Mick Box

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. 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.

Before establishing Uriah Heep, the band was called Spice. The band performed from 1968 to 1969 with David Byron and Nigel Pegrum. 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.

When he started performing with Uriah Heep, other new bands included Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin. The band would go on to be pioneers of prog rock and have sold over 40 million albums worldwide.

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.

Box played guitar on David Byron's 1975 solo album Take No Prisoners and in 2002 with Bernie Shaw guest collaborated with the band Iris to perform the Uriah Heep song "Lady in Black".

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.