Michael Lee Ivins (born March 17, 1963, in Omaha, Nebraska) is the former bassist, keyboardist, backing vocalist and founding member of

The Flaming Lips The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Drozd (guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, vocals), Derek Brown (ke ...

. Along with Mark Coyne and

Wayne Coyne Wayne Michael Coyne (born January 13, 1961) is an American musician. He is the lead singer, guitarist, keyboardist, theremin player and songwriter for the band the Flaming Lips. Early life Coyne was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United Stat ...

, he formed

in 1983 in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, an ...

, Oklahoma. According to frontman Coyne, Ivins was found as the bassist for the band because of his punk-rock look, and not because of his musical ability. In fact, Ivins initially couldn't play bass, but he learned how and was bassist for the band for 38 years, until 2021. Ivins developed an interest in the recording process and helped engineer the Flaming Lips' studio recordings starting in 1994, ending with 2020’s American Head. Ivins has also been credited with working with artists such as Mastodon, Ben Folds Five, The Bad Plus, The Postal Service and The Holy Fire. Ivins often wears a full-body

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

suit commonly recognized as a

Halloween costume Halloween costumes are costumes worn on Halloween, a festival which falls on October 31. An early reference to wearing costumes at Halloween comes from Scotland in 1585, but they may pre-date this. There are many references to the custom during ...

in tribute to

John Entwistle John Alec Entwistle (9 October 194427 June 2002) was an English musician who was the bassist for the rock band The Who. Entwistle's music career spanned over four decades. Nicknamed "The Ox" and "Thunderfingers", he was the band's only membe ...

(he wore this costume when The Flaming Lips performed at the 2008 VH1 Rock Honors, which paid tribute to

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are conside ...

). In recent years, he is more commonly seen wearing

СССР The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

T-shirts. On August 20, 2021, Wayne Coyne confirmed in a post on Instagram that Ivins is no longer in the band. The reason for his departure has not been publicly announced. During the second half of 2022, Ivins began to appear in instagram clips advertising a new group he is in with guitarist/vocalist Julia Kean calle
the Lolly Bombs.

References

External links

Interview with Michael Ivins
on public radio program The Sound of Young America American rock bass guitarists American male bass guitarists 1963 births Living people Musicians from Omaha, Nebraska The Flaming Lips members Guitarists from Oklahoma 20th-century American guitarists {{US-bass-guitarist-stub