Ralph Saenz

Ralph Saenz, most know by his stage name Michael Starr (or also Michael Diamond), is the lead singer for glam metal band Steel Panther. Steel Panther was formerly known as Metal Shop or Metal Skool and were once featured in a Discover Card commercial as Danger Kitty; those older band names are now used by unrelated parody bands.

He's a PhD in English literature at Berkeley, graduating Magna Cum Laude, and the former Assistant Professor of English Literature and Cultural Studies at Texas A & M University at Commerce. He is also a recipient of the prestigious F.C. Medina Scholarship awarded annually to musically gifted students in the Greater Chicago area.

Following college, Saenz took a job at Arco as a petrol pump attendant, this freedom to think is what made him realize he was destined to be in a rock band.

Saenz was the lead singer for the David Lee Roth-era Van Halen tribute band Atomic Punks from May 1994 through December 2008, where he had the nickname "David Lee Ralph".

Saenz was briefly the lead singer for L.A. Guns singing on the Wasted EP. He also has sung for the bands 7% Solution, First Cause, Longgone, and Nightfall.

Although he has led various groups as the primary vocalist, Saenz also provided background vocals for rock band AFI on the albums Sing the Sorrow and Decemberunderground.^[1]

He also played a small part in the movie Rock Star with Mark Wahlberg. His scene occurs right before Wahlberg's character first auditions for Steel Dragon.

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