Josh Kidney was born in Omaha, Nebraska where he lived for several years before moving with his family to a much smaller town in rural Nebraska. In his new environment Josh promptly took up hunting, fishing, all kinds of sports, and eventually discovered an overwhelming interest in guitar. While sports were mostly fun and games, Josh considered the guitar to be serious business. After another move to a slightly larger town, Josh quit all sports to focus on guitar and his high school rock band. In 2000, Josh moved back to Omaha to attend college, and to start a band that he hoped would make his dreams of rock stardom come true. It almost worked.
In 2002, Josh founded “The Livingstons” with some of his best friends from college. The band would go on to sign a booking and management deal out of Nashville, record an album with Grammy-winning engineer Eric Delegard, change their name to “Fate of Angels,” and tour the country playing over 500 shows in 28 different states. During that time, in order to help fund his dream of making rock n’ roll history, Josh became a stock broker. While it was good money, Josh had his sights set on one goal; to be a full-time musician. In August of 2008, Josh quit his job to tour full time with his band. The next month, on September 29th, the stock market crashed, plummeting the United States into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Despite their best efforts, the band couldn’t make it work. In 2009, Fate of Angels broke up and Josh went crawling back to his old job. Determined to be successful, he buried himself in his work and tried to forget his dream of playing music.
It didn’t work.
In 2011, out of shape and depressed, Josh walked into Mick Doyle’s Gym. While he was primarily interested in exercising, Josh quickly began attending Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai classes. In 2014 Josh earned his Purple Belt in Jiu Jitsu, and strengthened by the warrior mentality he’d learned on the mats, left his job to start his own business and pursue making music once again.
In 2021 Josh earned his Black Belt in Jiu Jitsu under Scott Thompson and Fabio Santos. He’s also the lead guitarist of the Dylan Bloom Band, one of the top unsigned country artists in the midwest, as well as the singer and principal songwriter of his own band, Kid Nebraska. Josh is the co-founder of Old Bellows Jiu Jitsu as well as the creator of the Gentleman Badass line of grooming products.
Josh is sponsored by Splawn Amplification, Larrivee Guitars, Curt Mangan Strings and InTune Guitar Picks.
