Biography
Patrik Michaels projects such polished confidence onstage that few would suspect he once battled crippling stage fright while first chasing a country-music path. His image, choreography, and media materials all reflect lessons absorbed during an early stint as an actor on the daytime soap The Bold and the Beautiful. Additional visibility arrived through Levi’s denim campaigns and television spots for Jell-O and Budweiser. Long before those jobs, however, he practiced in private with a karaoke machine, confiding his ambitions solely to a brother. Once that solitary rehearsal bolstered his nerve, he traveled to Los Angeles and tried out for a wedding-singer position, later expanding his résumé with bar-mitzvah performances and other local bookings that steadily enlarged both his skills and his aspirations. Industry contacts formed during this period offered encouragement, prompting him to compose original country material and assemble a demo. Waterbury Productions signed him to a deal that dissolved six months later when the label collapsed. Undeterred, Michaels relocated to New York in 1995, assembled a band, and began appearing at venues including CBGB, le Bar Bat, and the Bitter End. A producer who had previously worked with Dusty Springfield took notice and helmed the recording of Michaels’s album Feels Like Home, whose single “To Get to You” followed. Nuthill Records and Publishing then awarded the songwriter a two-year agreement, and he soon opened a Wildhorse Saloon show for Montgomery Gentry. In 1999 the MAC Awards in New York nominated him for best male debut.
Albums