Mikey Welsh (1971-2011)

Mikey Welsh (1971-2011)

Michael Edward “Mikey” Welsh was born April 20th, 1971 in Syracuse, New York. Before joining Weezer in 1998 he was in many bands such as, Heretix, Chevy Hestun, Jocobono, Left Nut, Slower, and Rivers Cuomo’s side project The River’s Cuomo Band. He would only appear on one Weezer album The Green Album but he did four albums with the band from 2000 on, he also appeared on a Christmas album as well as a few b-sides and unreleased songs. He would also play with Patrick Wilson’s band The Special Goodness.

Achievements: 

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.

Welsh became an artist. As of August 2008, he had 13 exhibitions of his artwork. He was a member of Outsider Art. His artwork is featured on a Burton snowboard, in a line of snowboards titled "The Farm". He designed and painted the album cover for Twin Berlin's debut album.

Charity:  PBS