Take equal parts of a creative and experienced music composer melted slowly with an imaginative pianist, stir a in a pinch of aged Barry Manilow steeped with enough vintage Elton John to notice then blend with essences of soft rock and voila.

Lee Michaels stated, "Once I heard someone say a long time ago without paying much attention to them, if you do what you enjoy the most everyday, then you will never have to work." In retrospect as Lee looks back over his life and his love of music, he has come to realize how true that is. Born in Maryland and growing up there and in New Jersey, he always loved the time spent on the piano. After high school he joined the US Army, moved to Europe, and lived there for a decade. He continued studying and playing music at every opportunity. While in Europe he performed in Bamburg, Illesheim, Nuremburg, and Wiesbaden. The culmination in Germany was performing with the Strassen Ecke Symphony where he was featured with the symphony in concert as solo pianist.

Upon returning to the United States, he continued to play as a professional musician, sometimes solo and sometimes with bands. All were wonderful experiences, and through the years he made some wonderful musician friends. As time moved on, Lee focused only on solo venues and would slip in an original song here and there. People would compliment his originals and relay how much they enjoyed them. But at this time if he was booked for a private party, corporate event, or even at a restaurant, the clients dictated the type music they wanted, so Lee was happy performing other artists' music. He still remembered, "If you do what you like then you never have to work." More and more he began inserting, playing, and singing his originals with audience approval. Soon audiences began to stop by and ask to buy some of his original music. The problem was he had never recorded anything for sale.

Prompted by close friends and family who echoed what audiences had already been saying for a long time, Lee with all their encouragement, began the saga of recording his first CD entitled My Life, a collection of originals that most would consider contemporary rock (rockry: term coined by Lee that he feels classifies his music style). Using the word saga is not an exaggeration. Having played professionally on three continents whether private event, wedding, club, restaurant, or aboard a cruise ship, before fifty or before thousands of people, Lee's music is heartfelt as he shares his gift of playing.

Lee admits that performing live is reward and completely different from entering a sound studio alone, looking at only the recording engineer on the other side of the glass in a sound proof room, unnerved. Lee said, "I ask myself how can I perform without the live audience that I had always taken for granted." He discovered that for a musician acustomed to playing for a live audience, recording was going to be a daunting challenge. Sitting alone in a sound proof room of a recording studio, taking cues and directions from the sound engineer, albeit he was adept and cordial, made Lee question for the first time his reason for becoming a musician. Then after the first few recording sessions, he was preempted from the studio because ACDC had booked an extended block recording session that was going to last an extended period as they were pressed to get a new album, Black Ice completed before their revival world tour began. Nevertheless, Lee's saga ended well with his first CD finished, recorded, mastered, and edited at UnityGain Recording Studio. A special thanks to John Mameli who did some incredible guitar work in the studio to accompany Lee. John, an accomplished guitarist, was named North American Rock Guitar Champion for 2005. Also, Anthony and Charlie at the studio shared their skills in sound engineering and mastery with encouragement, reinforcement, and patience in helping Lee complete "My Life".

The debut album "My Life CD" is a collection of songs and music that mark milestones in Lee's life that were frustrating, funny, happy, and sad. Lee Michaels knows that the proof of the music worthiness now depends on you as his listener.