Mikey Welsh

Mikey Welsh
Mikey Welsh; October 1, 2011
Background information
Birth name	Mikey Welsh
Born	April 20, 1971
Died	October 8, 2011 (aged 40) Chicago, IL
Origin	Syracuse, New York
Occupation(s)	Musician, painter
Years active	1993–2011
Instrument(s)	Bass guitar, guitar, vocals
Website	Official website
Associated acts
Weezer, Homie, The Special Goodness, Left Nut, Heretix, Jocobono, Juliana Hatfield, The Kickovers

Michael Edward "Mikey" Welsh (April 20, 1971 – October 8, 2011) was an American musician and visual artist, best known as the former bassist for Weezer. Welsh was one of several musicians that played with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo in Boston during Weezer's hiatus from 1997 through 2000. Following original bassist Matt Sharp's departure from the band, Welsh was chosen to take his place. Welsh played with Weezer from 1998 until August 2001, when he was hospitalized following a suicide attempt. Shortly afterwards, he retired from music to focus on an art career. Welsh passed away in 2011.

Biography

As a musician

Welsh (far right) with Left Nut.

Welsh was born April 20, 1971 in Syracuse, New York. He started off as a Boston-area musician, playing in bands such as Heretix, Chevy Heston, Jocobono, Left Nut, and Slower. He also performed in Juliana Hatfield's backing band and, during Weezer's hiatus, he performed as a touring musician for Verbena and in the first full-band incarnation of Patrick Wilson's musical project The Special Goodness. Welsh joined Weezer following the departure of Matt Sharp in 1998. According to Welsh in a Facebook post from September 13, 2011, Welsh first met Rivers Cuomo when a member of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones recommended Welsh to Cuomo.

Welsh met Rivers Cuomo well prior to Matt Sharp's departure from Weezer. The band informally auditioned Welsh as a session player in the Spring of 1997 during the sessions Fort Apache studios in Boston, MA. Scott Riebling was selected to appear on the recording in place of Welsh, to replace an absent Sharp. Welsh stayed connected to Cuomo after this, performing with him at a few Weezer "try-out" shows in late 1997. He formally auditioned for the band in early 1998, and, upon being selected moved in with Cuomo and Pat Wilson in Los Angeles rehearsing semi-regularly with them and Brian Bell as early as June of that year. In addition to Weezer work, Welsh and Wilson helped Bell record four songs during this time period. His first recorded work to be released with the band was the Pixies cover "Velouria," which was recorded in August of 1998 but not released until the next year.

Welsh wrote a number of bass lines for Weezer in this period, some of which Cuomo considered but never used. Welsh instead offered them to Juliana Hatfield, who wrote four different songs using his material, all of which eventually saw release on her 2000 album Juliana's Pony: Total System Failure. Karl Koch credited Welsh helping shape the song "Everyone," saying he was responsible for the song being "ultra heavy" and "Fu Manchu-like."

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Welsh in 1998.

The band did not perform live with Welsh until November of 1998, when they did two secret shows in California under the name Goat Punishment. One of these shows consisted of Nirvana covers and the other Oasis covers. When Weezer became less active in 1999, Welsh joined Wilson's project The Special Goodness for multiple tours, and recorded with Hatfield.

Welsh toured with the band during their resurgence in the summer of 2000 and appeared on the EP Christmas CD that December.

Privately, Welsh's relationship with Cuomo became strained. "Once we started becoming successful again, Rivers turned into this robot," Welsh later said, "He had ice flowing through his veins, In my opinion, that's when he stopped being an artist." Cuomo fined bandmates for "poor" behavior, reportedly fining guitarist Brian Bell $2000 for his guitar being out of tune.

Departure from Weezer

Welsh left Weezer in August of 2001. On August 11, Koch first reported on Weezer's official website that Welsh had not come to rehearsals due to a "private medical problem" and that the band would be trying out replacement bass players. Following Welsh's continued absence during filming of the band's music video for "Island in the Sun" with Spike Jonze, Koch posted an update on August 14 explaining that the band was unsure as to Welsh's whereabouts, and that the band was "in the dark" on his health status. Koch continued to emphasize that Welsh's issues were, according to sources close to Welsh, not drug-related. The following day, Koch confirmed that Welsh had been checked into a psychiatric hospital.

Koch continued to update fans on Welsh's status in the coming weeks. On August 19, Koch posted an update confirming that Scott Shriner had been selected to fill in on bass. Koch posted one final update on Welsh on September 23. "Whats going on between Mikey and Weezer is a private matter," wrote Koch, "and there will be no further announcements, news or speculation in this space unless and until everyone involved is ready to make any statements on the matter."

