Background and career
Michael Allen Muir (born March 14, 1963) is an American singer who is the lead vocalist and the sole continuous member of Los Angeles-based bands Suicidal Tendencies, Los Cycos, and Infectious Grooves. He has also released several solo albums under his nickname Cyco Miko. Muir's trademark is wearing bandanas, jerseys with the number 13, and hats with block-style letters that read "suicidal".
Born in Venice, Los Angeles, and raised in Santa Monica, Mike Muir is the younger brother of Jim Muir of the Dogtown skateboarding team. Jim exposed Mike to metal music as well as skateboarding. He also played baseball during his youth. Muir attended Santa Monica College after being kicked out of school in the 10th grade.
Muir has cited bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, Black Sabbath, UFO, AC/DC, Van Halen, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Led Zeppelin, and Kiss as his early musical influences, and has said that he was introduced to funk music by former bandmate Robert Trujillo. Muir incorporated funk influences into a few songs by Suicidal Tendencies and into his funk metal side project, Infectious Grooves. He has noted that his older brother had the biggest influence on his taste in music. Metal Hammer wrote that he has one of the "most unique voices in thrash, hardcore and punk."
Muir formed Suicidal Tendencies in 1980 when he was 17 years old. During this time he moved in with his brother and would practice in the kitchen with his friends he stated "we were doing for fun at first and never really thought of it in terms of being a band and what it took." It originally consisted of Muir on vocals, Mike Ball on guitar, Carlos "Egie" Egert on drums, and Mike Dunnigan on bass. There were several lineup changes before Muir hired Grant Estes, Louiche Mayorga and Amery Smith on guitar, bass and drums respectively. In 1983, they released their self-titled album, with success sparked by the anthem song "Institutionalized", which would become one of the first hardcore punk videos to receive substantial airplay on MTV. They have since played tours and festivals worldwide. When No Mercy guitarist Mike Clark was hired as the band's second guitarist in 1987, Suicidal Tendencies began making a change from punk to metal, thus creating what would become crossover thrash, and later began adding funk influences to their music. Robert Trujillo, who was the bassist for Suicidal Tendencies from 1989 to 1995, was responsible for turning Muir on to funk music, and the pair would eventually form Infectious Grooves to play more funk oriented music.
Cited as one of the most important crossover thrash groups, Suicidal Tendencies was active until 1995, but reunited a year later. Suicidal Tendencies has been touring or playing selected shows almost every year, and until the 2013 release of their ninth studio album 13, they had not released an album containing new music in over a decade. Between the releases of Free Your Soul and Save My Mind and 13, however, the band had debuted new material on stage and through compilation releases on a regular basis. Their most recent album Still Cyco Punk After All These Years was released in 2018.
Muir formed Los Cycos in 1984 during Suicidal's first year of their four-year recording hiatus. Current guitarist Jon Nelson left the group and Suicidal Tendencies were banned from playing L.A. shows, largely due to an incident at Perkins Palace where their audience tore out the first 10 rows, making it impossible for promoters to obtain insurance if Suicidal was on the bill. Muir started the label Suicidal Records with bassist Louiche Mayorga. Los Cycos originally consisted of Mike Muir (vocals), Bob Heathcote (bass), Anthony "Bob" Gallo (guitars) and Amery Smith (drums). After a few rehearsals, Amery Smith left the line up, along with bandmate Jon Nelson to start their own band (the Brood). Los Cycos eventually included: Grant Estes on lead guitar, Gallo went to (rhythm), and original choices Bob Heathcote and Amery Smith were replaced by Louiche Mayorga (bass) and No Mercy's Sal Troy (drums). Rehearsals continued in preparation for their debut recording for "Welcome to Venice" on Suicidal Records. With the final line-up established and two songs "It's Not Easy" and "A Little Each Day", Los Cycos was born. "Welcome to Venice" was the first record to be released on Suicidal Records, and the album also included local Venice, Los Angeles bands Suicidal Tendencies, Beowülf, No Mercy, and Excel. Unfortunately the original masters were lost in a fire and no effort has been made to release the material digitally. Mike Muir's vocals can be heard on the Suicidal Tendencies cut "Look Up...(The Boys are Back)" and the Los Cycos track "It's Not Easy". Grant Estes played all guitars on the recordings.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
