BIOgraphy
Michael Monarch's guitar playing perhaps helped best capture the spirit of the 1960's. His work with the iconoclastic "Steppenwolf" (their hit single Born To Be Wild in The Rock and Rock Hall of Fame) remains a hallmark of the unique mixture of psychedelic and rock. As the original guitarist for "Steppenwolf," he played
on all the hits including "Born to Be Wild," "Magic Carpet Ride," "Rock Me Baby," "The Pusher" and more!
With over 50 years of stage and studio experience as a musician and composer, Michael has worked with such all-time legends as "Steppenwolf," Janis Joplin (The Kosmic Blues Band), SwanSong/Atlantic recording group "Detective," as well as with Roger Glover of "Deep Purple" and Andy Fraser of "Free."
Some of his film soundtrack and television credits include: Easy Rider, Coming Home, Star 80, Candy, WKRP in Cincinnati, Miami Vice, A Current Affair, Saturday Night Live, Geraldo, Kathy & Regis, Ally McBeal, Cold Case, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Contact, Sex and the City, ER, Star Trek: First Contact, Sahara, The Wonder Years, Disney's It's a Bugs Life, Herbie Fully Loaded and Racing Stripes, Penny Dreadful, The Simpsons, My Name is Earl, Borat, Better Late Than Never, Tropic Thunder, NCIS and Paddington.
For more than fifty years, Michael has been writing and producing music and for over two decades has been performing with Randy Meisner (Eagles), Denny Laine (Moody Blues/Wings), Spencer Davis, Aynsley Dunbar (Journey), and musicians from Toto (Bobby Kimball & Fergie Frederiksen), Steppenwolf (Nick St. Nicholas), Foreigner (Ron Wikso), Santana (Alex Ligertwood & Greg Walker), Boston (Fran Cosmo), Kansas (John Elefante) and Lynyrd Skynyrd (Randall Hall) as the World Classic Rockers. The Rockers have played shows all over the world - North America, Europe, Africa, The Middle East and Asia.
Michael is a guitarist extraordinaire as well as a highly accomplished keyboardist with many gold and platinum records to his credit.
Michael was also playing locally in Florida up until July 2024 with the Peyton Monarch Band. They had regional radio sucess with singles in the last few years and the current Peyton-Monarch album was released in October, 2021. See music page. Sadly, singer Jimmy Peyton passed away suddenly in July after suffering from an aggressive form of lung cancer.
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