Davis was born in Bakersfield, California, to Holly Chavez (née Smith) and Rick Davis.[7][8] He has a sister named Alyssa and a half brother, Mark Chavez,[9] (known as the former lead singer for Adema) and half sister Amanda Chavez by his mother.[10] His father was a keyboardist for Buck Owens and Frank Zappa, while his mother was a professional actress and dancer.[11] His parents divorced when he was three years old and he was raised by his father and stepmother Lily in Bakersfield.[11] Davis suffered severe bouts of asthma as a child,[12] and had survived a near-fatal asthma attack when he was five years old. He also spoke of having a horrible relationship with his stepmother.[13][14][15] He said she used to harass him and torture him, giving him tea mixed with Thai hot oil and jalapeño juice to drink when he was sick.[13] Davis's father later divorced her.[13][15] He says the song "Kill You" was written about her.[13][14][15] Davis has said that his earliest musical inspiration as a child was the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Jesus Christ Superstar, and his favorite musical group was Duran Duran.[16] He graduated from Highland High School in 1989. He also attended the San Francisco School of Mortuary Science for a period of time. He was persistently harassed in Highland High School primarily by jocks for being different by wearing eyeliner, long clothes, and listening to new wave music.[16][17] He was teased, harmed, beaten and he was constantly called homophobic names.[16] The song "Faget" was inspired by these events as was his HIV tattoo. He says even teachers were mean to him and sent him to the counselor for wearing eyeliner.[13]