 Tommy DeCarlo |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 30, 2008) — Last summer,
Tommy DeCarlo, a husband and father of two teenagers, was living a normal life working as an associate at the Home Depot in Charlotte, NC. This year, he's touring the United States and Canada as one of the lead singers for the legendary, multi-platinum rock group Boston. Yamaha Corporate Artist Affairs, Inc. is proud to announce its support for new fan phenom DeCarlo by adding him to the roster and gifting him a brand new Motif XS8 music production synthesizer to kick off his first-ever cross country tour.
"Tommy's story is a dream come true…to one day actually sing and tour with the band you grew up admiring…who wouldn't want that? We are happy we were able to provide Tommy with a new instrument so that he can continue his musical gift and live out a dream," comments Chris Gero, vice president of Yamaha Corporate Artist Affairs, Inc.
DeCarlo, whose extent of performing until now included singing karaoke in bowling alleys, has been playing piano since the age of 14. In 2005, when times were tough, he sold his prized keyboard to buy Christmas gifts for his family. All the while, he continued to sing and play for recreational uses whenever he could.
Though Tommy has never technically taken music lessons, he remembers as a teenager singing along to Boston songs and trying to mimic his voice to that of former lead singer Brad Delp.
"Brad's voice gave me hope and inspiration at times in my life when I needed it. I have said that I never took any singing lessons, but that's not exactly true…it was Brad who taught me how to sing, even though he never knew it."
Tommy went so far as to post some of his own versions of Boston's hit songs on his MySpace page. It was these postings that would ultimately lead to Tommy living out a dream he never even thought possible.
After some encouragement from a friend, Tommy submitted his songs to the group's website. BOSTON founder/songwriter/guitarist/producer and engineer Tom Scholz got his hands on the songs, and he liked what he heard! In short order, DeCarlo was flown up to Massachusetts and after hardly any rehearsal and a swift sound check, he ended up on stage in front of nearly 4,000 music fans at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston for a Boston tribute concert. The rest, as they say, is history.
This summer, he is fronting the group that sold millions of albums and singles and broke box office and chart records. DeCarlo and the rest of the band, Michael Sweet, Jeff Neal, Kimberley Dahme, Gary Pihl and of course, Tom Scholz, are currently touring the United States and Canada. Boston will be performing many of their classics this summer, including "More Than a Feeling" and "Hitch a Ride," as well as some fan favorites that have not been on the set lists for years. For complete show itinerary updates and photos, visit
www.bandboston.com.
