Thom Shepherd

Profile edited with CricketSoda's Myspace Editor Thom Shepherd has had quite a couple of years. The St. Louis born singer and songwriter woke up January 1, 2005 to a day of skeet shooting and riding four wheelers on the ruggedly beautiful island of Kodiak, Alaska. The night before he played a New Years show there for the Coast Guard base as part of an Armed Forces Tour, his third for this eager group of folks.In March of 2005 Thom found out that country singer Craig Morgan was going to release his song “Redneck Yacht Club” to country radio. Summer brought Thom’s fourth tour for Armed Forces Entertainment, to eight different countries in Europe. As the months went by, “Redneck Yacht Club” continued to climb the charts, and on a snowy morning in Greenland in October (his fifth AFE tour), Thom got the call that the song had gone to 1. Plans were made and a Number One party was scheduled for late November in Nashville. His parents and his sister’s family even got to come to town for the celebration. Two days after the party, his doctor gave him the news no one wants to hear: you’ve got cancer.It wasn’t his first bout with it. In the fall of 2004 he was diagnosed with cancer, had surgery, and underwent radiation therapy. One year later, when the cancer appeared in his lymph nodes, there was only one choice: nine weeks of chemotherapy. The treatments made him feel awful and work was out of the question. But on his first day back to work in February 2006, a writing appointment with Gary Hannan turned into a four-way cowrite with Phil O’Donnell and Eddie Montgomery. The resulting song, “A Man’s Job” was recorded just two weeks later and ended up on Montgomery Gentry’s album “Some People Change.” He took it as a good sign.As the months passed and he got his strength back, he got back to work with a vengeance, traveling to and performing in Key West, Gulf Shores, Texas, Maryland, and Virginia. In the summer he would go on his sixth AFE tour, this time to Germany.In January of 2007 he completed his seventh tour for AFE, to Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Djibouti, Africa.Thom is a graduate of George Mason University and moved to Nashville in 1993.His song "Riding with Private Malone," recorded by David Ball, went to 1 and won an Achievement Award from the Nashville Songwriters Association, voted on by their members as “the song you wish you had written.” Thom even got to be in the video, playing the title role.His songs have been recorded by George Jones, Montgomery Gentry, Pam Tillis, Buddy Jewell, Joe Nichols, Blake Shelton, Neal McCoy, Kevin Fowler, George Canyon, bluegrass artist Ronnie Bowman, and Cledus T. Judd.Thom’s latest CD, Side Effects, is available at www.cdbaby.com He is also co-owner of Redneck Yacht Club LLC, a company that is developing clothing and accessories for the boating lifestyle. www.redneckyachtclub.comAs of June 2007, Thom is one year cancer-free. He continues to write, record and perform.GET MY LATEST CD! .. -- -- -- CLICK THE PICTURE TO ORDER CDSREDNECK YACHT CLUB GEAR! GET IT HERE BY CLICKING ON THE PICTURE AND OPTIONS BELOW OR GO TO WWW.REDNECKYACHTCLUB.COM
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