As far as he can remember, Tommy Shaw has always been a musician.  In fact, his first "paying" job was when his grandfather made him sing on the porch in exchange of a few nickels.  At age 10, his parents gave him a guitar, a toy that would forever change his life.

At age 14, Tommy was already playing professionally, making music a part of his life and his soul.  While contributing his talents to many different bands, he also started writing his own songs.  In 1975, his career took a major change when he was asked to join the Chicago band STYX.  With this band, not only was Tommy recognized as one of the most respected guitarist and songwriter in the music business, he also had the possibility of sharing his passion with different cultures around the world, helping STYX to be an international act.  To this day, STYX is still the only rock band to have released 4 consecutive albums which sold over 3 millions copies each.

In 1983, the members of STYX were having a hard time agreeing on the musical orientation of the band.  The group parted ways and Tommy decided to go solo.  Between 1984 and 1987, he put out 3 albums:  "Girls With Guns", "What If" and "Ambition".  After the release of "Ambition", Tommy tried to regroup STYX but since other members were busy working on personal projects, the reunion never took place.
 

Later, Tommy got together with Ted Nugent, Jacks Blades and Michael Cartellonne and they created Damn Yankees.  Their first release in 1990 was quite successful in the United States.  Tommy was once again on top of the charts.  The band released 2 albums and Ted started working on other projects. Jack and Tommy decided to work together.  "It was a natural progression for us to do a duet album at that time.  Ted had a contract to do a new album before he joined Damn Yankees and his record company wanted him to do it in the same time frame.  By the time we were ready to make a third Damn Yankees album, there was no longer the same support we'd been accustomed to and so we put Damn Yankees aside for what's going on 12 years now.  But Damn Yankees still exists, and we will ride again!", said Tommy.

In 1995, Shaw/Blades released their first CD "Hallucination".  Again, this album showed the versatility of Tommy and his music.  It is still today a great album which, unfortunately, didn't receive the recognition it should have.

While working with Jack, a surprising event happened.  Tommy explains:  "I was back at Jack's and my studio up in Santa Rosa, California when I got the message that JY had called. We finished our work, took a lunch break and I called him back. He told me that the band wanted to re-record the song LADY, and put it out on the Greatest Hits (part 1) CD that A&M wanted to release. It was a real surprise to me, and I hardly knew what to say, but something inside of me knew I had to do it."  Jack agreed and pushed Tommy to go for it.  This lead to a big reunion tour and later, a brand new album.  STYX was back.

Since then, the band went through major changes but is still active in the music business.  Tommy also managed to release a forth solo album, "7Deadly Zens" in 1998.  Even if Tommy is busier than he has ever been with STYX, he still finds time to do other musical projects.  Amongst them, a new Shaw/Blades CD.

"We've been wanting to do another SHAW BLADES record for years, but the time constraints of our bands has not allowed the kind of time necessary to write, preproduce, record, mix, and all the other things which require a block of time to do.  When Jack recorded his recent debut solo CD, he asked me to work with him on "Nature's Way," an old song by the group SPIRIT.  It was fun, and we were able to do it quickly within our two schedules.  I had begun playing around with a BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD song "For What It's Worth" and when I played it for Jack we began to see that an album of some our favorite covers from when we were younger would be something that we could feasibly do within those same schedules.  It's been a bit of a juggling act, but we are very close to completing it and we're thrilled with the results.  We think fans of our first CD, "Hallucination" will find this just as easy to keep in their CD players.  It's a play-and-sing-with-in-the-car CD if ever there was one!", concludes Tommy.
 

For more info about Tommy, visit his official website, Crystal Ball.
For more info about STYX, visit their official website, Styxworld.