Micki Free (born May 20, 1955) is a guitarist and singer of Native American descent. He won a Grammy Award for his contribution to the Beverly Hills Cop (1984) movie soundtrack and has won two Native American Music Awards. He is the director of Promotions and Special Events for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, owners of Hard Rock International. Biography Micki Free, a "mixed-blood" Native American, was born in West Texas and moved to Germany soon afterward. He claims Irish, Comanche, and Cherokee descent. His stepfather, a U.S. Army sergeant, was stationed in Germany, and Free was introduced to rock 'n' roll there as a child, when one of his five sisters received tickets to a Jimi Hendrix concert and took him along to the show. "It just blew my mind", Free remembered. His family later moved to Illinois, where Free joined the rock band Smokehouse. When he was 17, he was discovered by Gene Simmons of KISS, during a concert at which Smokehouse was the opening act for KISS, Ted Nugent, and REO Speedwagon. After Simmons' encouragement, Free joined Shalamar in 1984, just in time for the band's big successes, including a #17 position in U.S. Top 20 in 1984 with "Dancing In The Sheets" from the Footloose soundtrack, and a Grammy for "Don't Get Stopped In Beverly Hills" from the Beverly Hills Cop (1984) soundtrack in 1985. With Shalamar, he was nominated for a Grammy three times. After Shalamar, Free and Jean Beauvoir (of The Plasmatics) founded an AOR band, Crown of Thorns. Free later founded, The Micki Free Electric Blues Experience, with Jon Brant (formerly of Cheap Trick) on bass, and Curly Smith (formerly of Boston) on drums. Recognition for his musical career after Shalamar came from the Native American Music Awards, where he won in the categories of Male Artist in 2002 and Pop Rock artist in 2004. Micki has won to, date 5-Native American Music Awards and was recently inducted into The Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame in 2022. web|url=http://nativeamericanmusicawards.com/winnersdirectory.cfm |title=Winners Directory |publisher=Nativeamericanmusicawards.com |access-date=2014-07-03}}</ref> Micki Free has recorded with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top and the DVD/CD/EP release Micki Free Live in Hyde Park featured Bill Wyman, formerly of The Rolling Stones. In 2002, he was cast to play Tonto in a new production of The Lone Ranger. Native Music Rocks is a music program created by Micki Free, designed to give Native