Michael began drumming at the early age of nine in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. His first teacher was a "by the book rudiments guy" so Michael quickly started playing along to his sister's Beatles albums to have a release from his regimented drum lessons. As his playing progressed, his interest went from The Beatles to the progressive rock group Yes and to this day Bill Bruford is still his favorite drummer.

Michael's career followed the traditional routine; garage band, high school marching band, cover bands, and finally original bands. At the age of 22, he moved to New York City to pursue music professionally and work with former U.K./Roxy Music keyboardist, Eddie Jobson.

After a few years of hard work, Michael landed a tour with then former Styx member, Tommy Shaw. This spilled over into the mega group Damn Yankees, with Jack Blades and Ted Nugent rounding out the lineup. With the major success of their first album, the band traveled around the world as one of the most spectacular rock shows to date. With time off from touring, Michael moved to Nashville and began doing session work, which led to a gig with Suzy Boggus. His time in Nashville was short lived because the next call he would receive would be to replace Kenny Arnoff in John Fogerty's band.

When he is not home, he can be seen behind the kit with Southern Rock ambassadors Lynyrd Skynyrd.