Michelle Malone was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up she spent her summers touring with her mother, who was a pop singer that had converted to gospel music. With such a strong connection to the music scene at an early age, it is no wonder that she eventually became a well-known musician. She first decided to pursue her full-time music career when she met and befriended Amy Ray and Emily Saliers from the Indigo girls, while attending Anges Scottt College, who encouraged her to pursue her passion for music. She decided to follow their example and was soon found to be traversing the local club scene in order to polish up her musical skills.

Michelle's hard work paid off. She released her debut album, New Experience in 1988. With one album under way, she set out to form a new band - and in 1990 she returned with her new band Drag the River and released Relentless. This album marked her major label debut. It was a pretty solid album which brought her comparisons to Janis Joplin and Ian Astbury of The Cult. Her next album was For You Not Them which she released in 1995. Then came Beneath The Devil Moon, in 1997, followed by her first Christmas album Singin' Christmas in the Attic. Her 1999 release Home Grown, which had some solid sounds and strong singles, incuding "Tonic," "Avalon," and "Strength for Two."

2001 Saw her first release of the millennium, Strange Bird, Vol. 3 was a live album released under her independent label, SBS. Her backup duo for the album was drummer Michael Lorant and bassist Charlene Owen. That same year she also released Hello Out There, amazingly there are only a few months in between the two releases. Strange Bird was released on February 27, and Hello was released on May 1. Since then she has released 2003's Stomin' Ground and Redemption Dream and Sugarfoot in 2006.