Michael Wilton

Michael Wilton
Michael Wilton performing with Queensrÿche at the Reno Events Center on December 13, 2013
Background information
Also known as	Whip
Born	(1962-02-23) February 23, 1962 (age 54) San Francisco, California, United States
Genres	Progressive metal
Instruments	Guitar, bass guitar
Years active	1978–present
Associated acts	Queensrÿche, Soulbender
Website	http://www.michaelwilton.com
Notable instruments
ESP Guitars ESP Michael Wilton Signature models Gibson Les Paul Kramer Guitars

Michael F. Wilton (born February 23, 1962) also known as The Whip, for how fast his fingers "whip" around the guitar fretboard, is an American guitarist for the progressive metal band Queensrÿche, which he co-founded in 1982.

Wilton was born in San Francisco, California, but his family moved to Seattle, Washington when he was 6 years old. His father took him to concerts from an early age and introduced him to many musical styles, especially jazz, including John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell and Al Di Meola, but also to rock music like Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers Band, and Eric Clapton. At age 8, he started practicing on the bass guitar, learning songs by bands from his father's collections, such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. At age 13, he also got a nylon string acoustic from his aunt and accidentally blew his father's speaker. He convinced his father to give him the Fender Bassman and speaker cabinet Wilton inherited from an uncle who died in a motorcycle accident.

While attending junior high school and Interlake High School, Wilton began to explore the guitar world further by listening to hard rock and heavy metal music such as Judas Priest, UFO, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, and Deep Purple, and he began practicing seriously, for 2 hours per day. He changed his mind about playing bass guitar, and chose to play guitar instead. At age 16, his guitar teacher said, that Wilton "whipped on the guitar", which got him the nickname "Whip". He bought a Les Paul copy and a fuzzbox, and joined some garage bands with his school-mates, such as Joker, which was formed in 1978. In 1979, new sophomore Chris DeGarmo was briefly part of this band. By the end of the 1979–1980 school year, they disbanded.