Tommy was born and raised in Franklin, and he started playing music in 1966 at age 11. He quickly gained experience sitting in with local bands such as The Rotation, Royals, and The Flames. As a teenager, he formed The Blank Expression. Soon, Tommy started making good money and his parents realized that he had a chance to make something of his musical talent.
“I knew my calling was to play music for a living -- my father hated that, my parents hated that. He loved my talent..but he believed I should have a trade to make a living.”
By age 19, he moved to Bowling Green and was working as a full-time musician, making more money than his father. Tommy was exposed to many different types of music; he remembers seeing New Grass Revival for the first time: “They peeled my ears back, ” he recalls with a smile. Through his relationship with another Bowling Green music legend, Bones Kaelin, Tommy met more local musicians and eventually joined Kaelin’s Dixie Line Band. They released an album and toured extensively.
Tommy became more active in his church and started focusing on his family and playing music more as a form of worship. He was able to be himself and felt comfortable in his church: “I could let my hair grow and cut my tie.” Recently he has been working with his friend and long-time bandmate, Chris Carmichael, to write, record, and produce a new album.
“Bowling Green…this area – I’ve traveled all over the United States and Canada, most places don’t have -- I’ve been in cities that don’t have as many rich musicians as this area. Think about who has come out of here, good gracious -- Sam Bush, Byron House, Chris Carmichael -- just name the artists they’ve played with. That’s three artists, you could fill up a legal pad…then you get into the Classical side of it, there has been some people to come out of Western that are just unbelievable…this is a rich area, it’s not your average [area], it's like a gold mine and we’re a rich vein.”