Toronto native Robert Michaels is a veteran of the romantic guitar circuit which has had its status increased by the likes of Jesse Cook and Oscar Lopez. Michaels was born the son of Italian immigrants who were reluctant to allow their heavy metal influenced son to take up the guitar. His parents eventually relented and Michaels began emulating the likes of Carlos Santana and Jimmy Page initially, then jazz players Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass. Eventually, he started performing the music his parents played around the house when he was young like tangos - both Mexican and Brazillian.
Despite being told at a young age by a door-to-door music lesson salesman that he had the fingers of an accordian player, Michaels has made a name for himself as a premiere Canadian flemenco guitarist. With no label backing he turned his passion for the guitar into sales of 50,000 copies of his indie album 'Paradiso'. His second album, 'Arizona', went on to sell even more and earned the guitarist a Juno Award nomination for Instrumental Artist Of The Year.
This led to Warner Music Canada to sign the guitarist and release his third album, 'Utopia', in 1998.
