DDR: What where some of you earliest musical influences growing up?
Tom: Well, the very first one that made me want to pick up a guitar and play and sing was the Beatles and seeing them play on the Ed Sullivan Show. Shortly after that, I started taking lessons. Basic open cords, singing Beatles songs with a teacher that came to the house and American folks songs and that kind of stuff. That was the initial inspiration just to be a musician was seeing the Beatles. A few years later, as I was growing up in the 7o's, I started hearing some hard rock like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Rod Stewart and Bad Company. It was the 70's and there was such an array of music, so I feel fortunate to come up and cut my teeth in that decade. I loved everything from the Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Linda Ronstadt to heavier stuff like Black Sabbath. Growing up in the 70's, I could sit here and name bands all day long that influenced me. At one point, I also delved back into some of my musical heroes, like when I learned what Jimmy Page was playing a derivative of the blues. I remember someone gave me a B.B. King Album “Live at the Regal”. I remember saying this guy sounds like Jimmy Page, he started laughing and said to me “No, it's the other way around”. I started digging back rather quickly and started listening to Elmore James, Muddy Waters, and B.B. King obviously because that was my first blues album that my friend gave me. You know I think that’s a healthy thing for any musician to do, is to delve back into the people that influenced them and then what influenced those people. So there is a little history on my influences for you!
DDR: One thing I heard, was that in High School your mother bribed you to stay in school and graduate by offering you a Gibson guitar, is that a true story?
Tom: Yes, that’s true. It was a 78 tobacco Les Paul custom that was hanging on the wall in McClan Music store in Darby which is a town next to Springfield where I grew up. That was our local music store where my friends and I would go and get our stuff, and it was something I couldn’t afford at the time. I had scraped enough money to get a Ibanez copy of a Gibson. But a Gibson at the time was pretty much off the charts for me money wise. I was not the most academic student and my mom knew that but she knew how to motivate me and that was music. So she offered me the guitar to get my high school diploma. I had been receiving offers from touring bands, they were cover bands, but I had offers to tour and play five nights a week. I had played in a couple of those bands while I was in high school and I just wanted to play music. I didn’t even want to finish high school, but my mother encouraged me to stay and she gave me the proper motivation with that Les Paul. (laughing)
DDR: If you could go back in time and speak with younger Tom that first got that Les Paul after graduating high school, and tell him what is in store for him in the future, what do you think he would say?
THE LEGEND RETURNS
Known for writing and performing some of the most memorable songs while with Cinderella , Tom Keifer returns with his new solo project "The Way Life Goes". Much like Tom Keifer's musical career, the album is packed with some of the most original new music out there. To listen to Tom’s new album is a walk down memory lane when bands like Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, and the Rolling Stones were owning the airwaves. Tom Kiefer has captured that magic of the greats and with his own style, made it his own.