Ever since he was a young strapping 4 year old, Tom always wanted to be in a band and play music.  It was until he turned 13 that his parents finally caved in and sent him to guitar lessons.  Studying under the tutelage of John Jocko McNelly, Tom quickly realized that it wasn’t the guitar that he wanted to play…it was the bass.  That helped when a band was forming in his eighth grade class at Richmond’s Collegiate Schools, as there was already guitarists aplenty.  Midnight Jam was formed, and a career/hobby playing music began with it. That band would last through the end of high school, but Tom was not yet done with the guitar. In his junior year at Collegiate, a side band formed that included long time colloborator John Leedes and Widespread Panic’s own Dave Schools manning the bass, with the rhythm guitar being manned by Tom.  Broken Cheri played many a gig, and it was his long time friendship with Schools that helped foster a love of the jamband scene, particulary the Grateful Dead, and forged a lot of connections in the music scene outside of the Richmond area.

After graduating high school, Tom went to college in Nashville where he continued playing blues, Grateful Dead music, and southern rock. It was here in bands like the Rhythm Penguins, Blues Gnus, and Charley’s Sneakers, that his bass playing really matured and was honed by playing last minute gigs with no rehearsals to paying Nashville crowds. It was in Nashville that Tom was fortunate to play alongside other players like Doug Stanley, Mike Gilbert, Hose Williams, Warren Haynes, Moe Denham, and Johnny Neil. After college, Tom returned to Richmond where he met up with his twin brother Rob (who he had played with as well in high school) and other members of the Flipside (Dean Owen, Ric Withers) to form the REM tribute band Onion Head.  At about the same time, Tom’s love of jazz, blues, and jam rock was satisfied by forming Outside Help with legendary Richmond harmonica player Larry Saunders and guitarist Tripp Johnson. After Onion Head folded, Tom began playing with Ray Ban and the Shades, and it was through that band’s demise that he first met Bart Chucker, and joined his new band Acoustic Fun.

In 1993, Acoustic Fun had a theatre gig scheduled, and their regular singer couldn’t make it, so Bart got Tina Marie to sit in.  Tina and Tom would join/leave/join Bart’s many projects for several years. In 1996, two important events derailed Tom’s nightly jamming: back surgery and marriage.  Tom didn’t return to the Richmond music scene until late 1998, forming the Grateful Dead cover band King Solomon’s Marbles with longtime friends Sean Hoppe and John Leedes. During this period, he also frequently played with the Gary Gerloff Band, and did so on and off until Gary’s untimely death in 2009. In 2006, Tina Marie and Bart’s other frequent vocal colloborator, Jessica Salomonsky, enlisted Tom to play bass in their new project/labor of love, Sister Sweet.  When Sister Sweet “pulled the plug”, Tom didn’t want his association with Tina Marie and Sister Sweet’s Mark Henderson to end, so Vinyl Tease grew out the ashes.

Today, Tom plays with King Solomon’s Marbles, the Bart Chucker Band, and of course, Vinyl Tease.  CD appearances include “Sister Sweet” and “The Bart Chucker Band”.