His mother remarried a man named Stephen Bailey, and William grew up believing Bailey was his biological father. The household was intensely religious, shaped by strict Pentecostal beliefs that defined nearly every aspect of daily life. Music, television, and even ordinary behavior were frequently condemned as “evil.” Years later, William would describe the environment as suffocating, recalling how televisions might be thrown out one week and brought back the next, depending on what was deemed sinful at the time. Women, he was taught, were inherently dangerous, and violence in the home was normalized.
That violence was not abstract. He later spoke openly about physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his stepfather, and about the sense of betrayal he felt when his mother allowed it to continue. In interviews, including one with Rolling Stone, he reflected on how those early experiences shaped his anger, his mistrust, and his complicated relationship with women. He described feeling rejected from infancy, watching his mother choose her husband over her child again and again.
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