Mike Palermo’s clients have included Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp
The owner of Mike’s Music reflects on his business and what he has accomplished
A small music shop in Thorold has been hiding a big secret: Mike Palermo, owner of Mike’s Music, has been servicing the guitars of some of rock ’n’ roll’s and Hollywood’s top names.
Palermo is not your average music store owner. After touring in bands and living the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle he looked to slow things down by going back to his roots and a dream he had as a youth.
“I was in a band called SuperGarage and we did OK, we had a record deal, and we did videos and all that,” he said.
“I always wanted to have a business growing up, and I thought I would open a place where I could offer lessons and guitar repairs.”
Opened in 1999, Mike’s Music is set to celebrate its 25th anniversary in May.
Palermo recounted his time behind the business counter at 9 Pine St. N. and how he became the guitar tuner to world-renowned musicians.
“I love guitars in general, and I love the way they’re built,” he said.
“I’ve always been a huge Eddie Van Halen fan and he used to always say he would tear his guitars apart and put them back together.”
Palermo attempted to emulate his idol and, in his trials, learned he had a knack for repairing the musical instruments he loved to play.
“What I would do is rip my guitars apart to be like him and that’s what I did, realizing how things worked,” he said.
“His (Van Halen’s) whole thing was you’ll learn by making mistakes. So, I made mistakes, but I wasn’t scared to try things, and so the passion came from watching people’s faces after fixing their guitar and they’re blown away, there’s nothing like it.”
Palermo’s first customer came after listing a guitar, made by his guitar company, Palermo, on eBay, which caught the eye of Alice Cooper band guitarist Tommy Henriksen.
“He called the store and it (the guitar) was over $3,000, but he said, ‘Can you do it for $3,000, and I’ll buy it?’ I said, ‘Of course,’ and, after he got it, he called me saying he loved the way it played,” Palermo said.
Palermo guitars, started in 2007, were fashioned after a very rare Eddie Van Halen guitar, which Palermo had purchased for $15,000 and back-engineered to see what made it unique.
“Everything I worked at my whole life is in this guitar, so I take it apart, measured everything and I found the right pickup, found the right parts for it,” he said.
“That’s how Palermo guitars started, so I started offering that guitar for $3,000.”
Thanks to his determination and the quality of the guitars, requests for Palermo to fix, tune, upgrade or sell his guitars started to come, starting with Alice Cooper, after finishing a concert at Casino Rama in Orillia.
“He (Alice Cooper) handed me his guitar and said, ‘Take this,’ ” Palermo said.
Inquiring as to what the issues were, Palermo was astonished to realize the level of trust given to him.
“The guitar was about $12,000, I told him I didn’t feel comfortable doing it, but anyway, I took it and then sent it back to him.”
Palermo said since then he has worked on several other famous people’s guitars and guitar collections.
“The music industry is a very small world,” he said. “They all know each other, and they just pass on everything. So, we’ve worked for so many bands.”
He said his favourite person to work with is Johnny Depp, because he is down to earth and kind.
“When we do Johnny Depp’s guitars, we go to his house in Los Angeles, he goes, ‘I take my hat off to you, you’re a wizard,’ ” he said.
Palermo, a humble and jovial man, said it’s not only the celebrities, but all customers he cherishes when he sees their reaction to his work.
“Stuff like that, it’s priceless,” he said.
“I’m not just talking about celebrities, but when any customer comes in and says it’s the best-playing guitar or the guitar has never played better, that is everything to me.”
He said looking back over the past 25 years, if his 14-year-old self could see him now, he would be slackjawed.
“Like, Nikki Sixx (Mötley Crüe) calls me while I’m eating a peanut butter sandwich, watching TV. If I was 14, I would have lost my mind,” he said.
“That whole aspect still blows my mind.”