Michael Lardie (born September 8, 1958) is an American musician and record producer known for his memberships in the rock bands

Great White Great White is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The band is named after both the shark with the same name, and guitarist Mark Kendall's former stage nickname. In August 2008, Great White estimated they had sold aroun ...

and

Night Ranger Night Ranger is an American hard rock band from San Francisco, California. The band formed in 1982 and experienced a surge of popularity during the 1980s with the release of several successful albums and hit singles. Guitarist Brad Gillis and ...

Early life

Lardie was born on September 8, 1958, in

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the List of cities in Alaska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of ...

and raised in

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

. He is a self-taught musician, having taken only a handful of lessons as a child. He plays guitar, bass, sitar, mandolin, piano, harmonica and flute. At age 17, he started playing in piano bars at night while still attending high school.

Career

Producing and engineering – Early years

Michael spent most of the early to late eighties learning the craft of

analog recording Analog recording is a category of techniques used for the recording of analog signals. This enables later playback of the recorded analog audio. Analog audio recording began with mechanical systems such as the phonautograph and phonograph. La ...

. Although he is well known for producing and engineering

records, most would be surprised to know he had a solid career recording other artists long before joining Great White. He worked on records by artists as diverse as Black Flag,

Kajagoogoo Kajagoogoo ( ) were an English Pop music, pop band. They are best known for their 1983 hit single "Too Shy", which reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, and the top 10 in numerous other countries. History Beginnings (1978–1982) Formed ...

Dokken Dokken is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. It split up in 1989 and reformed four years later. The band has had several hit singles which charted on the Billboard Hot 100, such as " Alone Again", " In My Dreams", and ...

Saint Vitus Vitus (), whose name is sometimes rendered Guy or Guido, was a Christian martyr from Sicily. His surviving hagiography is pure legend. The dates of his actual life are unknown.Basil Watkins, ''The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical ...

to name a few in his early career.

Great White

Lardie joined Great White in 1986 as a session and touring rhythm guitarist/keyboardist/backing vocalist and would eventually become a permanent band member, as well as the band's producer and engineer. The group broke up officially in 2000, and their final concert was recorded and released under the name '' Thank You...Goodnight!''. In 2006, Great White reformed and continue to tour .

Production and engineering – Recent times

When Great White disbanded, Michael returned to his first love. Production. In recent years he has worked on records by Jake E. Lee,

Leslie West Leslie Abel West (born Weinstein; October 22, 1945 – December 23, 2020) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was the co-founder, guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Mountain. West was named the 245th greatest guit ...

, Colin Blades (son of

Jack Blades Jack Martin Blades (born April 24, 1954) is an American rock musician. He has worked in the bands Rubicon (American band), Rubicon, Night Ranger (as bassist and one of the lead vocalists), and Damn Yankees (band), Damn Yankees (as one of the f ...

), Shaw Blades and Jizzy Pearl.

Night Ranger

Michael joined Night Ranger in 2003 as keyboardist/backing vocalist, replacing original keyboardist

Alan Fitzgerald Francis Alan Fitzgerald (born July 16, 1949) is an American musician. A multi-instrumentalist, he is best known as the second bassist of Montrose and as keyboardist for Night Ranger. He has also performed with Gamma, and former Montrose bandma ...

. He remained with them until 2007, being a member in both Great White and Night Ranger concurrently. When Lardie left Night Ranger to tour with Great White, Night Ranger hired Christian Matthew Cullen as a replacement.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lardie, Michael Living people 1958 births Glam metal musicians American heavy metal guitarists American heavy metal keyboardists Record producers from Alaska American audio engineers Great White members Musicians from Anchorage, Alaska 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American keyboardists 20th-century American keyboardists