Trivia

Founding member and guitarist/vocalist of German punk band "Die Ärzte".

His stage name refers to his passion of traveling, contracting the phrase "Fahr' in Urlaub" ("Go on holiday") to Farin Urlaub.

Has been musically influenced by The Beatles, Johnny Cash and Depeche Mode but has also stated that he listens to "more or less everything except free jazz and techno".

Supporter of Greenpeace, Attac, amnesty international and Menschen gegen Minen (People Against Landmines).

His first book "Indien und Bhutan" about his 2005 journey to Asia was published in October 2007.

He has a younger half-sister, Julia, from his mother's second marriage. She is seven years younger than him.

He has visited over 100 countries, including over 20 in Africa, and has stated that he particularly likes to travel to countries in Asia.

After leaving school, he briefly studied archaeology but dropped out after realizing it was not for him, and to focus on music.

He has stated that he has never done any drugs ("and that includes coffee and cigarettes") and stopped eating meat in the late 1980s (though he still eats fish and other seafood). Other than drinking champagne exactly once after losing a bet to Bela B., he has never drunk alcohol either.

He was first introduced to punk rock on a school trip to London when he was 16, which resulted in him having his hair cut and dyed and returning home a punk.

His grade point average upon leaving school with the Abitur qualification was 2.6, 1 being equivalent to A and 6 to F.

He speaks German, English, French, Portuguese (having lived in Brazil for almost a year) and some Japanese, and also learned Latin at school.

He is a fan of fellow Berlin punk band Beatsteaks, who are referenced in the lyrics of Die Ärzte's song "Unrockbar".

He grew up in what he describes as a "hippie flat-sharing community". His mother, then still attending university, would often take him along to demonstrations she attended even when he was a very young child.

His natural hair color is dark blond.

Apart from traveling, he also enjoys motorcycling, reading and designing guitars.

His music teacher allegedly advised him, "No matter what you do later in life, don't do anything related to music!".

He lived in Berlin-Moabit up until he was 7, and afterwards in Frohnau until the age of 18.

As he did not trust German youth magazine Bravo, he claimed his legal name was "Jan Vetter-Marciniak" when interviewed by them in order to find out who really knows him. According to him, he would then throw away all fan mail addressed to "Jan Vetter-Marciniak" unread for a long time afterwards.

He made a last minute decision to boycott the talk show Roche & Böhmermann (2012) on which he, along with the other Die Ärzte members, was slated to appear in April 2012, after finding out the show's policy of allowing guests to smoke and drink in the studio was not a joke by his bandmates.