Micki Free
Native American singer and guitar player Micki Free didn’t tap into his heritage until he saw the film “Dances With Wolves” in 1990.

“After watching that movie I started feeling really weird,” Free said in a recent phone interview. “I felt a shift happening inside of me.”

Free said he is part Cherokee and Comanche and when he told his sister how he was feeling she invited him to visit her in Minnesota, where she introduced him to a Native American holy man.

“He told me it was time to come home and walk my heritage,” Free said.

Free and his band American Horse Trio will perform at Morongo Casino, Spa & Resort on Friday, Sept. 23, which is also the kick-off of the casino’s 26th annual Morongo Thunder & Lightning Powwow.

Free said he began playing the guitar as a teen and had dreams of becoming a rock star while listening to Jimi Hendrix and bands such as the Rolling Stones.

Then, in the late ‘70s, Free’s band caught the eye of Gene Simmons.

“I wasn’t anybody,” Free said. “And he came up to me after our little band performed and said to me, ‘You’re a star,’ and told me to look him up if I ever made it to Los Angeles.”

Sure enough, while Free was rehearsing in a recording studio in Hollywood, Simmons opened the door and poked his head and the two connected.

Free also was also a member of the popular ‘80s band Shalamar which had a string of hits including, “Dancing in the Sheets” which was featured on the “Footloose” soundtrack and won a Grammy award for “Don’t Get Stopped in Beverly Hills” from the movie, “Beverly Hills Cop.”

“I just love to play guitar and it means a lot to me to play for Native American tribes,” Free said. “It’s going to be deep.”