You’d think that if your dad turned you into a global headline joke, you’d want to keep your head down and avoid the media for the rest of your life.
Or at the very least not listen to any career advice your dad offered your way.
Not so 10-year-old Falcon Heene, who is perhaps better known to the world as Balloon Boy.
In 2009, Falcon’s dad, Richard, led the media to believe that Falcon had floated away in a silver helium balloon.
TV cameras followed the out-of-control balloon as rescuers tried desperately to bring Falcon down safely.
The event gripped the world, but what could have been an awful tragedy turned out to be a hoax, designed to grab attention for a reality TV show.
Falcon was in fact safe on the ground in the Heene family home in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Falcon’s mother and father were jailed for the stunt and threatened with further punishment if they were tried to profit from their hoax.
Richard Heene now has a new, slightly weightier hobby, managing his three young sons’ heavy metal career.
In an interview with Gawker, Heene Sr says the boys’ band, Heene Boyz, have recorded an EP and are currently touring America’s north east.
He denies that the tweenie band – Falcon on bass and vocals, Ryo, 12, on drums and Bradford, 13, on lead guitar – is an attempt by him to cash in on his family’s notoriety.
