Rockin’ Out for ALS, One Show at a Time

Like most people, Mike Miller had only a glancing knowledge of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, commonly called Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Then, four years ago, doctors diagnosed his mother with ALS, a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord controlling voluntary muscle movement.

“When she told me she had ALS, she described the symptoms and that there was no cure,” said Miller. “Basically, anything you can control is affected, such as muscle movement, speech and eating. I was numb with fear. But doctors said they’d caught it early, and that she had 10 more years.”

But Miller’s mother, Anne Dunn, died less than three years after her diagnosis of the disease with no cure.

During a recent interview at a Woodinville coffeehouse, Miller’s eyes grew moist as he recalled his mother’s battle with the disease. But this isn’t a story so much about Miller’s mother as it is about her 43-year-old son. Like many who take up a cause after being personally affected, Miller quickly became super-focused on learning as much as he could about ALS.

At the time, Miller was living the life of a respectable Woodinville family man, dabbling in real estate investment while living quietly with his wife and raising three kids. As he learned about the insidious disease, Miller began brainstorming about what he could do to raise awareness of it.

It didn’t take him long to figure it out: Miller would use his music-management background—long dormant—to organize, promote and raise funds for ALS research through rock concerts.

He arranged his first ALS Fundraiser in September 2008. “Smoke Out ALS,” in Maltby, was a barbecue fundraiser with five musical acts. The event featured Miller’s own barbecue sauces, spice rubs and merchandise, which he hopes to market someday under the moniker of Mad Mike’s BBQ. 

Soon, Mad Mike Presents would become the name of his music-promotion business.

In September 2009 in Seattle, Miller threw the first of what would be the name of future shows: Rock Out ALS. Due to its success, Miller decided to expand the shows. In March, he held the second annual at . Today, Rock Out ALS is recognized as one of the most successful new models to raise new awareness of ALS. It has worked with more than 60 of the top music acts in the Seattle club scene, and it’s Miller’s plan to produce six to eight events a year in Puget Sound while in the near future also launching shows nationwide.

Miller’s success with his nonprofit Rock Out ALS shows led to a new career promoting rock shows throughout the Eastside and the rest of Puget Sound. Under the name Mad Mike Presents, he regularly books shows at Woodinville’s and the Yuppie Tavern in Totem Lake.

Miller, a genial man quick with jokes and laughter, looks like a natural in the music business. He sticks out, even in a coffee shop. His hair was slicked back, sideburns curled on his face and his jeans were rolled up, ’50s-style. Think Stray Cats, the popular ’80s group. It’s a rockabilly look, and indeed Miller is currently booking shows for a rockabilly group.

Miller was raised in California's Sonoma County wine country. He grew up in the hospitality industry on his family’s Northern Californian resort, the El Rancho Tropicana. From age 10, when he started as a busboy, all the way to 25, where he was a chef and in management, Miller was involved in all phases of the business. He briefly attended the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, but he decided he could learn more on his own.

It was while in Las Vegas in 1987, that Miller—a drummer and singer since age 8—managed his first band, a thrash-metal group called Vengeance. “I learned a lot about working with bands and booking shows,” he said. “With a band, you also have to be a mediator. It was initiation by fire.”

Miller eventually returned to California, then moved to Washington with his wife, Janell, whom he met in California. Janelle graduated from Mountlake Terrace High School, and the couple lived in Bothell and Everett. One day, they decided to take a tour of Woodinville’s Street of Dreams.

Entering the city, it was love at first site. Miller had been looking for a place to settle permanently with his young family. “We went on a little road trip to Woodinville and got lost,” he said. “We never did find the Street of Dreams. But I did fall in love with the town and saw the house I was going to buy. I had no idea it was like Napa north here.”

Seventeen years later, the Millers have become intrinsically involved in the Woodinville community. Janell coaches a girls youth soccer team. His oldest son, Andrew, is co-leader of the Woodinville High Drumline as well as a member of the school’s lacrosse team. Daughter Hayley is a junior at WHS and 14-year-old Bryan is an eighth-grader at Timbercrest Junior High. Bryan is a musician who has been taking lessons from Chris Griffin of Woodinville’s Spotlight Music for eight years and is now forming a band.

Miller himself taught digital video at Hollywood Hill Elementary and helped develop the TV Hollywood Program as a volunteer for three years. He also helps with fundraising for the Northshore Wranglers Special Olympics team.

Meanwhile, Miller continues to expand Rock Out ALS and is attempting to obtain nonprofit status. On May 21, he’s put together a show called , featuring more than 10 bands, at King Cat Theater in Seattle. On May 28, he’s got at El Corazon in Seattle. It features four bands.

Late in 2010, Rock Out ALS expanded its national reach by joining forces with the Massachusetts-based ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI). “This is a great group that really helps in the fight against ALS,” said Miller.

Miller wants people to know one thing about ALS: Every 90 minutes, a person is diagnosed with the disease in the U.S.

“We haven’t cured anything since polio,” said Miller. “That’s why we support ALS TDI.  They’re looking to interrupt the progression of ALS and extend lives, thus improving quality of life.  To me, life is already too short, so quality of life is everything.”