HIDE'S BOOKS and Special Publications 2 

PINKI PROMISE
Issued on Feb. 14th 2010 by Index Communications

There is only think for which the Head Wax is taking full responsibility for editing, PINKI PROMISE is binding the contents of this book with other

materials published or re-published earlier fusing up to the sense of creating a fun to read package, is a book full of HIDE's playful spirit and also containing a

Jigsaw puzzle of HIDE-chan to be completed to and A3 size ( offered as special bonus ) . Interesting commentaries regarding HIDE's knowledge of his instrument playing, makes it a great to read lecture about guitar playing in general ♪, revealing HIDE's unique personality. Another interview of HIDE “behind the scenes” is offered to us , some memories are also offered to us directly by HIDE's mother and close family members,

is a book which each HIDE fan must have
, the contents are quite refreshing good. I totally recommend you to read it!

The jigsaw puzzle is deviated here and there creating an easy distorted image, but even so HIDE is still a lovely gift in any shape it could be. I present you here an excerpt Epilogue, regarding PINKI PROMISE, wrote by HIDE's brother in the living memory of the Rock Star .

Pinky Promise - An Epilogue From Hiroshi Matsumoto (2011)

Why can I keep doing this? I ask myself this question many times. The fans, the staff at HEADWAX and everyone I work with, these are the reasons I keep going. Thank you so much to everyone.

This year is the 13th memorial for hide (2011).

We decided to publish this book to show people about hide’s life and to keep his memory alive. hide belongs to everyone, me, you, all the fans  all over the World. I personally think it’s very important that this new book is released by us this year.

The first few years of hide and I started to work in the music business it seemed to be all work and no play. I always thought “Bring it on!”, and that I could take on the world for hide and his music. but then suddenly I lost the person who had helped me to make all the difficult and important decisions in my life and our work.

Because of this I ended up turning to alcohol. Every night I would go out drinking, but no matter how much I drank I could never seem to get drunk. The situation got worse and worse for me. At this time, many of my co-workers and people I really respected were worried about me. The only thing that I could do was to try to talk to hide, I told myself “I have to do it, I have to do it.” Eventually I heard hide. He told me, “You can do it, you should do it”.

And now, more than 10 years have past. The staff at HEADWAX is improving all the time, taking on more and more responsibility. This has really helped as I now have less to worry about, and I feel

confident that the staff are able to deal withthe work.

A few years ago, when I was looking for staff for the hide MUSEUM, I made the decision to hire many people who were fans of hide. During the interview I asked everyone the same question: “Before you where a fan of hide, but now you are not a fan, you are a part of hide’s staff. You are working for hide’s management now. You are no longer a fan. Being staff is not the same as being a fan, it is important that you understand this. Can you work as a staff member, and not as a fan?”

To me this was important, so that only people who really appreciate hide had the chance to work with us.

Although I haven’t talked about this much, when we release new merchandise for hide, I often hear from many people, “Oh! hide has released ANOTHER CD/book/artwork/t-shirt again!”. I can understand this feeling, but I believe there are still people waiting for and wanting new hide good. It makes me happy to think that when fans go into record shops they are able to find his albums and that it makes them want to listen to his music again. The thing we have to do now is bring his music to new fans. We are trying to keep his music alive and to keep his corner in the record shops. For a while hide’s corner had disappeared from the shops, but now it is back. But we haven’t released his CDs just to keep his corner.

Just before X-Japan were to appear on Kohaku Uta Gassen (Japan’s biggest music program), hide called his mother and told her, “Now our fans can be proud of liking our music, and say ‘I like X-Japan’”. I want hide’s fan to be able to say, “I am hide’s fan” still now, and be proud. I try to do my best so that his fans can say this. So we try to work hard and produce new, interesting merchandise and hold events for the fans. If we push ourselves harder, more people will be touched by his work.

After reading this book, if people go to their friends and family and say, “Hey, look, hide is cool!”, then that would make me so very happy. When I heard that elementary school, junior and senior high school students listen to hide, it made me so happy as well. This makes me think and believe that I am doing the right thing.

Every time we release new material or hold event I ask hide, “Is it ok? Can we do it this way?”. Before we decide to publish this book, Pinky Promise, I ask him, “Is it ok?”.

After every event I receive many letters and messages of thanks from fans. These always help me to keep me going. Mayuko chan, although having passed away in September, always sent me emails asking, “Can I go to this event?”, even though she was suffering, and in a very bad condition. We are thinking of her and praying for her at this time of loss.

After the 'hide memorial summit’ I received many messages that read something like this, “I couldn’t make up my mind whether to go to the hide museum or not. But I decided to come to this event and it made me realize that I should have gone to the museum.” When I read these messages, I thought there were still many people who couldn’t move on from hide’s death. I really think they need a place to get together, and these events are for them.

The title of this book, Pinky Promise, means yubikirigenman/yakusoku in Japanese. My first promise to hide is that I have to do everything I can, and my second is to take his music to the world.

Just after the release of 'Ja Zoo’ we had decided that we would do a tour of Japan, and have a few shows with Marilyn Manson as an opening act. Then afterwards hide would tour with Manson in America and Europe. This is what we had decided, though Manson asked hide to play as Zilch during his American tour. hide said that he would only play as 'hide with Spread Beaver’, not as Zilch. Because of this experience, I really want to take hide’s music all over the world, and introduce him to as many people as I can as a Rock N’ Roller. When we released 'We <3 hide’ I knew there were many fans from all over the world. And as X-Japan toured outside Japan I could see that more than half of the crowds were wearing hide style clothing and cosplay outfits. I was so surprised, and so happy.

Recently, youtube has become very popular meaning that people can now watch hide’s video’s online. But I really want people to experience it on the big screen, to feel the music and experience a real hide show. Among the younger fans there are many people who never had the chance to see hide live. His live videos and films are still amazing today, so we have to tell people and show the new generation his videos and let them hear and feel his music for what it really is.

At the end, I still feel as though I am working with hide, even after his death. hide is still with me, stronger than ever I feel now. In Tokyo there are so many memories of him that there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of him. Every moment I do something, I think of hide. This will go on until the day I die, maybe that is what I should do, and that is my biggest promise to hide.
full creditis to :

Hiroshi MatsumotoPresident of HEADWAX ORGANIZATIONhide’s Younger Brother