Michael Houser (1962-2002) was a rock musician and songwriter from Boone, North Carolina who is best known as the lead guitarist for famed southern rock band Widespread Panic. With a tremendous talent that was unfairly left uncelebrated over the course of his short life, Houser was often dubbed a "silent genius" due to his great musical abilities as well as for being the main songwriter behind the band's most popular songs. Unfortunately for the band and for the rock music community as a whole, Michael Houser succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2002.
