Michael Ward

Michael Ward is an American guitarist who has played with the bands School of Fish and The Wallflowers. He has also recorded and performed with John Hiatt and Ben Harper. Currently he plays with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals.

In 1989, Ward co-founded the alternative rock band School of Fish with singer-guitarist Josh Clayton-Felt. They signed with Capitol Records in 1990 and released their debut album School of Fish the following year, scoring a minor hit with their lead single "3 Strange Days". In 1993, School of Fish released their second album, Human Cannonball, which did not sell as well as their first one and ultimately led to the dissolution of the band a year later.

In 1996, Ward was invited by T-Bone Burnett to record guitar parts and background vocals with The Wallflowers as they began working on their second album Bringing Down the Horse, which ultimately became the band's biggest selling album. It also won Ward and the rest of the band a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group for the single "One Headlight". For the next four years, Ward continued to record and perform with The Wallflowers, appearing on their third album (Breach). However, Ward became increasingly dissatisfied with the direction that the band was headed and ultimately quit in 2001.

Since his departure from The Wallflowers, Ward has continued to write and record music with several other artists with over 30 albums to his credit.

He joined the Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello in 2012, but left in 2015 to reunite with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals.

Ward announced via his Instagram account in May 2016 that he was leaving Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals