Photo Credit: Maggie St. Thomas

Listen to the Mickey Avalon Interview

We’ve heard a similar story like this one before. It was portrayed on the big screen in 2002 with Marshall Mathers better known as Eminem. The movie was titled 8 Mile. Only this time the story and person in question is a different kind of rapper with a voice that has more rock appeal like Kid Rock.

His name is Mickey Avalon and he is the Jewish rapper hailing from Hollywood, California. Avalon’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors from World War 2 that experienced life lasting injuries. Imagine growing up in a household with a now deceased drug-addicted father and a mother who was a pot dealer. Also imagine what it would be like to lose your sister who you were trying to get your life back on track with. These are all things and more that Avalon has gone through.

Avalon is also the father of a daughter like Eminem. He says the closest turning point he can pin point for him was after the deaths of his father and sister helped him move to the path of his current success. Avalon in the coming years would be rewarded for his efforts after playing many free shows and doing everything he could to get the word out about his unique rap/rock sound. In 2005, he signed the first ever Interscope/MySpace record deal. So far he’s opened for artists like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Travis Baker.

His songs referencing Jane Fonda [He says the veteran actress liked it.] and Lindsay Lohan have brought him forward into the pop culture universe. One can wonder how someone in such circumstances with two family deaths and battling his own demons along the way would be able to find the strength to keep moving on in that kind of environment growing up. Avalon represents the triumph over tragedy story or as he says, maybe he’s one of the most unlucky people in the world.