Mattingly said the final moments were peaceful.<\/p>\n
\u201dPascal and Chris were there with their instruments and they were able to play for him. I sang for him and played for him and it couldn\u2019t have been more perfect.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt contributed to the deep sense of peace that he was in and we all felt at the very end. It was just beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young was a familiar figure across New Zealand\u2019s music scene for decades, on stage and behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
Micheal Young in the RNZ studio. Photo \/ Steve Bone<\/p>\n
A founding member and double bass player of Albi & The Wolves, he also performed with acclaimed bluegrass outfit Wires & Wood, country-folk band Too Far Gone, Americana group Rainberry Pie and other projects. <\/p>\n
Away from the spotlight, he became one of the country\u2019s most respected recording engineers in folk music circles, producing and engineering award-winning albums including Wires & Wood\u2019s Over The Moon and Albi & The Wolves\u2019 One Eye Open, both of which earned Tui awards.<\/p>\n
Dent said Young\u2019s influence stretched far beyond the bands he played in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve worked together closely for more than a decade, and I feel like I\u2019ve had the privilege of getting to know so many of the people that knew him, but even I\u2019ve been blown away by the sheer breadth of influence that he\u2019s had.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a hell of a legacy to leave behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raised in a city called Mexico in the state of Missouri, Young trained as an engineer and built a successful career in technology before reinventing himself in New Zealand as a full-time musician.<\/p>\n
Micheal Young. Photo \/ Stella Gardiner<\/p>\n
Mattingly said many people only knew the second chapter of his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile he was in New Zealand, he was just immersed in music. But before that, he was immersed in his career as a mechanical engineer and as a software developer.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said he was part of a team that developed one of the world\u2019s first ATM cash dispensers before later working in telecommunications and technology.<\/p>\n
In 2009, he left the corporate world behind to focus on music, recording engineering and teaching.<\/p>\n
That career change reflected his tenacious approach to life.<\/p>\n
Micheal Young spent his final hours surrounded by the people and music he loved most. Photo \/ John Flatt<\/p>\n
Young met Mattingly through competitive sailing. The pair discovered they shared the same dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe discovered that we both had the same dream, and that was to sail around the world,\u201d Mattingly said.<\/p>\n
They sold their belongings, bought a yacht in New Zealand in the early 1990s and set out across the South Pacific.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe quit our jobs, packed everything up, sold the house, sold everything and shifted aboard the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n
What was meant to be a journey around the world became a new life. The couple settled in New Zealand, became citizens and built a home together.<\/p>\n
For those on the scene, Young became known for his brightly coloured \u201chappy pants\u201d.<\/p>\n
The loose, vibrant festival trousers became a fixture at folk gatherings around the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe loved colour and there wasn\u2019t enough colour in this world and his goal was to put as much colour into the world as possible,\u201d Mattingly said.<\/p>\n
Young taught aspiring musicians when he wasn\u2019t performing.<\/p>\n
His final performance with Albi & The Wolves was at the Whangateau Folk Club on October 19, just days before the crash.<\/p>\n
Three weeks before Young\u2019s death, they celebrated their 40th anniversary with a trip to the Bay of Islands.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was chuffed he lived to be 71,\u201d Mattingly said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was happy with his life, he was ready to go, he was happy with the choices that he made.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mattingly said the final moments were peaceful. \u201dPascal and Chris were there with their instruments and they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,315313,2546,3549,6179,7126,6097,71,101,9066,205656,12638,28369,65041,6978,111,43,139,529,69,48211,93348,18484,5424,38694,223,27584,4741],"class_list":["post-643097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-albi","tag-awardwinning","tag-crash","tag-died","tag-dies","tag-down","tag-from","tag-left","tag-loved","tag-micheal","tag-motorbike","tag-motorcycle","tag-musician","tag-neck","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-ones","tag-paralysed","tag-shore","tag-street","tag-surrounded","tag-the","tag-wolves","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}