Michael comes by his rootsy bonafides the authentic way, as a true son of the South. From age five, he grew up in Waveland, a small Gulf town in Mississippi that sits between New Orleans and Biloxi. “It’s a very humble, charming town. I loved growing up there,” he says. “My dad was not making any money,” Michael explains, “so my mother cleaned churches to try to pay the bills. We lived in a little camper that had holes in the floor. I remember if you looked straight through the hole in my bedroom floor, you could see the ground underneath. The funny thing is, I thought I had everything in the world. Looking back, all I owned were a few hand-me-down toys, but it didn’t bother me at the time.”

When Michael turned 13, he was discovered by Ann McNair, a singer with both Gospel and Nashville roots. She gave him a guitar, showed him the first three chords, and taught him how to write songs. At 15, Ann got Michael his first indie record deal. But “I knew just being a singer wouldn’t put bread on the table. I also needed to be a musician,” he says. So his entire 16th year, while everyone else was outside playing and getting on, he locked himself up in his bedroom and learned how to play his guitar.

At 17, Michael released a single called “John Wayne and Jesus.” With that song, he received the first-ever Country Christian Music Association (CCMA) “Star of Tomorrow” Covenant Award. “I’ll never forget that night at Ryman Auditorium,” he says, the Ryman being the original location of the Grand Ole Opry. “It gives me chills to this day.”