Mickey Melchiondo

Dean Ween (also known as Deaner) is the stage name of Michael "Mickey" Melchiondo, Jr., American guitarist and half of the alternative rock group Ween. Growing up, Ween listened to everything from The Beatles to Parliament/Funkadelic, to Leonard Cohen to Prince, to The Ramones to Laurie Anderson. He has a very wide range of musical influences. Dean later met Aaron Freeman (Gene Ween) in a junior high school typing class in their hometown of New H... more

Dean Ween (also known as Deaner) is the stage name of Michael "Mickey" Melchiondo, Jr., American guitarist and half of the alternative rock group Ween. Growing up, Ween listened to everything from The Beatles to Parliament/Funkadelic, to Leonard Cohen to Prince, to The Ramones to Laurie Anderson. He has a very wide range of musical influences. Dean later met Aaron Freeman (Gene Ween) in a junior high school typing class in their hometown of New Hope, Pennsylvania, and although the two did not get along at first, they soon found they were soul brothers and thus adopted the common surname. The Ween brothers were soon spending all of their time in Melchiondo's bedroom, Melchiondo banging out songs on guitars tuned to open chords and Freeman wailing out the "good word" of the Boognish (a demon god that first appeared outside of their classroom at school and offered them the scepters of wealth and power for their "services") into a cheap microphone. Within a few years, the two found... less