Check out WDHA Presents: Tom Keifer at the Starland Ballroom on Thursday, July 25th!
Carl Thomas Keifer, best known as Tom Keifer, was born January 26th, 1961, in Springfield Pennsylvania. Raised in a musical family, he was a guitarist early on and was heavily influenced by the blues, he was even bribed by his family with a Gibson Les Paul to graduate from high school rather than dropping out to pursue music. Waiting until after graduation to follow his musical dreams turned out for the best, as he was briefly a part of the band Telepath before forming the hard rock band Cinderella as guitarist and lead vocalist with bassist Eric Brittingham in 1983.
Following an unsuccessful attempt to get the band signed by KISS’ Gene Simmons, in 1985 Jon Bon Jovi saw the band in Philadelphia and convinced his manager Derek Schulman to sign the band, stating “This guy struck me as a star right then and there.” In 1986 Tom and the rest of Cinderella released their debut album Night Songs, which initially received mixed reviews but managed to peak at number 3 on the Billboard 200 chart and go triple platinum with the RIAA.
The group would release three more studio albums in Long Cold Winter (1988), Heartbreak Station (1990), and Still Climbing, (1994) with Long Cold Winter also reaching triple platinum and Heartbreak Station reaching platinum as well, combined with similar success on the charts for all three following albums. Despite their success, the group had some terrible luck in legal troubles with Sony, numerous vocal injuries to Tom, and, based on a statement made by Tom Keifer in 2017, issues between the band members led to the band disbanding in 2014.
Outside of Cinderella, Tom Keifer has released two solo albums in 2013’s The Way Life Goes and 2019’s Rise. He is currently planning a US tour, and, as of June 2023, has not begun working on a follow up to Rise, but song ideas are being formed. Seeing how that was nine months ago, the current standing of a new album could be much closer than we think.
Tickets are on sale at starlandballroom.com.
Check out Terrie Carr’s list of 10 underrated 80’s bands HERE!
