Michael Thompson is one of today’s leading guitar players of the world. He was awarded the "Distinguished Alumni" award from his Alma Mater Berklee College of Music to commemorate his contributions to the music industry. Berklee's program for the event noted that "he is widely regarded as being among the elite studio session players, and his amazing list of credits includes such prominent names as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, 'N Sync, Toni Braxton, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, the Scorpions, Vince Neil, Christina Aguilera, Michael Bolton, Mariah Carey, Bette Midler, Madonna, Babyface, En Vogue, Gloria Estefan, Stanley Clarke and Ricky Martin.
In 1988, after working to try and get a deal with his band Slang, guitarist Michael Thompson finally got signed by Geffen Records to release one album entitled "How Long", under the Michael Thompson Band (MTB) monicker.
On "How Long" some great studio musicians appeared as guests, in particular drummer-maestro Terry Bozzio, singer Moon Calhoun (ex The Strand), Pat Torpey (later on drummer with Mr Big), bassist Jimmy Haslip, John Elefante (Kansas), Toto's Bobby Kimball and Great White associates Michael Lardie and Wyn Davis (who also produced the album). Songwriters would include, among others, AOR stars such as: Jeff Paris, Mark Spiro, Billy Trudel and Brett Walker.
“How Long” was reissued in 2007 with 3 bonus tracks and started a relationship between Michael Thompson and Frontiers Records, which finally brings the anticipated release of the new Michael Thompson Band album in early 2012.

For the album entitled “Future Past” Michael teamed up with the awesome singer Larry King from Soleil Moon. Larry brought a new and more rocking approach to the MTB sound, but certainly the trademark elements of songwriting and melodies are still to be found in the new album. MTB 2012 lineup is rounded up by Khari Parker on drums and Alan Berliant on bass.
In 2019 The Michael Thompson Band is back with their brand new album, “Love And Beyond”. For this new release, Michael wanted to go back to the more polished AOR sound of the band’s debut album. Once again, he teamed up with Wyn Davis for themix and also had the amazing Mark Spiro involved in the songwriting and appearing on vocals together with the awesome Larry King and Larry Antonino. Best known for being Unruly Child’s bass player, Antonino delivers a phenomenal vocal performance which can only be defined as stunning. Another Unruly Child member, Guy Allison appears on keyboards, while drums on the album are handled by Sergio Gonzalez and Tim Pedersen.

In 2023 the Michael Thompson Band is back with a brand new album, “The Love Goes On” that sees the return in line-up of original vocalist Moon Calhoun (The Strand, Moon Over Paris, Western Front ft. Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy).
Calhoun, Thompson, and bassist Tom Croucier (ex-Life By Night, and yes, brother of Ratt's Juan Croucier) wrote all the songs on the album, delivering another high quality serving of classic AOR that the Michael Thompson Band has come to be known for. Drummer Annas Aliaf rounds out the line-up.