Michael Wilton

Michael F. Wilton (born February 23, 1962) also known as The Whip, for how fast his fingers "whip" around the guitar fretboard, is an American guitarist for the progressive metal band Queensrÿche, which he co-founded in 1982.

Childhood

Wilton was born in San Francisco, California, but his family moved to Seattle, Washington when he was 6 years old. His father took him to concerts from an early age and introduced him to many musical styles, especially jazz, including John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell and Al Di Meola, but also to rock music like Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers Band, and Eric Clapton. At age 8, he started practicing on the bass guitar, learning songs by bands from his father's collections, such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. At age 13, he also got a nylon string acoustic from his aunt and accidentally blew his father's speaker. He convinced his father to give him the Fender Bassman and speaker cabinet Wilton inherited from an uncle who died in a motorcycle accident.