Mikkey Dee

Early life

He was born in Gothenburg, Sweden to a Greek father and a Swedish mother.

Delaoglou 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)

Lemmy had been repeatedly asking him to join Motörhead from the time when King Diamond had toured with them, and in 1992, when asked once again, Dee accepted the offer, replacing Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor. Commenting on his replacement of a longstanding member of the band, Dee said in a 2006 interview:

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. Of course, some other guy could have taken his place, but he wouldn't have been my father; so 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, but he did not have much input on that year's release, March or Die, as this had been recorded with Tommy Aldridge prior to Dee joining the group. Dee did play on the tracks 'Hellraiser', which was on the album, and 'Hell on Earth', which was not on the album, but was on the soundtrack album to the film Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth.

Although Aldridge recorded most of the drum tracks, Dee's photo appeared on the rear album sleeve. Aldridge generously said that Dee could take his credit for the playing but Dee politely declined, as the drummers' styles are very different. In an ironic reversal, Aldridge had earlier had his photo on an album on which he played nothing, namely Ozzy Osbourne's Diary of a Madman.

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

He 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 old friend Mikkey 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 also 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.

He is famous for his long drum solos during concerts, often lasting between five and fifteen minutes and filling between songs. Dee currently plays a drum solo halfway through the song "The One to Sing the Blues"; previously it was during "In The Name of Tragedy" and before that "Sacrifice".

Dee is an ice hockey enthusiast and a supporter of the Frölunda HC team from Gothenburg. The rumor that Dee was in a Swedish National Youth Hockey team (stemming from an interview on Motörhead's Stage Fright DVD) has since been rebutted by Dee himself, claiming that "in the end of the 80's and a bit into the 90's I played for a team called Team Sweden in southern California," causing the rumor to arise. Dee was a contestant celebrity on series 1 of Kändisdjungeln on TV4. He was eliminated on the 15th episode. On 29 December 2015, following the death of lead singer Lemmy three days earlier, Dee announced that Motörhead had disbanded.

Scorpions (2016–present)

In January 2016, Dee joined Thin Lizzy to play on their upcoming 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

Mikkey Dee uses Sonor drums, Paiste cymbals, Remo drumheads, and Wincent Drums sticks. He was endorsed by Vic Firth, but recently switched to Wincent, with whom he has his own signature model.

King Diamond

Don Dokken

Motörhead

Helloween

Other