Tommy Roland Shaw was born on September 11,1953 and is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known for his tenure in the rock band Styx as co-lead vocalist.
27 Facts About Tommy Shaw
2.
Tommy Shaw was born in Montgomery, Alabama, and played with many local bands in his early years.
3.
Tommy Shaw left Montgomery after attending Robert E Lee High School to join The Smoke Ring and then MSFunk, a Chicago-managed outfit that he played with for three years, which gave him a chance to be noticed by Styx during a two-week club gig in Chicago.
4.
Tommy Shaw personally went from studio to studio, coast to coast and pleaded with radio stations to play the band's single "Come Sail Away".
5.
Tommy Shaw threatened to quit if "First Time" was released, worried that two ballads in a row would alienate Styx's rock fan base.
6.
Tommy Shaw's dissatisfaction continued to grow as DeYoung took more and more control of the band and their musical direction.
7.
Tommy Shaw released three solo albums in the 1980s: Girls with Guns, What If, and Ambition, scoring a Top 30 hit with the title track and a minor hit with "Lonely School," both from the first album.
8.
Tommy Shaw returned to a reunited Styx in 1995 and embarked on a subsequent tour with them in 1996.
9.
Tommy Shaw has worked with other artists on a Pink Floyd The Wall tribute album titled Back Against the Wall.
10.
Tommy Shaw worked on a KISS tribute album, Spin the Bottle, on which he sang "Love Gun".
11.
Tommy Shaw joined up again with Jack Blades in a duo aptly called Tommy Shaw Blades and released an album entitled Hallucination in 1995.
12.
Tommy Shaw currently leads Styx along with James "JY" Young, the only remaining members from Styx's heyday.
13.
On New Year's Eve 2007, Tommy Shaw made a guest appearance with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Birmingham, Alabama, where they performed such songs as "Blue Collar Man" and "Renegade", as well as TSO originals.
14.
Tommy Shaw made his bluegrass debut at the Grand Ole Opry on March 26,2011, after the March 22 release of his bluegrass album The Great Divide.
15.
In 2011, Tommy Shaw worked on Don Felder's Road to Forever album, cowriting and performing on the songs "Wash Away" and "Heal Me".
16.
In 2022, Tommy Shaw sang lead vocals on "Uroboros," the first release from Alan Parsons' album From the New World.
17.
Tommy Shaw was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame on February 22,2008, at their awards banquet held in Shaw's hometown of Montgomery at the new Montgomery Convention Center, the construction of which was completed just prior to the ceremony.
18.
In 1975, Tommy Shaw married Cuppy Smith when he was 21 years old in Michigan.
19.
Between late 1979 and mid-1981, Tommy Shaw dated actress Linda Blair.
20.
Tommy Shaw lived with horse trainer Betsy Waltman on his farm near Niles, Michigan, in the early 1980s.
21.
Tommy Shaw dated and shared an apartment in Chicago with news anchor Joan Esposito in 1984.
22.
Tommy Shaw married his second wife, actress Pamela Donnelly, on February 15,1986.
23.
Tommy Shaw married his current wife, Jeanne Mason, on December 28,2000.
24.
Tommy Shaw stated in a 1992 interview during his first tenure with Damn Yankees that he is a strict vegetarian.
25.
Subsequently, on the October 31,2020, episode of Live from Daryl's House, Tommy Shaw regaled Daryl Hall and friends with a story of falling off the vegetarian wagon upon trying a piece of ribeye that widened his eyes.
26.
Tommy Shaw was instrumental in the development of Hamer's Duotone guitar.
27.
Tommy Shaw can be seen playing a Hamer Talladega in the second picture in this article.