hof, author of the book Rammstein, who was also the band’s pyrodesigner for the last seven years. In July 2010, Lindemann, along with Flake, was interviewed by heavy metal anthropologist Sam Dunn for the VH1 Classic series Metal Evolution, on the topic of shock rock.

Lindemann is not a stranger to injury, as he mentioned in Rammstein’s early career that he’d gotten burned several times with unprofessionally rigged pyrotechnics. At a performance in Sweden in 2005, he received a knee injury on stage when keyboardist Flake accidentally ran into him while riding a Segway PT. This injury caused several tour dates in Asia to be cancelled. In 2005, five Rammstein albums received platinum awards and the band also received the “World Sales Awards” for over 10 million sold copies worldwide.