Michael “Majk Moti” Kupper, the former guitarist of the long-running German heavy metal band RUNNING WILD, died this past Thursday (February 16) at the age of 65. No cause of death has been revealed.

Former RUNNING WILD bassist Jens Becker expressed his condolences on the guitarist’s passing on Facebook, while RUNNING WILD wrote simply: “R.I.P. brother (Majk Moti 29th August, 1957 — 16th February, 2023)”.

Kupper was a member of RUNNING WILD between 1985 and 1990 and he can be heard on the albums “Branded And Exiled”, “Under Jolly Roger”, “Ready For Boarding”, “Port Royal” and “Death Or Glory”.

After leaving RUNNING WILD, Kupper reportedly worked for more than 15 years as a computer programmer. He later worked at a digital advertising company.

In 2008 Moti started a band, D’ORCA, with his wife Melanie “Mel” Dorca-Ruiz. He also played with METALLIAN and RANDOM.

In a 2008 interview, Moti said that his stage name originated back to 1985 when the RUNNING WILD members used only their first names. “I found ‘Mike‘ too boring, and ‘Maik‘ existed already. So I replaced the ‘i’ with a ‘j’, resulting in ‘Majk‘,” he explained. “Later I found that only ‘Majk‘ was boring, too. My girlfriend’s name back then was Moti, and so the name was perfect. Originally, Moti is a name from India.”

In the same interview, Moti looked back on his time with RUNNING WILD, saying: ” The first months were truly awesome. I came from a small backwoods band and had my first show at the Loreley festival in front of 12,000 people, which was absolutely cool. The tour with MÖTLEY CRÜE was very exciting, and also the USA tour that followed, despite all the problems. I wouldn’t erase anything at all; everything belongs to my experience of life, the good things as well as the bad things, and without them I would be a different person today.”