I was born July 2nd, 1983 under the sign of Cancer. I was seven weeks early (which would have made me Virgo the Virgin…right.) and weighed a whopping 3 pounds 11 ounces.

I don’t remember much about my childhood except that I wasn’t as picky an eater then, I loved my family and I LOVED music.

Not a whole lot has changed for me since. I love my family (occasionally) and I adore music. I am an extremely finicky eater though. If you ever sit down with my mother and inquire what I was like when I was little, she’d say, “I don’t understand when she got so picky, she used to eat everything! I would get carrots, peas, potatoes, and broccoli, anything I could find and put it in a little food grinder. She would eat it all up.”

My brother was the first person to really get me into rock n roll. We used to dance in the garage pretending we were R.E.M. with tennis racquets as guitars. He was the person who introduced me to my first love, Axl Rose. Basically, anything my brother listened to I thought HAD to be the coolest of the cool. When I was 17 I ended up running into Axl at the airport and was deeply heartbroken to learn he didn’t age very gracefully. He had sweat pants on with a gut hanging over. What is it with people who try to look younger and younger as they get older and older? That is why I hope I will have grey hair like Emmylou.

I got my first guitar when I was 14 years young. It was an heirloom from my uncle. It was a little Ovation Applause. It worked fine but it was hard for me to play. The action was pretty bad. It didn’t stop me from writing though. I guess it’s hard for some people to understand, but I always assumed that I was going to be playing music for a living. I know, assuming makes an ass out of you and me, but I think it’s important sometimes to not even think of “NO” as an option. A year and a half later I found myself sitting down with this young “manager” dude talking about “where I see myself as an artist.” We started making demo tapes (and yes, they were tapes.) I thought I was a hot shot then, ya know, I was playing a lot of restaurants and PTA meetings, so it was only natural for me to want to make an album for my twelve adoring fans that were mostly family members. I told my manager this, and we started planning my trek out to Los Angeles to make my first album, Broken Bracelet.

That was June of 2000. After eight days of recording, the album was finished.. I went back home to Arizona. In the beginning of July I got a call from my manager. There was an A&R guy who wanted to sign me, but he had to see me play first. It was perfect; I was getting ready to head back out to L.A. to open a show for Hanson. Heh. So he was invited down to the show and I was offered a record deal that night when I was finished playing.

A lot has happened since. (Obviously, if you care enough to read this garbage.) I have released two studio albums, I’ve toured the world, I’ve got a Grammy and the best part is I’m still learning. I don’t know what I am going to do next and there is something comforting about that.

(source: michellebranch.net)