“I think music that was the foundation for my engineering career. In engineering you’ll hear about Pythagoras, but it was he who discovered the mathematical ratios for music. And as great of an invetor as he was, Leonardo DaVinci was also a skilled musician.”

Interview by Michael Limnios                  Special Thanks: Larry Kay (Night Train PR)

A full band (The Backroad Preachers) expanded your sound "from technicolor to 4K IMAX." How did you personally experience this transition from solo acoustic performances to the massive, electric sound of a rock 'n' roll band?

From the beginning, I was always into the electric guitar sound. When I first heard Freddie King, in 1962, that’s what got me hooked on playing guitar. I was in a British style blues-rock band from 1967 to 1971, but bands come and go and and if the band is not all in on making original music it fades out fades pretty quickly. Though I’ve always liked collaborating with other musicians, solo-acoustic playing always provides that ‘vehicle’ for freedom and creativity.

Live albums can be a risky proposition, but Live At The Shop! manages to capture an incredible amount of energy in just 28 minutes. Was it a conscious decision to keep the album so short and explosive (with the pedal firmly nailed to the floor), or did that happen organically during the recording?

No, it was not the intent to produce a short album but rather more like 35-40 minutes of music. That night, we had an enormous amout of technical difficulties that almosr scrapped the entire thing. Mics cut out, high frequency and buzz noises, lost instrument files, etc... It took over six months to find what files were usable and, in the end, that was only six tracks; but those six carried the same energy as all the other songs we intended for live release. You can do some really cool things in the studio, but unless you’ve got a backing track of that studio work for ‘live performance’ you can’t really replicate that sound. Whatever I produce in the studio I want it as fresh, engaging, and as professional as possible. And when we do those same songs live, I want to take what we’ve done in the studio and add another dynamic of energy and expression, because the audience has heard the studio version and I want to give them all that and more.

Why did you choose "The Shop" for this live recording, and what does that specific space bring to the album's atmosphere compared to a traditional studio setup?

The Shop is a small music venue on the eastside of Detroit, and it‘s an ‘invitation only’ venue; they  have smaller national touring acts along with select local acts perform there by their invitaion. I was invited to do a solo-acoutic show on November 13, 2026 but I had released my album, Big Leg Woman,a year earlier, and all that music was with a full band. I wanted to do songs from that album, so I got a hold of Chris Gassel, (drums, vocals) Dave Standley (bass, vocals) and Wolf Bering (guitar,vocals) and we started working on those songs. For the show, the first set would be me performing select reworked blues covers as a solo-acoustic performance and the second set with the full band electric performing originals from Big Leg Woman.

(Michigan Mick aka Mick Hishon / Photo by Jane Cassisi)

You’ve described accidentally discovering Son House and Mahalia Jackson on the radio on a Sunday night during your childhood as a major turning point. If you could go back in time and say something to that kid listening to these blues giants for the very first time, what would it be?

I would say to him ,“Listen and let’s share this together.” To this day, I remember hearing Mahalia Jackson singing “How Great Thou Art’ “ that night, and it completely grabbed me. That memory still grabs me in the same way today. Then I heard Son Houes singing “Preachin’ The Blues” right after that, and that was one big music shift and it took hold of me for good that night. It was a Sunday night and it was gospel music all night long and that was the seed for the blues in me.

You started out by leaning into "The Three Kings" (Albert, B.B., and Freddie King). What specific elements of their playing do you try to keep alive in your own, more modern and riff-forward sound?

I really liked what Albert King and B.B. King were playing, but for me it was Freddie King. His guitar playing has this ‘single note’ bite which, for me, gets to the heart of the music.  Freddie King took other people’s songs like  “Hideaway,” “Steppin’ Out,”  “Have You EverLovedA Woman,” and “Going Down,” which laid the groundwork guitar playing for the likes of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, etc... One of my favoties to cover is the Tampa Red song “Love Her With A Feelin’,” which became Freddie King’s first song to break into the R&B charts in 1962.

At 18, you had a really bad experience with a record contract offer, which led you to walk away from music as a career and become an engineer. Looking back, do you feel that this "break" from the industry ultimately protected your love for the blues, keeping your music pure?

