Michale was the friend of Garalyn, who we had met through another friend of mine, Angelo Segretto. We were looking for a clothes designer, as we wanted to come up with a look for the band – something really unique to go along with our stick playing.

We were looking for something unique to wear in our ‘I See the Light Show’ performances, so Geralyn came to one of our shows and from there started coming up with some different drawings and ideas for possible costumes for the show. As we got to know him, he told us about his friend who was an incredible singer and about a performance he was going to be performing at. Geralyn had designed some of the clothes that would be worn in this show and wanted us to see some of his clothes designs and we agreed to go as a show of support. We also got a chance to see and meet the next singer for Stickband.

I’m a vocal instructor and honestly, I’ve never heard anybody sing as high as Michale can sing. He had a very unique voice; it was amazing and definitely different, and we were always looking for unique and different. We felt that Michale’s voice fit in perfectly with the other interesting musical instruments that we played in the band.

We were also always on the lookout for sounds that we hoped would excel in the recording arena, so we brought Michale into the recording studio with us and did a little bit a recording, which led to us inviting Michale to join the group. He did not disappoint, as he definitely added to the unique sound of our group, and as you listen to his performances both on lead vocal as well as on the top of our harmony stack you can hear that it was truly an impressive contribution.

I’ll mention that Michale was and is gay. In the 80’s there was still a strong negative social stigma attached to the gay lifestyle, but Bob and I had no problem with it. What we saw and heard in Michale was an incredibly unique talented individual. In fact, his sexuality only added to the variety of unique elements in the band and our live show, and looking back, I’m very proud of the diversity that was an integral element of Stickband, both musically and socially.

Michale remains a friend of mine to this day and I’m proud to have worked with him.