The exact details of Welsh's departure were unknown to the public for several years. It was eventually revealed that he did, in fact, have a nervous breakdown due to a combination of drug use, undiagnosed mental conditions, and the constant wear of touring. The combination of these factors ultimately led Welsh to attempt suicide via drug overdose. He was subsequently checked in to a psychiatric hospital. Welsh spoke about the ordeal in a 2007 interview with the website Rock Salt Plum:

Basically, a lifetime of doing drugs and being undiagnosed as having Bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and borderline personality disorder finally caught up with me when I was 30 years old. At the beginning of a 3-month European tour with Weezer, I started slowly falling apart. Without getting too graphic, by the time the tour was winding up, my weight had gone down to about 140lbs (I'm 6'2") and mentally completely wiped out. When I returned to the states, my family had made plans for me to see a psychiatrist in Boston. First though, we had to play a few dates around the U.S., and perform on The Tonite Show (which ended up being my last performance with Weezer). By the time I got to Boston, I was having a complete nervous breakdown. It ended with a severe suicide attempt (an overdose). I was found and rushed to the hospital where I had come to within minutes of my heart completely stopping. I was in a coma for a few days, and woke up in a lockdown psychiatric ward.

—Mikey Welsh, Rock Salt Plum Review, 2007

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly from March of 2002, Welsh expressed that he felt abandoned by his former Weezer bandmates: "I took some time to get some help for something and they basically took off on me, abandoned me [...] The way it went down was pretty lame. Being in a band with guys that long and being as good friends as we were, having them just kind of split was definitely cold." A 2005 article by Alternative Press omitted the details of Welsh's ousting from the band, but described them as "more fucked-up and insensitive than you could possibly imagine."

In 2001, Welsh returned to the Boston music scene, briefly joining Nate Albert's (guitarist for The Mighty Mighty Bosstones) band, The Kickovers. In an interview, he expressed his distaste for the corporate music process, stating that, "It’s actually fun to just be playing in the studio without some major-label idiot standing over your shoulder."

Soon after, Welsh retired from music to become a full-time artist. He, his wife and their two sons lived in Vermont.

Welsh received an apology letter from Rivers Cuomo in the spring of 2004. "To be honest, I thought it was a prank," said Welsh, "But I read it again, and immediately recognized Rivers' handwriting; just the way he writes and talks and thinks. Needless to say, I was shocked. I assumed I would never speak to the guy again. I didn't really care either way if I did."

Welsh attended a Weezer show on July 12, 2005 in Lewiston, Maine. Cuomo dedicated "Hash Pipe" to him, the very mention of his name drawing forth cheers from the crowd. Welsh also got to meet current Weezer bassist Scott Shriner.

On September 2, 2010, Welsh attended a Weezer concert in Essex Junction, Vermont. During the concert, Scott Shriner and Pat Wilson organized a "last minute switcheroo", pulling Welsh onstage to play bass during the song "Hash Pipe", to the surprise of Rivers Cuomo. Said Welsh, "Fortunately, they picked the one Weezer song I still remember how to play!"

On July 29th, 2011, Welsh played "Undone - The Sweater Song" with Weezer and The Flaming Lips at a show in Wantagh, New York.

As an artist

Welsh turned to art and, as of August 2008, had 13 exhibitions of his artwork. He was a member of the gallery Outsiderart.info.

A quote from Welsh's official website explained his methods of creating his art thusly:

"Welsh attacks his canvases with pure spontaneity and aggression, almost never using a brush and preferring to work only with his hands and fingers. This technique gives him the opportunity to get as close and "inside" to his paintings as he needs to be. For him, this is a necessity. Welsh also works in sculpture, working with found objects. Constructing creatures out of broken and dismantled chairs and furniture, to vacuum hoses, tupperware, wire, and rope. All painted with his usual explosion of color.”

His artwork was featured on a line of snowboards for the manufacturer Burton Snowboards, in a line of entitled "The Farm." He also painted the album cover for the album There Goes My Virtue by the band Twin Berlin, as well as the covers for the albums Fall in Love With The Concussions and Break Up With The Concussions by the band The Concussions.

Death

On October 8, 2011, Welsh was found dead by staff at the Raffaello Hotel in Chicago. A drug overdose was suspected, but toxicology results were inconclusive. He was 40 years old. Welsh's Facebook page announced that he had tragically passed away that day, and was confirmed later on the official Weezer Twitter account. Two weeks before his death, Welsh posted to his Twitter account: "Dreamt I died in Chicago next weekend (heart attack in my sleep). need to write my will today,". Welsh later added, "correction – the weekend after next"

Discography

With Weezer

• 2001 — Weezer (The Green Album)
• 2000 — The Christmas CD
• 1998 — "Velouria" from the compilation Where Is My Mind? A Tribute To The Pixies

With Jocobono

• 1995 -- Jocobono

With Juliana Hatfield

• 1997 — Please Do Not Disturb
• 1998 — Bed
• 2000 — Juliana's Pony: Total System Failure
• 2002 — Gold Stars 1992-2002: The Juliana Hatfield Collection

With The Kickovers

• 2002 — Osaka

With Heretix

• 1993 — The Adventures of Super Devil

With Left Nut

• 1990 - Bad Attitude, No Apologies

See also

• Gallery:Mikey Welsh
• Mikey Welsh interviews
• Facebook posts by Mikey Welsh

External Links

• Mikey Welsh's Official Website