Born in Montgomery, Alabama on September 11, 1953, Tommy Shaw is a hard rock singer and guitarist best known as a member of Styx, Damn Yankees, and Shaw Blades. He learned to play guitar at a young age and played in several local bands before joining MSFunk, a band whose management was based in Chicago, Illinois. MSFunk travelled to Chicago and performed in local clubs, where he was noticed by members of Styx. After MSFunk broke up, Tommy Shaw moved back to Montgomery and started playing in local bands again. In 1975, Styx guitarist John Curulewski quit the band, and they needed a quick replacement. They asked Tommy Shaw to come back to Chicago to audition and by December 1975, he was a member of Styx. Before he had joined, the group had already found fame with the US number 6 single “Lady” from the album Styx II in 1973, but it was when Tommy Shaw joined the group that things really started to take off. 1977’s The Grand Illusion and 1978’s Pieces of Eight both made it to number 6 before the swooning power ballad “Babe” gave them their first number 1 single. Led by the huge hit “The Best of Times”, 1981’s Paradise Theater topped the US Album Charts in 1981. However, creative differences within the band caused them to split soon after their tenth LP Kilroy Was Here. Tommy Shaw then pursued a solo career, releasing the album Girls with Guns in 1984. The album featured the title track, which was a Top 30 hit. After two more albums – What If (1985) and Ambition (1987) – his solo career was on the wane. In 1989, Tommy Shaw formed the group Damn Yankees with guitarist Ted Nugent, bassist / vocalist Jack Blades (Night Ranger), and drummer Michael Cartellone. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1990 and hit number 13 on the Billboard 200, going double Platinum in the process. Two years later, they released the album Don’t Tread (1992), which reached number 22. Although the group had been successful, their label wanted to go in a different direction, and it was rumored that the band was paid a million dollars not to make another album. Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades then formed Shaw Blades and released the album Hallucination in 1995. The album was a moderate success, but their label chose not to promote it, and the duo went their separate ways. While Tommy Shaw was busy with these projects, Styx reformed for a short time without him but took a few years off until Tommy Shaw was able to join them in 1996. After a live album from their reunion tour and a Tommy Shaw solo album, 7 Deadly Zens (1998), Styx released their first album in more than a decade with 1999’s Brave New World. Artistic differences led to band founder Dennis DeYoung being removed from Styx in 1999. Alongside more albums with Styx – Cyclorama (2003), Big Bang Theory (2005), The Mission (2017), Crash of the Crown (2021), and Circling from Above (2025) - Tommy Shaw continued to release solo albums including Sweet Emotion (2007) and The Great Divide (2011). He also reunited with Jack Blades for a Shaw Blades covers album, Influence, in 2007.
