Mikkey Dee Biography
Micael Kiriakos Delaoglou born on 31st October 1963, known better by his stage name Mikkey Dee, is a Greek-Swedish rock musician. He is the drummer for the German rock band Scorpions since April 2016 as a touring member, and officially in September 2016 as a permanent member.
Dee is best known as the drummer for the British rock band Motörhead, with whom he played from 1992 to 2015. The band disbanded following the death of founder and frontman Lemmy at the age of 70. Dee has been playing professionally for three decades.
Delaoglou began his musical career with local bands Nadir and Geisha. His favourite drummer is Ian Paice. Other influences include Brian Downey, Neil Peart and Steve Smith. Dee also gives credit to Buddy Rich.
Mikkey Dee Scorpions
In January 2016, Dee joined Thin Lizzy to play on their upcoming anniversary shows. However, on 19 April it was announced that Dee would not be participating. On 28 April 2016, it was announced that Dee would be filling in for James Kottak with the Scorpions on 12 North American headlining dates, including a run of shows at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas dubbed “Scorpions blacked out in Las Vegas”. On 12 September 2016, Dee joined the band permanently.
Motörhead Mikkey Dee
Lemmy had repeatedly asked him to join Motörhead from the time when King Diamond toured with them. In 1992, asked again, Dee accepted, replacing Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor. On his replacement of a longstanding member, Dee said in 2006:
Phil Taylor was great when he was good… so I could never have filled that space. It’s like when you get married and have kids; no one can take my father’s place… I could never be Phil Taylor, so I had to introduce Mikkey Dee into Motörhead.
Dee’s first gig with the band was on 30 August 1992 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center,[6] but he did not have much input on that year’s March or Die as this had been recorded with Tommy Aldridge prior to Dee joining. He did however play on the album’s ‘Hellraiser’, and ‘Hell on Earth’, from the soundtrack for Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth.
Although Aldridge recorded most of the drum tracks, Dee’s photo appeared on the rear album sleeve. Aldridge generously said that Dee could take credit for the playing, but Dee politely declined, as their styles are very different. In an ironic reversal, Aldridge’s photo had previously appeared on an album on which he played nothing, namely Ozzy Osbourne’s Diary of a Madman.
Epic Records dropped the band after its release and the group continued recording with SPV GmbH. The band also started a label called “Motörhead”, which was copyrighted and distributed through Warner-Chappell and ZYX, Dee’s first album for this label being 1993’s Bastards.
He also played drums on Helloween’s 2003 album Rabbit Don’t Come Easy, stepping in for Mark Cross.
In April 2006 King Diamond reunited with Dee, an old friend, at a sold-out gig at Kåren in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2001 King referred to Dee as “one of the best [drummers] of all time and that’s something that has bothered us since he left.”
Dee played the drums for Martin “E-Type” Eriksson in the Swedish pre-qualification to the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, as well as on E-Type’s 2003 Eurometal tour.
He is famous for solos, often lasting between five and fifteen minutes. These appeared halfway through “Sacrifice”, then “In the Name of Tragedy” and latterly “The One to Sing the Blues”.
Dee is an ice hockey enthusiast and a supporter of the Frölunda HC team from Gothenburg. The rumour that Dee was in a Swedish National Youth Hockey team (stemming from an interview on Motörhead’s Stage Fright DVD) has been rebutted by Dee himself, who attributed it to, “In the end of the 80s and a bit into the 90s, I played for a team called Team Sweden in southern California.”
A contestant on series 1 of Kändisdjungeln on TV4 in 2009, Dee was eliminated in the 15th episode. His place was filled on a US tour by Matt Sorum, who said, “I thought either Mikkey would die in the jungle or I would die on the Motörhead tour.” On 29 December 2015, following Lemmy’s death a day earlier, Dee announced that Motörhead had disbanded.
Mikkey Dee Thin Lizzy
Earlier this year it was revealed that a number of Black Star Riders members were planning to reclaim their Thin Lizzy moniker in order to celebrate two of the legendary band’s anniversaries. At the time, it was announced that Motorhead’s Mikkey Dee would be sitting in on drums during the dates, but Dee has now dropped out while two other music legends have joined the bill.
In an announcement for their shows, Thin Lizzy revealed that while Dee was not going to be taking part, Judas Priest drummer Scott Travis and Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton would be joining the run. They join a lineup that includes guitarists Scott Gorham and Damon Johnson, lead vocalist Ricky Warwick and keyboard player Darren Wharton.
Fans may remember that in 2012 the remaining members of Thin Lizzy decided to go under the name Black Star Riders, feeling that they wanted to record new music and evolve from what they had played while honoring the band’s legacy. They opted to keep the door open for special performances as Thin Lizzy, and with the 40th anniversary of their Jailbreak album and the 30th anniversary of singer Phil Lynott’s death coming this year, they decided to revive the Thin Lizzy name.
Dee says of his exit from the tour, “Unfortunately, due to circumstances that will be announced very soon, I cannot play the six shows with Thin Lizzy in 2016 & 2017. As a life long fan of the band, I truly wish I could have been a part of this, but the reason will be revealed as soon as possible. I wish my great friends Scott Travis and Ian Haugland all the best with these shows and I know they will kick ass!” Speaking of Haugland, the Europe drummer will play the Aug. 6 show in Sweden while Travis is unavailable.
Travis says of joining the run, “First of all, let me offer a sincere Thank You to Brian Downey and Thin Lizzy for allowing me to sit in with the band! Thin Lizzy are undisputed legends and to be a small part of their lineage is a humble honor for me. I hope to do the position good. It’s gonna be a blast!”
As for Hamilton, he states, “I’m really psyched to be playing these shows with Thin Lizzy during my downtime with Aerosmith this summer. It’ll be great to rock out to their classic songs onstage.”
The first show will take place in Loreley, Germany on June 17, with a handful of European dates in June, July and August before the band takes part in the Rock Legends V Cruise next January.
Mikkey Dee Signature Snare Drum
Mikkey Dee Net Worth
Mikkey Dee is a Swedish rock musician who has a net worth of $7 million.
Mikkey Dee Interview
King Diamond Mikkey Dee
Having moved to Copenhagen to play with Geisha, in 1985, Dee joined King Diamond, who were looking for additional members to complete their line-up. Dee played on the King Diamond recordings Fatal Portrait (1986), Abigail (1987), and “Them” which followed in 1988. King Diamond himself was becoming quite popular and the musicians backing him were taking a secondary role in the writing and decision making, often Diamond was the only person answering for the whole group in magazine interviews, etc.
After the completion of the supporting tour for “Them”, Mikkey Dee decided to leave the band, as he felt he was becoming more of a back-up musician, rather than an equal contributing songwriter. However, he was rehired to play session drums for the recording of the band’s follow-up album Conspiracy (1989), after which he was replaced by Snowy Shaw.
Mikkey Dee Photos
