Micael Kiriakos Delaoglou, known better by his stage name Mikkey Dee, is a
Swedish rock musician. He is a former drummer for King Diamond and Don Dokken,
and the current drummer of hard rock band Motörhead. As of 2015, Dee has been
a member of Motörhead for 23 years, making him the third longest serving
band member behind guitarist Phil Campbell and founder Lemmy. He has
appeared on 13 of the band's studio albums, as well as three live albums.
Career = Early life=
He was born in Gothenburg, Sweden. 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. = King Diamond=
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. After
their release of the "Conspiracy" album, Dee decided to leave the band, as he
felt he was becoming more of a back-up musician, rather than an equal
contributing songwriter. 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. Dee played on the King Diamond recordings
"Fatal Portrait", "Abigail", and "THEM" which followed 1988, and continued to
play as a session drummer for the recording sessions of the Conspiracy
album, after which he was replaced by Snowy Shaw.
= Don Dokken= He joined Don Dokken for his solo album,
Up from the Ashes, with the music videos for the songs "Stay" and "Mirror Mirror"
receiving airplay on MTV's Headbanger's Ball. The band headlined their own tour,
as well as opened for Judas Priest. During this time, Dee also filled in a
short time playing for World War Three. = Motörhead=
Lemmy had been repeatedly asking him to join Motörhead since 1985, and in 1992,
when asked once again, Dee accepted the offer, replacing Phil "Philthy Animal"
Taylor. Commenting on his replacement of a longstanding member of the band, Dee
said in a 2006 interview: 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. Of course, some other
guy could have taken his place, but he wouldn't have been my father; so 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, but he did not have much input on that year's release, March or Die, as
this had been recorded with Tommy Aldridge prior to Dee joining the group.
Dee did play on the tracks 'Hellraiser', which was on the album, and 'Hell on
Earth', which was not on the album, but was on the soundtrack album to the film
Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth. Although Aldridge was a member of the
band, Dee's photo appeared on the rear album sleeve. Aldridge generously said
that Dee could take his credit for the playing but Dee politely declined, as
the drummers' styles are very different. In an ironic reversal, Aldridge had
earlier had his photo on an album on which he played nothing, namely Ozzy
Osbourne's Diary of a Madman. Their record label, Epic Records dropped
the band after its release and the group continued recording with SPV GmbH. The
band also started a label themselves, 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
old friend Mikkey Dee 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 also 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 his long drum solos
during concerts, often lasting between five and fifteen minutes and filling
between songs. Dee currently plays a drum solo halfway through the song "The
One to Sing the Blues"; previously it was during "In The Name of Tragedy" and
before that "Sacrifice". Dee is an ice hockey enthusiast and a
supporter of the Frölunda HC team from Gothenburg. The rumor that Dee was in a
Swedish National Youth Hockey team has since been rebutted by Dee himself,
claiming that "in the end of the 80's and a bit into the 90's I played for a
team called Team Sweden in southern California" causing the rumor to arise.
Dee was a contestant celebrity on series 1 of Kändisdjungeln on TV4. He was
eliminated on the 15th episode. During the November 2015 Paris attacks,
Dee was supposed to attend the gig at the Bataclan theatre where many people
were massacred by terrorists, but at the last minute he decided to stay in
instead. Equipment
Mikkey Dee uses Sonor drums, Paiste cymbals, Evans drumheads, and Wincent
Drums sticks. He was endorsed by Vic Firth, but recently switched to Wincent,
with whom he has his own signature model.
Drums - Sonor SQ2 Vintage Maple Custom Finish22x18 Bass Drum
10x10 Tom 13x11 Tom
14x12 Tom 16x16 Floor Tom
18x16 Floor Tom 14x7.25 Mikkey Dee Signature Snare Drum
Cymbals - Paiste20" Signature Power Crash
19" Signature Power Crash 18" Signature Heavy China
14" Signature Sound-Edge Hi-Hats 18" Signature Power Crash
18" Signature Power Crash 10" Signature Splash
22" Signature Power Ride 14" Signature Thin China
20" Signature Heavy China 20" Signature Power Crash
16" Signature Thin China 19" Signature Power Crash
Drumheads - RemoBass: Powerstroke 3 Black
Toms: Ambassador Clear Snare: CS Reverse Dot Coated
Hardware DW 5000 Bass Drum Pedals
Other Wincent Mikkey Dee Signature Drumsticks
Wincent ToneGel Discography
= King Diamond= Fatal Portrait
Abigail Them
Conspiracy = Don Dokken=
Up from the Ashes = Motörhead=
March ör Die Bastards
Sacrifice Overnight Sensation
Snake Bite Love We Are Motörhead
Hammered Inferno
Kiss of Death Motörizer
The Wörld is Yours Aftershock
Bad Magic = Helloween=
Rabbit Don't Come Easy = Other=
"Sanitarium" on Metallic Assault: A Tribute to Metallica
"Fear of the Dark" on Numbers from the Beast: An All Star Salute to Iron Maiden
"Zombie Slam" on Psalms of Extinction by Pain
United – Where is the Fire Nadir "Snön Faller Ner/Ett Nytt Försök"
7" and "Frusna tårar/Sommar" 7" - both singles also feature Snowstorm_(band)
singer Gunnar Jaunupe, and PTS 326 also Yngwie Malmsteen, Glory and Silver
Mountain keyboardist Mats Olausson References
External links Motörhead official website
Motörhead Gallery with Mikkey Dee on Alberta Stars