Michael Edward Mills was not the type that you would expect to end up in a rock 'n roll band. Born December 17, 1958, his father was a tenor soloist and his mother was a classical piano and guitar player. Mike was exposed at an early age to finer pieces of music as opposed to the Velvet Underground which, although, is a truely wonderful band.

The Mills family lived in Orange County, California, for about three years of Mike's life. They then packed up and moved to Macon, Georgia. Mike spent most of his life in Macon and when he began high school, life wasn't easy. Bill would always be...well...bugging him. By the age of 15, Mike and Bill hated each other. Mike was everything Bill hated: perfect student, didn't smoke or drink and he got along with the teachers. What made Bill and Mike's relationship worse was the fact that they both in the high school marching band. Bill played the drums and Mike played the sousaphone, which is really just overgrown French horn, but he soon left it for the electric bass.

A truce between the two has finally called when Bill needed a bass player for his part-time band. An unlikely friendship developed from then on, and the two spent the rest of their high school years together. After high school, they both moved in together. That lasted about two years until they decided to pack up their instruments and head to Athens where they would meet Michael and Peter.

I've always loved the bass guitar and I think Mike plays it well.  Better than well, perfectly shall I say.  I think his part in South Central Rain is the best I've ever heard of anyone.