Michael was born and raised in a small rural farming community of Stella, NC. There was never a need to wonder where he was as he could always be found attached at the hip to his dad Max or with grandpa walking through the woods or fishing on the family farm.
At a very early age, it became very clear something was very different about little Michael. His ability to recall the lyrics to overheard songs and create different drumbeats to them had his family thinking jokingly, “That’s special. Wonder if he’ll have a career in music”.
It wasn’t a stretch to believe that six years later, at the age of ten, he would write his very first song called Lucky. Michael loves his family so much that while sitting on a rock outcropping across a pasture at his family’s mountain house, just observing, “I just thought how lucky I was to have all the family here and the word and music just came in waves”. After playing it for his family on his $50 guitar and only being able to play one note at a time, he was pressed for answers on how this came about. When he answered, “I’m not really sure, I can just see music and words”, the people around him knew this was different.
Michael has written more than a dozen old school country, southern rock and outlaw country style songs. In just a few short years Michael has become proficient in playing the acoustic and electric guitars along with the bass guitar and mandolin. He has twice been featured in a PBS documentary representing original songwriters specifically in the genre of Appalachian Ballads. He has performed for large audiences in festival such as the Jones County NC Heritage Festival Concert, Rural Retreat, Va. Heritage Days Concert, Hungry For Music Benefit Concert, and performed an all original event at the famed Blue Ridge Music Center in Galax, Va, as well as actively gigging regionally with his full time band, The Michael Schott Band.
Michael was honored to accept the role as “Ambassador of Hope” from the S.O.A.R Foundation who’s mission is to provide support and empowerment to those individuals that have escaped from human trafficking circumstances, and will be touring nationally, performing for their benefit concert series.