Early Life: 1978-1988

Tyler Lee Christensen was born to working class parents in Murray, Utah on October 29, 1978.  Tyler is the youngest of three children in an artistic family.  The Christensen family took up residence in the Bennion neighborhood of Salt Lake City. The little green house on Sweet Basil North was the scene of many a happy Christmas, and long cool summer nights running foot races with his sister Tiffany, and brother Ryan on the front lawn while their parents Marilynn and Leo would count the one-one-thousands. Leo and Marilynn Christensen were of a small town humble upbringing.  They were both from the central Utah town of Nephi.

Dividing his childhood years between Salt Lake City in the winter, and Nephi, in the summer, Tyler got a taste of ‘big-city life’ and a healthy perspective of small town values. Nephi, Utah in the eighties was a town of sparsely settled residents. One of which was Tyler’s grandfather Vernell Christensen who was a formidable influence on Tyler. From days on the farm with his cousins, to raucous events like the Ute Stampede, the small town life played an important role in shaping a worldview that would come into focus later in life and contribute largely to a future filled with music.

Resettling in Arizona in 1988, the Christensen family began new chapters in their lives, and were far from home…for a while. Soon Arizona became home, and Marilynn and Leo settled the family in Chandler, Arizona with the purchase of a new home in 1991.