| Make Believe is written by Mike Roberts |
Fat Jane
| Created by Craig Gosselin gocoffee@gmail.com |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
Mike Mitchell the Hurricane
I entered life in 1954 born in Lexington Kentucky. My sister and I were raised in housing projects and lived in neighborhoods
that where less desirable than one would be inspired, or maybe gave us more inspiration to succeed. In my youth years it was
normal to see the paper boy mugged, local drunk go into D.T’s, or have to go out and fight someone as a social skill which didn’
t take any musical talent other than dancing around for self preservation. The kids ran in gangs and if you weren’t a part of that
society then you became the target, and I was the target a lot so I learned the art of self defense the hard way. My father was
a carpenter / painter and my mother was a stay at home mom as they didn’t believe in those times that women should work.
Fortunately my generation woke up and found the benefit of the other half contributing to the income of the family. This made
the working environment more interesting. I began working in the apparel industry in 1972 and have been there ever since. I
have worked with designers from all over the world and all the major chain stores that sell apparel. I am currently working with
Carhartt Company who promotes their own brand. They are very successful in an industry which is very challenged to make a
profit.
I was introduced into music in 1971 as one of my friends played in a band. He lost his bass player and asked me to sit in until
they found another bass player to complete the band. As it worked out I became a member of a four piece group: guitar,
drums, organ and bass. I am still friends with these guys. The drummer died in a car accident in 1978. At that time bass
players were rare. I began playing with other groups and ended up playing for three bands at the same time. I think this was
the training curve that propelled me into music and a quick burn out at the same time. Between the three bands we played
school and social events mostly for young people at the time since long hair appearance wasn’t as acceptable as long hair
music. We played the prison systems around 1973-1974, for about a year because we had a connection with the corrections
system. There was a program to rehabilitate the inmates and they had a band. We toured the prisons together on a bus tour.
The women’s prisons where the most entertaining, they didn’t allow the men inmates in these venues for obvious reasons.
I played with bands named Garage of Eden, Gratis, REM (not the current REM we had the name a few years before they
became popular), Appreciation, and Rael just to name a few of what I can remember.
1976 Recorded single in Cincinnati and released original material record in regional with 40 radio stations airplay with a band
named Gratis.
I also played with drummer from Lemon Pipers in 1974 and jammed with Blues Image.
Some of the high lights that I experienced I worked with road manager with Average White Band and had a booked summer
tour with Eder Winter in 1976, tour was cancelled.
As a teenage I grew up with Louie Toomey and became family to him later. He is the guitar player for current country band
Brooks and Dunn. He also played with Keith Whitley, and Faith Hill.
We played mostly in Lexington from 1971 to 1981. I married and had 3 children. This became more responsibility so I
dropped out for a few years to raise the family and devote the time to make sure that they didn’t have the influences in life
that I was exposed to.
I began again in 1996 and played mostly in Louisville. My wife met the owner of a dry cleaning store and he asked her if she
would like to come and work for him. She accepted and later found out him played music and he invited me over for a
Christmas Jam. Their bass player was leaving for Texas and they needed someone to fill in. Family had been raised, why not.
The type of music that we begin playing was mostly Blues and original music.
Played in bands Gezer, Fat Jane, 1998 was part of Benefit for Cancer and played set before Matchbox 20 took stage. We did
some studio work and have some of the originals on CD.
In 2000 played at Kentucky Kingdom as part of Ginus world records for setting most bands to play in one area. We didn’t
achieve this but came close.
I took another four year break as the employment that I was at in Louisville closed their doors and I had to look in another area
as there wasn’t any in Louisville at the time for the position I had experience.
I began playing with my friends in 2006 from Louisville as I eventually landed within driving distance. Life is good.
Hurricane
I got that stage name after Hurricane Mitch destroyed Honduras and the funny thing is I was on the last plane to leave the area
before it hit thus the label the Hurricane.
I entered life in 1954 born in Lexington Kentucky. My sister and I were raised in housing projects and lived in neighborhoods
that where less desirable than one would be inspired, or maybe gave us more inspiration to succeed. In my youth years it was
normal to see the paper boy mugged, local drunk go into D.T’s, or have to go out and fight someone as a social skill which didn’
t take any musical talent other than dancing around for self preservation. The kids ran in gangs and if you weren’t a part of that
society then you became the target, and I was the target a lot so I learned the art of self defense the hard way. My father was
a carpenter / painter and my mother was a stay at home mom as they didn’t believe in those times that women should work.
Fortunately my generation woke up and found the benefit of the other half contributing to the income of the family. This made
the working environment more interesting. I began working in the apparel industry in 1972 and have been there ever since. I
have worked with designers from all over the world and all the major chain stores that sell apparel. I am currently working with
Carhartt Company who promotes their own brand. They are very successful in an industry which is very challenged to make a
profit.
I was introduced into music in 1971 as one of my friends played in a band. He lost his bass player and asked me to sit in until
they found another bass player to complete the band. As it worked out I became a member of a four piece group: guitar,
drums, organ and bass. I am still friends with these guys. The drummer died in a car accident in 1978. At that time bass
players were rare. I began playing with other groups and ended up playing for three bands at the same time. I think this was
the training curve that propelled me into music and a quick burn out at the same time. Between the three bands we played
school and social events mostly for young people at the time since long hair appearance wasn’t as acceptable as long hair
music. We played the prison systems around 1973-1974, for about a year because we had a connection with the corrections
system. There was a program to rehabilitate the inmates and they had a band. We toured the prisons together on a bus tour.
The women’s prisons where the most entertaining, they didn’t allow the men inmates in these venues for obvious reasons.
I played with bands named Garage of Eden, Gratis, REM (not the current REM we had the name a few years before they
became popular), Appreciation, and Rael just to name a few of what I can remember.
1976 Recorded single in Cincinnati and released original material record in regional with 40 radio stations airplay with a band
named Gratis.
I also played with drummer from Lemon Pipers in 1974 and jammed with Blues Image.
Some of the high lights that I experienced I worked with road manager with Average White Band and had a booked summer
tour with Eder Winter in 1976, tour was cancelled.
As a teenage I grew up with Louie Toomey and became family to him later. He is the guitar player for current country band
Brooks and Dunn. He also played with Keith Whitley, and Faith Hill.
We played mostly in Lexington from 1971 to 1981. I married and had 3 children. This became more responsibility so I
dropped out for a few years to raise the family and devote the time to make sure that they didn’t have the influences in life
that I was exposed to.
I began again in 1996 and played mostly in Louisville. My wife met the owner of a dry cleaning store and he asked her if she
would like to come and work for him. She accepted and later found out him played music and he invited me over for a
Christmas Jam. Their bass player was leaving for Texas and they needed someone to fill in. Family had been raised, why not.
The type of music that we begin playing was mostly Blues and original music.
Played in bands Gezer, Fat Jane, 1998 was part of Benefit for Cancer and played set before Matchbox 20 took stage. We did
some studio work and have some of the originals on CD.
In 2000 played at Kentucky Kingdom as part of Ginus world records for setting most bands to play in one area. We didn’t
achieve this but came close.
I took another four year break as the employment that I was at in Louisville closed their doors and I had to look in another area
as there wasn’t any in Louisville at the time for the position I had experience.
I began playing with my friends in 2006 from Louisville as I eventually landed within driving distance. Life is good.
Hurricane
I got that stage name after Hurricane Mitch destroyed Honduras and the funny thing is I was on the last plane to leave the area
before it hit thus the label the Hurricane.
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