Mike Smith (guitarist)

For other people named Michael Smith, see Michael Smith (disambiguation).

Mike Smith
Born	(1973-10-11) October 11, 1973 Middle River, Maryland, U.S.
Genres	Alternative metal funk metal nu metal alternative rock rap metal
Instruments	Guitar drums vocals
Years active	1993–present

Mike Smith (born on October 11, 1973) is a musician, best known as the former guitarist of Snot, TheStart, and Limp Bizkit. Currently he is the singer and guitarist for the band Shedding Light (previously known as Evolver). Mike Smith also appeared in Staind's music video "Outside".

Career

Rumbledog

Mike Smith played the guitar for a band called Rumbledog from 1993 to 1996. They released two records: Rumbledog (1993) and The Drowning Pool (1995). He played with Britney Spears in the vídeo clip i love rock and roll

Snot

Snot's original guitarist, Sonny Mayo, left in May 1998 and Smith was recruited soon afterward. Snot set out to work on their second album, but in December, lead singer Lynn Strait died in a car accident. The group decided not to continue on, although the album Strait Up was released in 2000 as a tribute to Lynn, with guest vocalists from various bands contributing.

TheStart

Smith went on to form a band called Hero with former Snot drummer Jamie Miller, as well as Aimee Echo & Scott Ellis of Human Waste Project. In July 1999, Hero were signed to 143 Records/Atlantic Records and recorded their debut album named "Circles." The band was forced to change their name due to legal issues. At the suggestion of Aimee's mother, they changed it to TheStart. In late 2000, Mike Smith left the band. After various issues, the album was eventually released in July 2001 under The Label/Geffen Records and renamed Shakedown!, with the bulk of Smith's parts recut by Miller.

Limp Bizkit

In late 2001, Limp Bizkit was left without a guitar player due to the departure of Wes Borland. The entire ordeal of choosing a new guitarist was taken very slowly, with various options taken into consideration. Initially, a nationwide audition, entitled "Put Your Guitar Where Your Mouth Is," was carried out to find a guitarist for the band, but nobody was chosen out of the thousands of participants. Smith had known members of the band previously, as they were friends with Snot. They decided to give him a shot at the position, and in 2002, he was chosen as the band's guitarist. Fred wanted Mike to create a full album of songs with the band in between their performance at WrestleMania XIX and The Summer Sanitarium Tour. Together they wrote and recorded at least 14 songs of which 7 of them made it onto their fourth studio album, Results May Vary.

Mike toured with the band throughout 2003 and the first half of 2004, but in mid-2004 they parted ways. To this day both parties kept very quiet on the issue. In 2009, Limp Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers said in an interview that "We really wanted to work with Mike but he just wasn't where we needed him to be".

Evolver

Mike is lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for the alternative metal band Evolver, featuring Anthony Grabowski on drums, Keith Thompson on bass/backing vocals and John Cummings, who was replaced by Drew Yount on lead guitar. Their self-titled debut album, which was mixed by Brian Virtue and mastered by Brian Johnson, was released on November 8, 2011 after being pushed back numerous time through iTunes. They recently signed with Union Entertainment Group, Inc.

External links

• Evolver official Myspace