Miles Miller’s musical “career” started in high school with marching, symphonic, and jazz band at Woodford County High School in Versailles, KY. His band director, Matt Skaggs, was a drummer who had received a full ride to the University of Kentucky for jazz. He was, and is still in some way, Miller’s drumming mentor. It all began under his teaching–everything from technique and reading, to feel and groove.

Miller’s love for music was passed down by his family, but mostly by his father. He remembers his dad singing and playing Stevie Wonder on the piano in his early childhood. Miller’s dad was also the musical director at their church in Versailles, and let him join in during Sunday services when he turned 14. Miller’s first job playing drums was at that church, every Sunday for 4 years.

After graduating high school in 2011, Miller attended Belmont University for two semesters studying Commercial Music. There he studied under Bobby Brown and Lenny Kravitz’ drummer, Zoro. Needless to say, those lessons changed everything for him. His technique was–and still is–a result of his teaching. Miller went from playing with his arms, to putting the groove in his hands and wrists.  Miller decided to leave Belmont and pursue music further and Zoro offered him an audition for a repertory theatre in Creede, Colorado. He auditioned and got the gig as the drummer for the Creede Repertory Theatre. There, he was under the instruction of a conductor and pianist, performing the Broadway musical, The Drowsy Chaperone. It was a challenging gig for him at that time, but had served a much bigger purpose…he was out in the world playing music.

In the summer of 2012 as the theatre gig was coming to an end, Miller received a phone call from Dave Cobb (a producer he met with in 2009 after he had seen Miller’s YouTube videos) saying that he found a gig for Miller. The gig was for a Kentucky singer/songwriter named Sturgill Simpson. A few months after that phone call, Miller moved to Nashville, Tennessee to play with Sturgill who had just finished his first record High Top Mountain. Since that time, Miller has recorded 2 records with Sturgill: Metamodern Sounds In Country Music, and A Sailor’s Guide To Earth which was nominated for both “Album of the Year” and “Best Country Album” at the 2017 Grammy Awards and ultimately won the “Best Country Album” honor!

Over the 5+ years of playing music with Sturgill, they toured 45 of 50 states 5 or 6 times over, 5 of 10 provinces in Canada, and 8 countries in Europe on 4 different tours.  They’ve opened for Dwight Yoakam, Zac Brown Band, the Avett Brothers, and Guns N’ Roses. They’ve also appeared twice on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the Late Show with David Letterman, Conan, and Late Night with Seth Meyers.  They have also performed on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and Saturday Night Live.