April 3, 2009
At the age of 8, Michael Wilton inherited a bass from his uncle, who died tragically in a motorcycle accident in San Leandro, CA. His parents then relocated to Bellevue, Washington where he acquired a nylon acoustic from an aunt and began listening to his father's vast record collection. Michael's early influences were The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Mountain, The Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and the San Francisco scene. Having a love for the bass he learned the notes and a few scales and began emulating some of his favorite tunes. He figured out how to hook into his father's receiver to get a really distorted fuzzy sound. Wilton began to learn some Mountain songs and played until he blew up his father's speakers; his father was not amused. He convinced his parents to UPS his uncle's Fender Bassman and speaker cabinet, which became his amp all the way through high school. While in junior high school Wilton sent away for a mail order Les Paul copy and a fuzz box. He also bought a guitar book and began learning the basics, playing bass in some garage bands and soon took over the guitar position because Michael could play Zeppelin tunes. In high school, he started to listen to hard rock; bands like Judas Priest, UFO, Iron Maiden, and Van Halen and began practicing a minimum of 2 hours a day. He then met Chris DeGarmo and the two played in several garage bands, most notably Joker and Crossfire. After high school, Wilton attended the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle where his studies included jazz and classical music and where he learned to appreciate ethnic and improvisational music. Chris and Michael then met Scott Rockenfield and Eddie Jackson, and began collaborating on original music as well as some heavy cover tunes. They played some parties and roller rinks with different singers calling themselves The Mob, but were not satisfied with that direction. Then they met Geoff Tate and asked if he would be interested in recording a demo of some original tunes. In the late summer of 1982 they recorded four songs during the graveyard hours at Triad Studios in Redmond, WA. They played the tape for the owner of Easy Street Records and agreed to have the tape sent to various sources. A magazine in the UK called Kerrang! gave them a great review and the phone calls started coming. They decided to press a small amount of EPs on their own label, called 206 Records. After signing a deal with Harris Management, they quit their day jobs and changed the name of the band to Queensrÿche. The rest is just a work in progress... Visit Michael at his website: http://www.michaelwilton.com Or his Myspace site here: www.myspace.com/michaelwilton Visit Queensryche on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/queensryche