By January 1972, the blues-rock band I was in had broken up and the other guitar player, the bass player and I we were exploring avant-garde, acoustic jazz-rock — this is even before the release of the album ‘Love Devotion Surrender’ by John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana. That music was what got the attention of a production company out of Los Angeles, and the day after my 18th birthday I signed a one-year deal, with an optional tree-year renewal if it went well. So we did a ‘track record’ they tested in in various markets, and about 10-11 months in we got interest from Columbia Records, and I sign up for the three-year renewal thinking everything is going up. NOT!!! A few months later, my manager was arrested for embezzelment, music went in the ‘can’ everything went into litigation, no one would touch me because I was under contract. So I went to college and became and engineer. As for engineering keeping the blues in me ‘pure,’ it probably did to some extent. I started my musical career playing the blues but, as it progressed, I would become musically restless and explore other styles from jazz to classical to country to Asian, and maybe it kept me from going down a music ‘rabbit hole.’

(Detroit-based blues-rock musician Michigan Mick aka Mick Hishon / Photo by Jane Cassisi)

Are there any elements from your career as an engineer that influence how you approach the structure of a song, locking in grooves, or even managing your gear on stage?

Actually, I think music that was the foundation for my engineering career. In engineering you’ll hear about Pythagoras, but it was he who discovered the mathematical ratios for music. And as great of an invetor as he was, Leonardo DaVinci was also a skilled musician. As with my early music career, looking for something new in engineering led me to become one of the lucky few to become an inventor; I have 16 patents, 15 of them in automotive saftey systems, and five went into production beginning in 1993, continuing thru 2030 saving human lives.

Many people view retirement as a time to slow down, but for you, it was the launching pad for making your own records and competing in the International Blues Challenge (IBC). How does it feel to experience this "musical renaissance" in this chapter of your life?

It feels absolutely great, like I’m 18 years old all over again - at least mentally. I never really quit playing the blues, even as an engineer. My engineering career sent me to live and work in Euorpe, Asia, and Mexico, and I used those opportunities to find any place I could to sit in and jam with musicians. After retirement, I competed in the International Blues Challenge and met some industry people who gave me an ‘unvarnished’ (told me what they didn’t like very clearly) positive critique of my perfomance. I took those critiques to heart, and produced and released Big Leg Woman without any professional guidence or support for promotion and distribution. All throughout 2025, songs from that album were played on Sirius XM’s BB King’s Bluesville channel, radio, and podcasts in North and South America, and Europe.

After releasing your debut, Big Leg Woman, you started getting offers to play opening slots at some of the larger venues in Detroit, which prompted you to put a backing band together. How has the historic Detroit music scene welcomed you, and how has it shaped the energy of The Backroad Preachers?

When I released Big Leg Woman, the Detroit music scene sort of said “Where you been? Glad to you’re home.” It’s always been that way for those of us who grew up in Detroit music scene from 1965-1975. Between 1965-1975, this area produced some of the finest musicains I have ever played with, including those from Europe, Asia, Mexico and throughout the USA. Within a few months of the album’s release I got some offers to perform with a big national acts but I didn’t have a proper backup band and had to decline.

Now that I have The Backroad Preachers with me, hopefully we’ll see those offers to perform with major national acts again really soon. As for The Backroad Preachers and me, and our ‘sound,’ we are all Detroit musicians and have that musical heritage to build on. For my guitar sound, I play ‘old school’ by cranking up the amp, adjusting the guitar and using a wah-wah pedal. Recently, I added a treble booster as an ‘always-on’ pedal. When I met Wolf Bering (guitar/vocals), he had a big pedal board; his playing was great but, after a while, he began eliminating pedals and now plays with only one or two pedals, which is what you hear on the album. Dave Standley (bass/vocals) is a natural talent. He was origianlly into metal, but he’s really grabbed the feeling of the blues and provides that rythmic drive to the songs. Chris Gassel (drums/vocals) has a very deep and diverse musical trainning in classical, jazz, rock, and now blues, and makes the drums sound like a combined rhythmic-melodic instrument that gives us  the foundation and direction for the rest of the musical direction, Performing with The Backroad Preachers is a blast because I have very talented muscians who bring out the best in the music and each other.

Michigan Mick - Home

(Detroit-based blues-rock musician Michigan Mick / Photo by Jane Cassisi)