Art put purchased his first guitar at age 15, by ordering through the Alden's catalog. It was a red 6-string Kay acoustic guitar. Then the learning and practicing started and Ma Miller got to hear “The Yellow Rose of Texas” about 1000 times. Then came the electric guitar which was a red 6 string Conrad guitar, which weighed about 30 pounds -- along with a cheap amp, which was all he could afford at the time.

Art’s first big performance was in the Study Hall at his school, which featured the hit “The Eve of Destruction” and and even he admits it was a destruction.

After graduation from Cooks High School, Art was fortunate enough to move to Chicago, Illinois where he became involved with a great number of fantastic musicians. The music scene in the Chicago area was quite a culture shock to a young boy from the Great White North. His first band was a heavy rock group back around 1970 and was called Blackwater Fever, where he met his lifelong best friend, Ray Hughes. Ray is a fantastic guitarist who taught him more than he could ever learn on his own.

From there, he played in numerous bands, until the birth of StarrCruiser in 1978. Art and Ray were joined by Art’s brother, Dick Miller, on drums, another yooper Ronnie Tatrow on guitar and vocals, and the infamous Dave Fontecchio on lead vocals. StarrCruiser played with such acts as Survivor, Donnie Iris, and Ruby Starr. They also played at the famous ChicagoFest in 1980.

After 3 years of touring the Chicago circuit, StarrCruiser had enough, and Art went into musical hibernation for the next 14 years. Art never quit playing during this time, and started concentrating on song writing. In 1998, he started recruiting members for his current band, Backyard.

Backyard started out as a cover band who played local venues and private parties. Then he started incorporating the original material which he wrote into the mix songs they were performing. As time passed, and Backyard evolved, the original songs got better and better, and now they almost exclusively perform original music. Never in his wildest dreams, did he expect to be so successful in song writing and performing. Art has no intentions of slowing down, and his future looks brighter and brighter. Art feels he’s been pretty successful for a yooper from the Great White North.