Michael McDermott

A 1986 Sandburg High School graduate, Michael McDermott is a singer, songwriter and musician. He began performing in Chicago coffeehouses in the early 1990s incorporating elements of Irish music into an American folk rock sound. In 1991, his single, "A Wall I Must Climb" from the album 620 West Surf reached #34 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock tracks chart. Michael released several albums that decade and toured extensively behind them. His music even inspired author Stephen King, as Michael's lyrics are quoted in King's books Insomnia and Rose Madder. In the liner notes for one of McDermott's albums, Stephen King wrote: "Michael McDermott's music, like Springsteen's and Van Morrison's, helped me find a part of myself that wasn't lost, as I had feared, but only misplaced. That's why we love the ones who are really good at it, I think: because they give us back ourselves, all dusted and shined up, and they do it with a smile." His latest release, Out From Under is a very personal album based on the toll addiction took on his life. Michael credits his wife and their daughter Rain for pulling him through. He poured emotions of overcoming addiction into his writing and the song, Never Goin' Down Again is the result. Four years sober, Michael won a hard fought battle and has come out the other side rededicated to creating music he is proud to make.