Mickey Lee Soule was the keyboard player for New York state hard rock band Elf and a founding member of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. Не was born on June 6, 1946 in Cortland, New York. Mickey had a band in the mid-1960s until he was drafted into the army. After his honorable discharge he joined The Elves after the band's original keyboardist, Doug Thaler, was injured in a car accident that killed guitarist Nick Pantas. Shortly after Soule was recruited the band changed their name to Elf and enjoyed minor fame as the opening act for Deep Purple.

After a few years, a few more members and two albums, Soule and the rest of Elf (minus their guitarist) were transformed into Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. During this time a third and final Elf album Trying to Burn the Sun was recorded when the former Elves were not in the studio recording Rainbow's debut album. Blackmore fired the entire line up with the exception of Dio before the first Rainbow tour.

In 1974, he also sang the lead vocals on 'No Solution', from Roger Glover's 'The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast' In 1976 Soule toured France with The Ian Gillan Band.

Soule continues to play locally in NY. His son Matt Soule, plays drums in the Los Angeles alternative rock band, Where's Moo.

One "Mickey Lee Soul" (sic) is credited as Keyboard tech in the liner notes of Deep Purple's album "Live at the Olympia '96".

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.