Michael Frederick Box (born 9 June 1947) is an English musician who is the lead guitarist of rock group Uriah Heep, having previously been a member of The Stalkers and Spice, both with original Uriah Heep vocalist David Byron.[1] He is the only member from the band's founding in 1969 who is still active with the group, and – following the deaths of Lee Kerslake and Ken Hensley in 2020 – is also the last surviving member of the group's classic line-up.[2]
Mick Box was born in North London. His father was a carpenter.[3] As a child Box played football for the "London Schoolboys" youth football team.[4]
On Christmas day 1953, Box's father came into his bedroom, dressed as Father Christmas, to gift him a small blackboard and cheasel, and after shutting the door and leaving him to play with his toy, dropped from a heart attack a few minutes later; he died the next day.[4] He was raised by his widowed mother and his grandmother.
After listening to Buddy Holly, Box started playing the guitar. His first guitar was actually a ukulele, which he only bought because he thought it was a cheaper guitar.[4] He eventually got an actual guitar from his mother who bought a Telston guitar at a pawn shop for £12 and ten shillings.[4] His first band was formed when he was thirteen called The Stalkers.[4]
Mick attended William Fitt Secondary and passed eight subjects.[4] After leaving school, he traded in his Fender Telecaster for a Gibson Les Paul he bought from a shop in Bournemouth called Eddie Moore's music shop and promised to his mother he would pay for the guitar with small jobs; he worked as a butcher on Liverpool street in Walthamstow and also worked Vavasseur Levetus Export; within a year he had payed of the guitar.[4]
Box's mother was very supportive of Mick choosing a career in music, however the rest of his family were bugging him on when he was going to get a proper job, but the comments stopped after Uriah Heep performed at the Royal Albert Hall as according to Mick "that was the pinnacle".[3]
Career
Before establishing Uriah Heep, the band was called Spice. The band performed from 1968 to 1969 with David Byron and Nigel Pegrum.[5] Box said they chose that name because they didn't want to get categorised into a narrow genre. "There's lots of spices, and that was our train of thought with the name of the band" said Box in a 2021 interview. After Ken Hensley joined the members of Spice, they became Uriah Heep in 1970.[6]
When he started performing with Uriah Heep, other new bands included Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin.[7] The band would go on to be pioneers of prog rock and have sold olver 40 million albums worldwide.[8][9]
Mick Box in Norway, 1977
During a gig in Kentucky in 1975, Box fell off the stage and into the pit orchestra, dislocating his left arm to the point his bone was sticking out (his arm was put back in place after the concert ended), he continued to perform and during the gig a nurse came on stage and looked at his arm; when the show ended Mick stepped to the front of the stage, bowed down, and fell down into the pit a second time, this time breaking his right wrist in four places.[3]
With the deaths of Lee Kerslake and Ken Hensley in 2020, Box became the last surviving member of the classic line-up of Uriah Heep.[10] In 2024, Box announced the band would go on a world wide farewell tour that would last between two or three years and intended to go to as many places as possible.[10][11][12]
Personal life
Box lives in Palmers Green, North London with his fourth wife, Sheila (Box's neighbour is a Uriah Heep fan who attends shows in London).[13][3] He has a son, Romeo, born in 2000 or 2001.[13][3] Box's first marriage ended due to problems around him always away from home either in a recording studio or on tour.[3] He has previously lived in United States and Australia.[3] He is five feet six inches tall and in the 1970s wore high stack boots to appear taller.[14]
According to Box, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented a 50th Anniversary Celebration, but he said that he was planning on a 52 year Celebration. He said he felt strange being in quarantine, because he was accustomed to being "on the road," and interacting with fans at concerts. He used the time to compose songs and produced some videos for the Lockdown Diaries.[6]
Mick stated that the deaths of Uriah Heep members Lee Kerslake and Ken Hensley, who died within a few weeks of each other, affected him dearly: "I can try to explain it, with someone like Lee, we were brothers from different mothers, his health declined over a period of five years, but it was still a shock. But with Ken and John, they were gone in seconds. There was no build-up to it at all, so both were a complete shocker."[15]
"You start re-evaluating stuff, and I just thought, I’m going to keep my passion and spirit going here, because by doing so it allows their music to still be in focus. .[16]
Box claims to own over forty guitars.[14] He is an ambassador for the Nightingale Cancer Support Centre.[6][17][18]
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