Mikey Welsh
| Mikey Welsh | |
|---|---|
Welsh in front of his artwork in winter 2010
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Michael Edward Welsh |
| Born |
April 20, 1971 Syracuse, New York, U.S. |
| Died | October 8, 2011 (aged 40) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, artist |
| Instruments | Bass, guitar, vocals |
| Years active | 1984–2011 |
| Labels | |
| Associated acts |
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Michael Edward "Mikey" Welsh (April 20, 1971 – October 8, 2011) was an American artist and musician, best known as the former bassist of Weezer. He played with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo during Cuomo's time in Boston during the hiatus in the band Homie. Following original bassist Matt Sharp's decision to leave Weezer to focus on his group, The Rentals, Welsh was chosen to take over on bass. Welsh played with Weezer from the time that they regrouped in 2000 until August 2001, when he suffered a mental breakdown. Shortly afterwards, he retired from music to focus on his art career. Welsh died on October 8, 2011.
Welsh was born April 20, 1971 in Syracuse, New York.
He began his career as a Boston-area musician, playing in bands such as Heretix, Chevy Heston, Jocobono, Left Nut, and Slower. He was a touring bassist for Juliana Hatfield and Verbena. In 1997 he joined the first incarnation of The Rivers Cuomo Band, the side-project of Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo.
He joined Weezer following the departure of Matt Sharp in 1998. During Weezer's hiatus he played with Verbena and the first incarnation of Patrick Wilson's band The Special Goodness. He wrote a large number of bass lines in this period, recorded them and sent them to Rivers Cuomo for writing inspiration, although Cuomo never used any of them.
Instead, he contributed four of these to Juliana Hatfield's 2000 album Juliana's Pony: Total System Failure. Welsh was given a co-writing credit for four songs.
He toured with the band from their resurgence in the summer of 2000 and most of the way through tours supporting The Green Album, the only Weezer album he would ever appear on. He would also appear on their limited edition Christmas EP (re-released in 2005 as Winter Weezerland) and on a number of b-sides and unreleased songs. He also played on the road and in the studio with Patrick Wilson's band The Special Goodness.
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