Yeah...very sad news. I met Micky once, in the late 1980's. He came into the London offices of the Musicians' Union, where I worked for a bit. A really nice bloke as I recall, and happy to chat about the bands and characters he'd worked with.

Can't say I knew much about him, apart from the Rod Stewart, "the decent years"(trademark), connection. It sounds as if he was quite an accomplished, if idiosyncratic drummer, yet I seem to recall widespread suggestions of his duffness in times gone by, and this being why he had to stop playing (was sacked?) with Rod. Was this another of Rod Stewarts famed "witticisms" or was it put about by another person?
It sounds as if he was smeared sufficiently to limit his future prospects, unless his enthusiasms went beyond merely dogs???

a very good paperback Rod Stewart biog by Tim Ewbank whilst waiting in Waterstones on Saturday for my credit crunch-ignoring other half. Looked up the Micky Waller entries. He was known to be tight with cash - Rod Stewart sealed in clingfilm the first drink he ever bought him, labelled it and kept it as a memento. He would often turn up with the most basic of kit, or used what was available in the studio on many of those great early Rod albums. On Maggie May the assembled drumkit half belonged to Free & half to Status Quo. No crash cymbal available, so none on the recording. Sounds better for it, too.
No mention of duff drumming anywhere, though. More likely was that Rod went moved to America and started using session musicians. Also noted that Martin Quittendon still gets £5-10k pa from co-writing credits for Maggie May and has little else to live on. Still lucky, though. The track was going to be canned as too boring, but pressing had already started.

Rod ain't actually celebrated for his laxness of pockets at the bar, now, is he?