Despite an untraditional situation, Michael grew up knowing he was loved unconditionally, “For the sake of my sister and me, my parents always put us first. We had breakfast every Saturday morning together. They were really busy so I stayed out on the farm and played in the dirt and ate good food. It was the best thing, really...until I was about nine or 10.Then I stayed with my mom, moved with my dad when I was 14...but to be honest, it was really like I had three houses and four parents. It wasn’t like court ordered or anything. They just all got along.”
Ironically, his first career started him on his way to his current career as an artist; “I started racing dirt-track stock cars when I was a teenager. My dad and his best friend decided we needed something to do, so they set us up in racing. They wanted to keep us out of trouble on the weekends and know where we were every Saturday night. My best friend and I stored the car at my grandfather’s ranch and made a makeshift shop.
That’s when my love for country music began, while I worked on my car. We got one station on this little radio we had in the shop, the only station it caught, was KHEY 96-3 in El Paso, Texas. I don’t know why we didn’t have a better radio...we had enough money to buy something at least from the 80's,” Michael says, laughing. “I would sing along with the radio and in church on Sunday from my seat.”
Eventually, encouragement from friends convinced him to pursue singing seriously. “After singing in bars at home and loving the live reaction, I figured I had a deeper voice and could do a lot with it. That led me to the Musicians Institute in Hollywood . My vocal coach there said I needed to leave California and get to Nashville. Four months after I moved to California , my grandfather passed away, he was everything to me. Losing him made me realize life was way too short. So I quit music school and moved to Nashville.”
Consistent with his personality, Michael jumped right into life in Nashville , playing with whatever bands that would let him. He made his way around town, making contacts and friends along the way. “Once I started racing, I didn’t want to flip burgers, so I made sure I was making money racing. Now I am doing what it takes to make it in country music.”
Michael signed with Golden Oak Music after owners Dan and Ruby Gold spotted him singing one night. The songwriting couple introduced Michael to his newest venture, “They have written for a lot of old timers, Frank Sinatra, Reba, Ray Charles. So I loved their style. I had always written poems. My sense of humor has carried me through a lot of my writing, but my writing is really where I am learning about who I am, and what makes me tick. My writing is honest. I lived it all, so it is very honest. I think most people find my stories entertaining.”
With his album completed and headed for release on January 17, 2009, Michael is working towards what he calls, “The Big Push” with his career. “I want to let other people know that they aren’t the only ones who have lost love, or gotten drunk. I want to entertain and make people smile, and see that tear roll down someone’s face. It means the world to me that I may be able to relate to more people out there than just the ones I know now. Which means, in the long run, I’ll have more friends in my life!” He says happily, “No matter what everyone tells you, how much of a risk it is to come out here and all that stuff, once you find yourself doing something you love and believe in it - a lot of people will start believing in it too. So just believe...okay, that’s a cliché, but it is true. To live in fear is not to live at all.”
| written by Debbie DuBois Miller
