Career History
Kevin as a teenager went to Holland with his father who was with the Beach Boys at the time and recorded some percussion tracks on the Beach Boys Holland Album the songs entitled "Trader" and "Sail on Sailor" which Brother Records/ Warner Bros. Released in 1973, and also can be heard on their "In Concert" record later in the next year.
Kevins father had recorded both of the tracks in the studio at Carls request in the BBC-2 Studio that was in a little hamlet called Baambrugge Holland which Kevin helped build along with the Crew his father had hired. Kevin occasionally played with the Beach Boys in the Studio which allowed him to gain first hand experience in recording. Kevin also performed some percussion on stage performance with the most famous bands that were successful and whom allowed him to play on the same stages as Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, the Grateful Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Honk, etc., while gaining much needed experience.
Carl being one of his favorite friends in the band who supported encouraged him to record and play whenever he was around. Carl and the rest of the guys used to love seeing Kevin come in while they were recording and asked him occassionaly to sit in and play drums or guitar or whatever seemed cool at the time. Dennis has encouraged Kevin in learning the bass guitar when he was young.
Kevin went on and played and with Ron Shumake, Stan Behrens, Henry Vestine, Skip Taylor who were members of Canned Heat in 1979 along with friend Jimmy Roberts, from time to time, Kevin then joined with Kieran White, founder and leader of Steamhammer (a blues band from England) in 1980. Kevin went on and formed his own band called Renegade shortly after this time and the band did quite well.
Kevin quit Renegade then got some guys together and called themselves Guitar Willie and Freeride and performed as a cover band that played top forty and some original compositions until 1981. Shortly after this Kevin left the band and joined up with Gene Summers and played all of Gene's original folk, blues oriented songs, that had a taste of JJ Cale, and the captivating Eric Clapton guitar sound to it.
In 1982 Kevin formed another Band Called Oxiegen. This band was another Studio oriented band much in the style of Steely Dan in the early days, while writing and recording songs in the Studio then releasing great songs. Oxiegen has currently recorded more than fifty hours of original songs including some greatly re-arranged and burning top forty songs like Santanas "Black Magic Woman," and others like the Beatles, "Glass Onion." Of all the top forty songs recorded the ones Kevins band recorded are still more refreshing and pleasing today then when they were done by the original artists. In 1983 Kevin worked with Brian Bouchard in Seattle.
Kevin has done Concerts like the "Summer of Love Revival" Concerts held in San Francisco in 1987-- in fact the Crowd and the Stage Manager loved Kevin and his band so much that he was asked to play an extra hour on top of the forty-five minutes allotted to all of the other bands that were scheduled to perform that day. Kevin Michaels Band was made up of, Don Julio -Lead Guitar player & Singer, Richard Simon ( Bass), Alex Escovel (Guitar/voc.), Dave "The Conga Man from West Hollywood California" and Keyboardist Luke "Super Cool" Theule (Procol Harum band). Kevin performed on the many of the same stages along with Moby Grape. In fact, at the Summer of Love Revial (Moscone Center, San Francisco, Don Stevenson asked if he could play on Kevins Black Chrome Slingerland drums while doing a joint gig at the Moscone Center, San Francisco.
Kevin has also played on the same stage with It's a Beautiful Day, John Sebastian (Lovin Spoonful), Fraternity of Man, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Country Joe, Maria Maldaur, Max Gail and Friends, Brewer and Shipley, Joe Houston, Mickey Champion and many other exciting Artists such as Ice Breaker, Michael Stevens, Curtis Gray and the Blues II Blues Band, Under the Wheel (a spanish rock band), Jimmy Roberts, Gerald Ishibashi& Stonebridge, Guitar Shorty, The Martins, Teddy Lee Hooker, Tommy Tedesco, Jimmy Smith, John Rangel, Michael Saucier, Mack Dougherty, etc. etc. You can catch Kevin at The Baked Potato, the Whisky a Go Go, Rocco's in Bel Air and many other fine Music Venues in and around Southern California.