Ilya Knabenhof

The biography of Ilya Chert, the founder and leader of the Pilot group, is filled with contrasts. A man with the pseudonym Devil lectures on God, religion and the meaning of life, helping people find the right path. From a riotous life and alcoholic fun, Ilya gradually came to righteousness, restraint and became a vegetarian. However, even such a radical change in outlook did not alienate the musician's devoted fans.

The future rock star was born on August 2, 1972 in Leningrad. Ilya Knabenhof's father - this is the singer's passport name - was a Jew, his mother was a Volga German. As a musician admitted in an interview, he grew up as a yard child, constantly disappearing on the street with friends. After graduating from 8 classes, Ilya decided to leave school and entered the cinema school.

Then, in 1987, his passion for rock music began. Ilya had new friends who introduced him to the new culture of underground and protest. Around this time, the nickname Damn appeared: in the new get-together it was customary to introduce themselves as some kind of frightening pseudonym. Death, Spider - such nicknames were considered cool and fashionable. Ilya chose the Devil, deciding to prove to those around him that even a good person can present himself in this way and that one should not "meet him by dress", but rather by name.

Ilya Chert tried not to miss a single concert in a rock club, getting to know more and more musicians. Gradually, the young man had a desire to try to perform himself. No sooner said than done: this is how the Exhumator group appeared, performing compositions in the style of thrash metal. In this team, Ilya was a guitarist, and it was with her that Devil's musical career began.

In 1989, Ilya Chert moved to the Aggressor group, where he also became a guitarist. Constant rehearsals and tours took up a lot of time, and the young man decided to leave the film school in order to devote all his efforts to performances. True, a year later, Ilya entered the architectural technical school, but he did not stay there for a long time either: the music did not leave a minute for study.

At first, the novice artist had a hard time: concerts in local recreation centers and friendly apartment houses practically did not bring income. In order to earn at least a little money, Ilya Devil took on everything: he swept the streets, was a forklift driver, a salesman at a kiosk, and once even got a job as an orderly in a hospital, where he worked for a long time and even took advanced training courses for medical workers.

In 1991, Ilya changed the group again, joining the AL.EX team. Here the musician lasted until 1995 and even managed to take part in the recording of a studio disc. Unfortunately, the band broke up. For some time, the Devil remained in free float, and then became a drummer in the "Rogues".

After that came the era of the "Military Jane" team, which originally played in the style of the rock band "Alice". But after a while the musicians moved away from the style of Konstantin Kinchev, the leader of "Alisa", and decided to go their own way. In addition to the style, the name also changed: right during the concert, Ilya Chert announced the creation of a new team - this is how the legendary "Pilot" appeared.

The group quickly became popular: so in the life of Ilya Chert and his comrades, there was again time only for concerts, rehearsals, shooting clips and recording albums. The discography of the collective was constantly replenished, and Ilya Chert discovered new and new facets of talent in himself.

So, in addition to music, the artist became interested in writing and in several years released 4 books of fiction and two collections of poetry. By his own admission, Ilya is not going to stop there, new albums and books are already in the plans.

Popularity for the musicians was brought both by their own compositions, and songs performed together with other groups and artists: Gorshk (Mikhail Gorshenev) and the King and Jester group, Helavisa (Natalia O'Shea) and the Melnitsa team, Chacha Ivanov (NAIV ).

It is noteworthy that the Pilot group organizes not only commercial concerts: the musicians have repeatedly performed in prisons, as well as in boarding schools for children and all kinds of rehabilitation centers.

Earnings, in the opinion of Ilya Chert, is not the main thing, but the musician does not hide his joy that he has the opportunity to support not only himself and his family, but also help novice musicians get on stage. Thus, the artists Sashka Koshka, Yulia Krysa (Yulia Kotelnikova), and the Sounds of Reformers collective began their creative career under the wing of the Pilot leader.

Ilya Chert's songs and works were greatly influenced by his attitude to religion. The musician was baptized at the age of 13, but for a long time he did not think about religious dogmas. Later, largely under the influence of Konstantin Kinchev, Ilya came to Christianity. According to the artist, the teachings of Jesus Christ are closest to him spiritually. In addition to Christianity, the Devil feels a craving for the Indian Vedic teachings.

A terrible disease also played an important role in the formation of the musician's worldview: Ilya Chert suffered cancer. Belief in himself and acceptance of correct guidelines for life helped him to recover, the artist believes.

Ilya's similar views once caused a scandal: in 2015, the Devil with the Pilot group became guests of honor in the first edition of the Salt program, hosted by the writer Zakhar Prilepin. Ilya and Zakhar disagreed so much that the artist even published angry posts on the Web, although he later deleted them. Prilepin did not remain in debt, calling the leader of the Pilot group "a glorious musician with a complete fog in his head."

Ilya Chert's personal life is not as public as his career. It is known that the musician was married until 2012. Beloved Devil's name was Lika Kostina. The artist has no children from this marriage, but Ilya raised his stepdaughter.

In 2013, there were reports in the press that the leader of "Pilot" became a father - the Devil had a daughter. The girl was named Aya. And three years later, the musician married the mother of his child and longtime lover Maria Chernova. With his second wife, the artist, by his own admission, lives in perfect harmony.

Now Ilya Chert and the Pilot group continue to record songs and give concerts. In 2018, fans were pleased with a new disc of their favorite band, called "Pandora". On the official website of "Pilot", as well as in fan communities on Instagram and other social networks, the band's concert schedule for the end of the year has already been published.

Unfortunately, the fans never saw the performance of Ilya Chert at the main event of the Russian rock scene - the festival "Invasion", but they were glad of the musicians' performance at the Tambov rock festival "Chernozem-2018".

Solo albums

2003 - "Childhood" 2006 - "The Leaving Summer" 2010 - "Audio" 2011 - "Snow Tale" 2015 - "Audio"

As part of the "Pilot" group

1997 - "War" 2001 - "The Tale of the Jumper and the Slider" 2002 - "Our Heaven" 2002 - "Gioconda" 2004 - "Fish, Mole and Pig" 2008 - "1 + 1 = 1" 2011 - "Autumn" 2015 - Izolyator 2018 - Pandora

Ilya Knabenhof 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Ilya Knabenhof in 2020 ?

Ilya Knabenhof Net Worth 2021

Ilya Knabenhof 's revenue is $1.9M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Ilya Knabenhof and could vary in the range between $806K - $1.9M.

Ilya Knabenhof Net Worth 2020

Ilya Knabenhof 's revenue is $1.5M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Ilya Knabenhof and could vary in the range between $564.1K - $1.9M.

Ilya Knabenhof Net Worth 2019

Ilya Knabenhof 's revenue is $1.6M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Ilya Knabenhof and could vary in the range between $826.7K - $1.2M.

Ilya Knabenhof Net Worth 2018

Ilya Knabenhof 's revenue is $1.4M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Ilya Knabenhof and could vary in the range between $786.1K - $1.8M.

Ilya Knabenhof Net Worth 2017

Ilya Knabenhof 's revenue is $1.8M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Ilya Knabenhof and could vary in the range between $925.2K - $1.4M.

Ilya Knabenhof Net Worth 2016

Ilya Knabenhof 's revenue is $1.4M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Ilya Knabenhof and could vary in the range between $734.9K - $1.2M.

Ilya Knabenhof Net Worth 2015

Ilya Knabenhof 's revenue is $1.6M in 2015. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Ilya Knabenhof and could vary in the range between $790.3K - $1.5M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Ilya Knabenhof. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Ilya Knabenhof make a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Ilya Knabenhof' projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.