His father's great-grandfather was an Irish stone carver who helped build the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, Colorado. His mother's grandfather was a friend of Buffalo Bill Cody. His grandfather is in the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame, and his mother was Miss Frontier. Michael's parents moved from Wyoming to Montana where he was born in 1959. Growing up he spent much of his time fishing, hiking and painting in the Absoraka-Beartooth Wilderness North of Yellowstone Park.