☠TOMMY☠ RULEZ! profile picture

☠TOMMY☠ RULEZ!

About Me

Here is a page dedicated to a one mean guitar player!Tommy's Bio goes paralel wit his band TESLA!Although Tesla emerged during the glory days of hair metal, they never completely fit the spirit of the times. Their music was well-produced pop-metal, to be sure, but they never indulged in the glammed-up excess that made cartoons out of many of their peers. Instead, Tesla's music was bluesy, no-frills, '70s-style hard rock; it concentrated more on solid musicianship than enormous, arena-ready choruses (or hairdos), and it had a noticeable grit -- not so much the urban sleaze of Guns N' Roses, but a grounded attitude and a genuine affection for old-school hard rock. Despite their refreshing lack of posturing, Tesla was just as hard-hit as the rest of the pop-metal world when grunge wiped out classic-style hard rock, but they did produce one of the more respectable bodies of work of the era. Tesla was formed in Sacramento, CA, in 1985, out of an earlier, locally popular group called City Kidd which dated back to 1982. Tesla's lineup featured vocalist Jeff Keith, the underrated guitar tandem of Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch, bassist Brian Wheat, and drummer Troy Luccketta. At management's suggestion, the band named itself after the eccentric inventor Nikola Tesla, who pioneered the radio but was given only belated credit for doing so. After playing several showcases in Los Angeles, Tesla quickly scored a deal with Geffen and released their debut album, Mechanical Resonance, in 1986; it produced a minor hard rock hit in "Modern Day Cowboy," reached the Top 40 on the album charts, and eventually went platinum. However, it was the follow-up, 1989's The Great Radio Controversy, that truly broke the band. The first single, "Heaven's Trail (No Way Out)," was another hit with hard rock audiences, setting the stage for the second single, a warm, comforting ballad called "Love Song" which substituted a dash of hippie utopianism for the usual power ballad histrionics. "Love Song" hit the pop Top Ten and made the band stars, pushing The Great Radio Controversy into the Top 20 and double-platinum sales figures; the follow-up single, "The Way It Is," was also something of a hit.In keeping with their unpretentious, blue-collar roots, Tesla responded to stardom not by aping the glam theatrics of their tourmates, but by stripping things down. The idea behind 1990's Five Man Acoustical Jam was virtually unheard of -- a pop-metal band playing loose, informal acoustic versions of their best-known songs in concert, plus a few favorite covers ('60s classics by the Beatles, Stones, CCR, and others). Fortunately, Tesla's music was sturdy enough to hold up when its roots were exposed, and one of the covers -- "Signs," an idealistic bit of hippie outrage by the Five Man Electrical Band -- became another Top Ten hit, as well as the band's highest-charting single. Not only did Five Man Acoustical Jam reach the Top 20 and go platinum, but it also helped directly inspire MTV's Unplugged series, both with its relaxed vibe and its reminder that acoustic music could sound vital and energetic.The studio follow-up to The Great Radio Controversy, Psychotic Supper, was released in 1991 and quickly became another platinum hit. It didn't produce any singles quite as successful as "Love Song" or "Signs," but it did spin off the greatest number of singles of any Tesla album: "Edison's Medicine," "Call It What You Want," "What You Give," "Song and Emotion." Perhaps that was partly because Tesla's workmanlike hard rock didn't sound ridiculous if it was played on rock radio alongside the new crop of Seattle bands. But regardless, the winds of change were blowing, and by the time Tesla returned with their 1994 follow-up, Bust a Nut, those winds had blown pretty much any new blue-collar hard rock off the airwaves. Bust a Nut did sell over 800,000 copies -- an extremely respectable showing, given the musical climate of 1994, and a testament to the fan base Tesla had managed to cultivate over the years

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 12/16/2006
Band Members:

Influences:
Finding Myself In This Guitar Theres blood running down my fingers From the strings of this guitar Tears stain it's polished wood As I'm trying to find myself in the stars Looking out this window With my guitar in my hands I cradle it close to my heart Because it is the sole thing that understands It never asks me why Never wants me to explain It simply accepts the strumming That is the symphony of my pain My guitar has seen the secrets No one else will ever see But no matter what it knows It doesn't turn away from me These strings cut my thumb and fingers Bidding them to bleed But the blood and pain is worth it For the few hours that I am free Living in my music Sheltered in the sound It holds me in its tight embrace And picks me up after I hit the ground I see no greater compassion Nothing more heart warming has come thus far As the boundless love and devotion I get from this guitar My companion and my confidante The angel that helps me by The best comfort there can be From something that can't wipe the tears from my eyes I've felt nothing so intense As long as I have lived Than when my fingers intertwine with the strings And we pour out all the love we can give My heart may be bleeding and broken But this guitar will find the glue To put it back together the way it was Before our song is through And as I'm looking out this window Unable to find myself in the stars I look at the instrument in my hands And realize that I have found myself in this guitar

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Record Label: Unsigned

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