A native of Detroit, Michigan he is known mainly as a bass guitarist but also plays guitar and keyboards, and has done extensive work in music production and engineering.

[1] He was born and raised on Detroit's East Side, an area that was once a stable working-class neighborhood, but quickly deteriorated into decay after the city's tumultuous riots in 1967.

Upon his arrival, Michael was introduced to Paul Buckmaster,[6] a legendary arranger for artists such as Elton John, Carly Simon and Train, and composer for films such as 12 Monkeys.

Michael was hired to be an engineer for the album, specializing in editing the dense and complex tracks in order to yield a cohesive set of songs that sounded live and spontaneous.

Michael's inspiration for this technique came from reading about the production of Rolling Stones albums, such as Some Girls, that were edited performances that sounded live.

Michael also contributed to Kid Rock's collaborations with Tommy Lee's Methods of Mayhem and remixes for the band Mindless Self Indulgence.

This song propelled Double Wide to eventually selling more than 2 million copies in the United States, with "Follow Me" becoming a top ten single in many countries around the world.

Michael stayed on to produce Uncle Kracker's next album, No Stranger to Shame, which went gold, and yielded the successful singles "In A Little While" and "Drift Away", a song that broke the record for the most weeks at #1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Chart.

This album explored Bradford and Kracker's fondness for 70's radio pop, and included guests Phil Vassar, Bret Michaels of the band Poison and Kenny Chesney.

Michael's production of "I'm Not Leaving" was also released on Happy Hour: The South River Road Sessions (2010), an EP of mixes, geared towards the country music market.

In addition to album production, Michael and Uncle Kracker have created music for several films, including Good Boy!, Clockstoppers, Osmosis Jones and American Pie 2.

In 2002, Michael was contacted by Disney Music Exec Brian Rawlings, who presented Mike with an offer to produce Deep Purple.

After the tour ended, Michael and the band set up camp in Los Angeles, to write and record the album Bananas, which was released in 2003.

[14] The "Bananas" Tour went on to being a very successful run for the band, and Michael appeared onstage with Deep Purple several times during the promotion of the album.

Although some band members felt rushed, the result was an album that caused the BBC to report, "lengthy jams, heavy riffs, chugging basslines, and waves of deliciously smoking Hammond organ signal an intent within the Purple camp.

[17] In August 2010, Stewart and Bradford traveled to Blackbird Studios in Nashville, TN to record a new album of songs with local musicians.

January 2010 saw the release of Ringo Starr's new album Y Not,[19] featuring Bradford on bass on certain tracks, along with fellow bassist Sir Paul McCartney on others.

In July 2010, Michael was brought in by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard to play bass on the upcoming Stevie Nicks album.

[20] Michael joined an A-List group of musicians for the album, including Waddy Wachtel, Steve Ferrone, Mick Fleetwood, Mike Rowe and Zac Rae.

His slightly overdriven sound was inspired primarily by Deep Purple's Roger Glover, but also by the melodic styles of Jack Bruce, John Paul Jones and Mel Schacher of Grand Funk Railroad.

He has a large collection of electric and acoustic guitars, and is a lover of small-wattage, "boutique" amplifiers from THD, Gerhardt, Komet, and Blockhead.

Michael uses 2 custom pedalboards with a variety of effects including the vintage A/DA Flanger and the Foxx Tone Machine, along with a Pete Cornish distortion box.

Working with the artist, Michael prefers a pre-production period where the songs can be written, played and critiqued before entering the studio to record.

Michael has had extensive experience recording vocalists including Anita Baker, Terence Trent D'arby and Mick Jagger.

Michael prefers the CAD Audio VX2 Microphone,[21] along with a hand built preamp from Frank DiMedia Labs and Manley Laboratories Opto-Compressor.