Michael Edward "Mikey" Welsh was an American artist and musician who played bass with the rock band Weezer. He played with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo during Cuomo's time in Boston during the hiatus in the bandHomie. Following original bassist Matt Sharp's departure from Weezer, Welsh joined as bassist. Welsh played with Weezer from the time that they unofficially regrouped in 1998 until August 2001, when he experienced mental health problems. Shortly afterwards, he retired from music to focus on his art career. Welsh died on October 8, 2011.
Career
Welsh was born on April 20, 1971 in Syracuse, New York. He began his career as a Boston-area musician, playing in bands such as Heretix, Chevy Heston, Jocobono, Left Nut, and Slower. He was a touring bassist for Juliana Hatfield and Verbena. In 1997 he joined the first incarnation of The Rivers Cuomo Band, the side-project of Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo. He joined Weezer following the departure of Matt Sharp in 1998. During Weezer's hiatus he played with Verbena and the first incarnation of Patrick Wilson's band the Special Goodness. He wrote a large number of basslines in this period, recorded them and sent them to Rivers Cuomo for writing inspiration, although Cuomo never used any of them. Instead, he contributed four of these to Juliana Hatfield's 2000 album . Welsh was given a co-writing credit for four songs. He toured with the band from their resurgence in the summer of 2000 and most of the way through tours supporting The Green Album, the only Weezer album he appeared on. He would also appear on their limited editionChristmas EP and on a number of b-sides and unreleased songs.
Mental Illness and exit from Weezer
Mikey Welsh left Weezer in 2001 for reasons that were left unclear to the public for several years after it happened. It was eventually revealed that he did in fact have a nervous breakdown due to drug use, undiagnosed mental conditions, and the constant wear of touring. The combination of these factors ultimately led Welsh to attempt suicide via drug overdose. He was checked into a psychiatric hospital sometime during August 2001. He later spoke about the ordeal in an interview with the website Rock Salt Plum: Weezer shot a new version of the video for their song, "Island in the Sun" without Welsh. In 2001, the band hired Scott Shriner to fill Welsh's place in the band.
Retirement from music
In late 2001/2002, Welsh returned to the Boston music scene by temporarily joining Nate Albert's band, The Kickovers. In an interview, he expressed his distaste for the corporate music process, stating that, "It's actually fun to just be playing in the studio without some major-label idiot standing over your shoulder." Soon after, he retired from music to become a full-time artist. He, his wife and their two sons lived in Vermont. Welsh attended a Weezer show on July 12, 2005 in Lewiston, Maine. Cuomo dedicated "Hash Pipe" to him, drawing cheers from the crowd. On September 2, 2010, he played bass on the song "Hash Pipe" with Weezer at a show in Essex Junction, Vermont. On July 29, 2011, Welsh played guitar on the song "Undone" with Weezer and Flaming Lips at a show in New York.
Art career
Welsh became an artist. As of August 2008, he had 13 exhibitions of his artwork. He was a member of Outsider Art. A quote from Welsh's official website explains his methods of creating his art: His artwork is featured on a Burton snowboard, in a line of snowboards titled "The Farm". He designed and painted the album cover for Twin Berlin's debut album.
Death
On October 8, 2011, Welsh's Facebook page announced that he had died of heart failure with a memorial image attached. It was later announced that Welsh had been found dead in a hotel room in Chicago, from a suspected heroin overdose leading to a heart attack. Two weeks earlier on September 26, 2011, he posted on Twitter "dreamt I died in Chicago next weekend. need to write my will today" followed by "correction – the weekend after next".
