Mikkey Dee

Micael Kiriakos Delaoglou (born 31 October 1963), known by his stage name Mikkey Dee, is a Greek-Swedish rock musician and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the drummer for the British rock band Motörhead from 1992 until the band disbanded in December 2015, due to the death of founder and frontman Lemmy. Dee is currently the drummer for the German rock band Scorpions with whom he became a permanent band member in September 2016.

Early life
Dee was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, to a Greek father and a Swedish mother.

He began his musical career with local bands Nadir and Geisha. His favourite drummer is Ian Paice. Other influences include Brian Downey, Neil Peart and Steve Smith. Dee also gives credit to Buddy Rich.

King Diamond (1985–1989)
Having moved to Copenhagen to play with Geisha, in 1985 Dee joined King Diamond who were looking for additional members to complete their line-up. Dee played on the King Diamond recordings Fatal Portrait (1986), Abigail (1987), and "Them" which followed in 1988. King Diamond himself was becoming quite popular and the musicians backing him were taking a secondary role in the writing and decision making, often Diamond was the only person answering for the whole group in magazine interviews, etc. After the completion of the supporting tour for "Them", Mikkey Dee decided to leave the band, as he felt he was becoming more of a back-up musician, rather than an equal contributing songwriter. However, he was rehired to play session drums for the recording of the band's follow-up album Conspiracy (1989), after which he was replaced by Snowy Shaw.

Don Dokken (1990)
He joined Don Dokken for his solo album, Up from the Ashes (1990), with the music videos for the songs "Stay" and "Mirror Mirror" receiving airplay on MTV's Headbanger's Ball. The band headlined their own tour, as well as opened for Judas Priest. During this time, Dee also filled in a short time playing for World War Three (WWIII).

Motörhead (1992–2015)
While King Diamond was touring with Motörhead, Lemmy repeatedly asked Dee to join his band. In 1992 Dee accepted, replacing Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor. On his replacement of a longstanding member, Dee said in 2006:

"Phil Taylor was great when he was good... so I could never have filled that space. It's like when you get married and have kids; no one can take my father's place… I could never be Phil Taylor, so I had to introduce Mikkey Dee into Motörhead."

Dee's first gig with the band was on 30 August 1992 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in New York, but he did not have much input on that year's March or Die as this had been recorded with Tommy Aldridge prior to Dee joining. He played on the albums Hellraiser and Hell on Earth, from the soundtrack for Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth.

Although Aldridge recorded most of the drum tracks, Dee's photo appeared on the rear album sleeve. Aldridge said that Dee could take credit for the playing, but Dee declined, as their styles are very different.

Epic Records dropped the band after its release and the group continued recording with SPV GmbH. The band also started a label called "Motörhead", which was copyrighted and distributed through Warner-Chappell and ZYX, Dee's first album for this label being 1993's Bastards.

Dee also played drums on Helloween's 2003 album Rabbit Don't Come Easy, stepping in for Mark Cross.

In April 2006 King Diamond reunited with Dee at a sold-out gig at Kåren in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2001 King referred to Dee as "one of the best [drummers] of all time and that's something that has bothered us since he left."

Dee played the drums for Martin "E-Type" Eriksson in the Swedish pre-qualification to the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, as well as on E-Type's 2003 Eurometal tour.

Dee is famous for lengthy drum solos, often lasting between five and fifteen minutes. These appeared halfway through "Sacrifice", then "In the Name of Tragedy" and latterly "The One to Sing the Blues".

Dee is an ice hockey fan and a supporter of the Frölunda HC team from Gothenburg. The rumour that Dee was in a Swedish National Youth Hockey team (stemming from an interview on Motörhead's Stage Fright DVD) has been rebutted by Dee himself, who attributed it to, "In the end of the 80s and a bit into the 90s, I played for a team called Team Sweden in southern California."

A contestant on series 1 of Kändisdjungeln on TV4 in 2009, Dee was eliminated in the 15th episode. His place was filled on a US tour by Matt Sorum, who said, "I thought either Mikkey would die in the jungle or I would die on the Motörhead tour."

On 29 December 2015, following Lemmy's death a day earlier, Dee announced that Motörhead had disbanded.

Scorpions (2016–present)
In January 2016, Dee joined Thin Lizzy to play on their anniversary shows. However, on 19 April it was announced that Dee would not be participating. On 28 April 2016, it was announced that Dee would be filling in for James Kottak with the Scorpions on 12 North American headlining dates, including a run of shows at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas dubbed "Scorpions blacked out in Las Vegas". On 12 September 2016, Dee joined the band permanently.

Equipment
Dee uses Sonor drums, Paiste cymbals, Evans drumheads, and Wincent Drums sticks. He was endorsed by Vic Firth, but recently switched to Wincent, with whom he has his own signature model. He also used Remo heads in the past. His main kit is a Sonor SQ2 Vintage Maple Custom Finish set.

King Diamond

 * Fatal Portrait (1986)
 * Abigail (1987)
 * Them (1988)
 * Conspiracy (1989)
 * In Concert 1987: Abigail (1991)

Don Dokken

 * Up from the Ashes (1990)

Motörhead

 * March ör Die (1992) - Hellraiser only
 * Bastards (1993)
 * Sacrifice (1995)
 * Overnight Sensation (1996)
 * Snake Bite Love (1998)
 * We Are Motörhead (2000)
 * Hammered (2002)
 * Inferno (2004)
 * Kiss of Death (2006)
 * Motörizer (2008)
 * The Wörld Is Yours (2010)
 * Aftershock (2013)
 * Bad Magic (2015)

Helloween

 * Rabbit Don't Come Easy (2003)

Scorpions

 * Born to Touch your Feelings: Best of Rock Ballads (2017)

Other

 * Drums on "Mange Tak" by Danish band Shu-bi-dua on the album Shu-bi-dua 12 (1987)
 * "Distant Voices" on "Face the Truth" (1992)
 * "Sanitarium" on Metallic Assault: A Tribute to Metallica (2001)
 * "Fear of the Dark" on Numbers from the Beast: An All Star Salute to Iron Maiden (2005)
 * "Zombie Slam" on Psalms of Extinction (2007) by Pain
 * United – Where is the Fire (This video was made to raise funds to help the victims of 2004 tsunami disaster; the DVD features an All Star band of Scandinavian musicians, consisting of Göran Edman as one of the main singers, Mikkey Dee on the drums, Tommy Denander, Kee Marcello, John Levén, Yngwie Malmsteen, Tommy Nilsson, Jim Jidhed, Geir Rönning, Mattias Eklund, Thomas Vikstrom, Peter Tätgren, Stefan Andersson, Mats Levén and many others.)
 * Nadir "Snön Faller Ner/Ett Nytt Försök" 7" (1982, Nadir NADS001) and "Frusna tårar/Sommar" 7" (1983, ProTape Records PTS 326) - both singles also feature Snowstorm (band) singer Gunnar Jaunupe, and PTS 326 also Yngwie Malmsteen, Glory and Silver Mountain keyboardist Mats Olausson