Michael Matijevic
Michael "Mili" Matijevic (born November 29, 1964 in Zagreb , SFR Yugoslavia ) is an American rock singer. He became known through the hair metal band Steelheart .
biography
Born in 1964 in the Yugoslav socialist republic of Croatia , Matijevic immigrated to the United States with his parents . They first moved to Scarsdale , New York . A year later we went to Greenwich ( Connecticut ) where Matijevic started to make music. The father encouraged him and his brother John to play country songs. At the age of eleven, Matijevic discovered Led Zeppelin for himself, but his father forbade playing rock music.
When Matijevic met Chris Risola, James Ward and Jack Wilkinson in the early 1980s, the quartet decided to form a band and called themselves Red Alert . They got a record deal, but had to change the name for copyright reasons and were renamed Steelheart .
In 1990 the power ballad I'll Never Let You Go from the self-titled debut album landed on Heavy Rotation on MTV . The single reached number 14 on the charts, the album made it to number 40 and went platinum. The follow-up album Tangled In Reins was released in 1992.
After touring the USA with Great White , there was an additional concert as the opening act for Slaughter . An accident occurred when Matijevic tried to climb up a beam for the lighting. However, this was not sufficiently secured and a light beam fell on him and hit him on the head. Matijevic was still able to leave the stage independently, but was taken to hospital with severe head injuries and fractures. The band was forced to take a break, but in view of poor record sales and the music landscape, which was mainly changed by grunge , it was agreed to split up the group.
In 1996 Matijevic started the band again with a new line-up and an album was released with Wait . This was quite successful in Asia, but flopped in the rest of the world or did not even appear. In the fall of 2005, Matijevic announced that the band was working on a new album to be released in 2006.
In 2001 Matijevic was on the soundtrack for the movie Rock Star , on which he lends lead actor Mark Wahlberg the singing voice. He also recorded eight songs from the film band Steel Dragon .
Discography
- Steelheart (1990) - with Steelheart
- Tangled In Reins (1992) - with Steelheart
- Wait (1996) - with Steelheart
- Rock Star (2001) - soundtrack to the film
- Good 2B Alive (2008) - with Steelheart
- Through Worlds Of Stardust (2017) - with Steelheart
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Matijevic, Michael |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Matijevic, Mili (nickname) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Croatian-American rock singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 29, 1964 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zagreb |