Michael Peterson catapulted into the national spotlight in 1997 on the success of the hit single, "Drink, Swear, Steal & Lie" and his follow up release, "From Here To Eternity," which became his first #1 hit as an artist and second as a writer. (The first being the CCM #1 "Taking Your Love For Granted" by Imperials.) The self-titled debut disc was certified gold and he was recognized as country music's top selling new male artist of 1997 and 1998. Michael spent twelve years motivating Jr. High and Sr. High School students all over the United States and Canada with his powerful assembly program, "Who Cares?" He secured his first major publishing deal and recordings for pop superstar Deniece Williams, co-writing a song ("If We Are The Light") on her multiple Grammy winning So Glad I Know album. In 1986, he recorded a collection of contemporary Christian songs on Sparrow Records charting 3 songs ("Beyond The Very Best," "Draw Me Near" and the CHR hit "Give It Up.") on the CCM national music charts.
It would be a decade before the release of his next album, Michael Peterson, but this country smash was pure gold for Warner/Reprise Records. The album produced five hit singles, "Drink, Swear, Steal and Lie" (#3 on Billboard's country charts), "From Here to Eternity" (#1) "Too Good To Be True" (#5), "When the Bartender Cries" (#27), and "By The Book" (#19).
Peterson was named Top New Artist of 1997 by both Billboard and Radio & Records and honored as Country Weekly's Male Newcomer and Gavin's Artist to Watch in 1998. The 1990's ended as Being Human, his second country album, was released; that album launched two chart singles, "Something 'Bout a Sunday," and "Sure Feels Real Good." Michael made his dramatic television debut with a guest appearance on "Walker, Texas Ranger" and continued his string of accolades by winning the Male Star of Tomorrow Award at the fan-voted 1999 TNN/Music City News Awards.
In 2000, he signed with Sony and in 2001, released the single "Modern Man." It was the highest debuting single of his career. After a label shake, Michael, along with nearly a dozen other artists, left SONY Nashville in 2002. In 2004, AGR/Universal acquired the rights to the critically acclaimed "Modern Man" album from SONY and released the CD in Europe. The first week on the charts in Germany, the album launched 6 songs to the top 40, with the single, "No More Looking Over My Shoulder" reaching # 2 on the German Country charts and # 1 on the Trans-European Hit Predictor Hot Disc chart.
Highlights of 2005 and 2006 were many. Michael performed more than 150 dates including Europe's largest country music festival in Gstaad, Switzerland-headlines for festival reported: "Peterson Steals The Show."
Michael sang the National Anthem on national network television at the opening of the ARMY/NAVY football game broadcast to a worldwide audience watching from 140 countries.
At Christmas, 2005, Michael performed for deployed troops on a 7 day, 11 country tour of the middle east with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace. In 2006, he traveled to visit troops in Korea and Afghanistan.
Also in 2006 & 2007 Michael hosted the very successful "Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race" during CMA Music Fest.
He spoke and performed a song he wrote for the American Legion at the organization's national convention in Salt Lake City.
He was a featured speaker and singer at both the national 4-H dairy youth and national FFA youth conventions.
As the celebrity spokesperson for the New Holland Company he made dozens of appearances and participated in raising tens of thousands of dollars for assorted charities including the American Cancer Society and Canadian Cancer Society.
He signed a new long-term publishing deal with Dimensional Music Publishing and secured the title track and first single on multi-platinum recording artist Ty Herndon's most recent release on Universal entitled "Right About Now."
He was a contributing author in two nationally released books. "A Country Music Christmas" (Broadway Books/Random House) and "Between The Lines And Spaces" (Standard Press).
In 2006, Michael released a new CD entitled Down on the Farm. Michael's newest album, In Black, is set to be released in 2009.
