Kelley Deal

American musician and singer (born 1961)

Kelley Deal (born June 10, 1961) is an American musician and singer. She has been the lead guitarist and co vocalist of the alternative rock band the Breeders since 1992, and has formed her own side projects with bands such as R. Ring and the Kelley Deal 6000. She is the identical twin sister of the musician Kim Deal. In 2020, Deal joined the post punk band Protomartyr in a touring capacity, after collaborating with the band on their 2018 EP, Consolation.

Kelley Deal was born in Dayton, Ohio, United States, 11 minutes before her twin sister, Kim Deal. The sisters grew up in Huber Heights, a suburb of Dayton and graduated from Wayne High School. They first played together in their late teens, with Kim playing guitar and both singing Hank Williams songs in biker bars. In 1986, Kim joined the Pixies in Boston. She paid for Kelley to fly to Boston and audition as drummer. Though the Pixies songwriter, Black Francis, approved, Kelley was not confident in her drumming and was more interested in playing songs written by Kim. Kelley worked as a defence contractor at an Air Force base.

In 1989, Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly (the lead guitarist of Throwing Muses) formed the Breeders. Kim invited Kelley to join the band for their debut album, Pod, but Kelley could not get time off from work. In 1992, Kelley joined the Breeders as third guitarist, even though she did not really know how to play. The Safari EP was the first recording on which she appeared. Guitarist Tanya Donelly left to form Belly a little after the release of Safari. Kim suggested Kelley should be the band's new drummer. After Kelley insisted on lead guitar, Kim gave her a crash course on all the songs in the band's set. Kelley picked up quickly and learned all the lead parts on Pod and the new parts on the album they were about to record, Last Splash. A new drummer from Dayton, Jim MacPherson, joined them. After Last Splash was released in 1993, the band toured, opening for Nirvana, and also got a slot on the Lollapalooza tour in 1994.