This is as Close to a Grammy as I will ever get!!!
Phylis Johnson...You Have to Check Out One of the Most Talented Ladies I know!! Seriously!!
Hi, my name is Mike King, but you can call me Mugician...or Mike if you prefer. I was born in Butte, MT in 1960...a good year to be born I think! I come from a large family. At one time there were 7 children all together, my little brother Paul Gerard died in an automobile accident in 1984...he was just 18. So, that left six. There was always a lot of music in our home. My Great Grandmother was a superior ragtime pianist. She traveled around Southwest Montana during the great depression playing honkytonk's for food money.
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My oldest brother Jim was a music connoisseur. I had ample opportunity to listen to all of the great band growing up: The Beatles, The Stones, The Animals, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, Steppenwolf, The Box Tops, The Grass Roots, The Yard birds,and so on. He would also come in late at night feeling a bit tipsy and start playing his acoustic. He would play House of the Rising Sun, Bad Moon Rising, Who'll Stop the Rain...he was pretty good back then!
I remember I got a little cassette player for Christmas in 1971...but no one got me any cassettes to go along with it. A few days after Christmas, my Mom and my oldest sister Debbie took me to a local electronics store so I could buy a couple of cassettes with my Christmas money. I asked my sister Debbie what was good. She started naming off the bands she liked. But, as I was browsing the names, I saw something called Black Sabbath. I asked, "What's a Black Sabbath"? Debbie said...they're not very good. So I bought it. I also came across a band called Deep Purple. I asked her if they were any good. She told me that this tape had on good song on it...Smoke On the Water. I liked the name Deep Purple because the band had the same name as the song my mother used to play. So, I bought it. The tapes were Paranoid and Machine Head.
Now, remember...up until now, I had been listening to music that was Pop for the times...because this is what was being played around the house. When I got home, I grabbed my tapes and ran up to my room. I opened the Black Sabbath tape first and looked at the title of the first song...War Pigs!! I was so excited I was shaking. I never had my own music before. So, I put in the tape and cranked it up as loud as that little cassette could go. War Pigs starts...I'm thinking, what the hell is that sound? It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I got goose pimples. I sat there and listened to War Pigs...totally in awe of what I was hearing. I was hooked.
I started playing music in 1975. I had a box guitar and my mom was making me take piano lessons. I so wish I would have stuck to those piano lessons. My friends would call me fairy fingers...not cool. So I quit the piano. I never did quite playing the guitar. When I was fifteen, my sisters boyfriend John Cooney gave me my first electric guitar. It was an old Harmony Hollow body with Humbuckers in it. I didn't have an amp, but we had an old tube phonograph upstairs that had an axillary in. I ran to Radio Shack and got the ends I needed to build my cord. I plugged into that old Stereo...and cranked it way up. I hit an A chord. It was so distorted you wouldn't believe it...but I loved it. I put down my acoustic and from then on...its all electric baby!!
As I grew older, I started getting into bands. Some were terrible, some were OK and some were just awesome. I started out playing bass in bands because I had a friend who already had an electric guitar and an amp. I enjoyed the Bass for many years, but I still longed to make the sounds I first heard on War Pigs years before. I quite playing Bass...and in between bands I bought a Fender Mustang from one of my old band mates (wish I had that now). I bought a Sun Head and a 4-12 Cabinet and started practicing. I would practice every spare minute. I still couldn't get that sound. So. I sold the Mustang (idiot), and bought a Kramer Spectra with a single humbucker and a phase switch. There was my sound I had been looking for.
I played guitar in many bands thought out the late 80's. I got to be an OK guitar player.....but my knowledge of the Guitar and music was lacking. So, in 1986, I put down my instruments and ceased playing. I decided to go to College and get a degree in Electronics. This I did...and for a short time in College I picked up the Bass again and played in a local band in the town I was attending College in. This lasted about 16 months. I never played much after that. FYI: the whole time I am playing, I'm a raging alcoholic. I quite in 1990.
I quite playing all together in about 1993. I got a great job, had a Family, and went on with life. In 2000, I was diagnosed with a liver disease called Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis. They said the only cure was a transplant. I went on with my life, not really getting sick or feeling terrible. Sometimes I thought these doctors had misdiagnosed me. Well, in 2006 the fun began. I was in and out of the hospital in Bend, OR about 23 times this year...almost dying 2 times from Septicemia. I got my new liver in February of 2007. I had a rough time the first year of my transplant with some complications. I was however ALIVE!!!
I really started looking at my life and what I was doing, and what I was lacking. The first thing I told my dear wife is that I want to start playing music again. While I was recovering in OHSU, she ran to the local guitar center and bought my Fender Strat. Still my favorite guitar today. I bought an old Tascam 8 track cassette and had at it. It took me a while to figure that old machine out. I did some recordings and some were pretty good, while others were not. I kept at it and learned more tricks. I upgraded to a PC Studio and here I am today. During the last few years I have really gotten into the Blues. I love playing Blues on the guitar...it's like the Lord made Blues music specifically to be played on the Guitar. I really like Blues and I am moving that way in my music as well.
I play everything myself on the songs you will hear on my page. Well, the Computer does do the drumming for me. Remember my friends...life is so very short. You figure this out when you almost die. Take advantage of your time here. Do what you like to do. If your a traveler, go see the world, if your love is TV, watch all the TV you want. It's your life...do what makes you happy.
I want to first thank the Lord God and Jesus Christ for still being able to do my music. Next, I thank my awesome sweet wife who spent many hours in hospital rooms holding her dying old mans hand. She never faltered, was always strong around the kids, and I believe I probably would not be here if it wasn't for her. Keep praying...I am proof that miracles can and do happen. Don't forget to leave some room for Christ in your life. I'm not talking about religion...I don't hold to Religion. I am talking about Jesus. Keep him handy...you won't be sorry!! I want to thank all of my MySpcae friends...you are all so very awesome and dear to me. I would have never thought that could happen. Just goes to show!! Thanks for taking your time to listen to my music. It really means the world to me. Have an Awesome 2009 everyone. I love you all!
HEY, HOW ARE YOU? I'M DOING WELL!! SORRY I HAVEN'T BEEN ON FOR A WHILE!! I SPEND A LOT MORE TIME NOW ON: myyearbook.com!! IF YOU WANT, YOU CAN CHECK ME OUT AT: sierrarachel69@yahoo.com!! HAVE YOURSELF A GREAT WEEK AHEAD!! TAKE CARE, ~MISTY~ XOXO
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