Biography
Tommy Shaw came aboard Styx in 1975 shortly after the group signed with A&M, yet his songwriting soon shaped the ensemble’s most celebrated era through the hard-rocking singles “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man),” “Renegade,” “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights),” and “Too Much Time on My Hands.” His straightforward style stood apart from Dennis DeYoung’s theatrical approach, a contrast that prompted Shaw to launch a solo career in 1984. The debut Girls with Guns earned airplay on album-rock stations and MTV, but his next notable venture came alongside former Styx drummer Michael Cartellone, Night Ranger’s Jack Blades, and Ted Nugent in the AOR supergroup Damn Yankees. After that band dissolved, Shaw formed the duo Shaw Blades with Blades, then rejoined Styx at the start of the new millennium.
Born in Montgomery, Alabama, and raised in the nearby suburb of Prattville, Shaw began playing guitar at age ten. Two years later his family relocated to Montgomery proper, where he intensified his practice and performed first with neighborhood friends, then with local outfits including Jabbo Stokes & the Jive Rockets. Following his high-school graduation in 1972, he moved to Nashville at the urging of talent agent Bobby “Smitty” Smith and joined the band the Smoke Ring, which soon became the horn-driven rock group MS Funk. He remained with MS Funk for several years as the ensemble shifted to Chicago, but left in 1975 when the group began veering toward disco. Shaw returned to Montgomery and played with Harvest until learning that Styx sought him as a replacement for John Curulewski.
Styx stood on the brink of a tour behind Equinox, the album that followed their breakthrough single “Lady,” and therefore required a guitarist immediately. Shaw accepted and quickly integrated himself, supplying original material and lead vocals to 1976’s Crystal Ball. The band reached a commercial peak with The Grand Illusion, partly through Shaw’s aggressive compositions led by “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man).” That record initiated a string of five Billboard Top Ten albums for Styx, which yielded four Top Ten singles including Shaw’s 1981 rocker “Too Much Time on My Hands.” Kilroy Was Here ended the streak in 1983; although it produced Top Ten hits “Mr. Roboto” and “Don’t Let It In,” the accompanying tour was marked by mounting friction that ended with Shaw’s exit at its conclusion in 1984.
After departing Styx, Shaw began his solo career with the 1984 album Girls with Guns. Its title track reached number 33 on the Billboard Top 40, while the follow-up “Lonely School” peaked at number 60. He wrote “Remo’s Theme (What If)” for the 1985 film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins; the track climbed to number 18 on Billboard’s rock chart and supplied the title for his second album, What If. A third solo release, Ambition, appeared in 1987 before Shaw formed a new band with touring drummer Michael Cartellone, Jack Blades, and Ted Nugent.
The resulting supergroup Damn Yankees issued a self-titled album in 1990 that earned double-platinum certification thanks to the power ballad “High Enough,” which rose to number three on Billboard’s Hot 100. The act proved short-lived; a second album, Don’t Tread, surfaced in 1992 before Nugent resumed his solo work. Shaw and Blades continued as Shaw Blades, releasing Hallucination in 1995, yet the project ended when the record failed to gain traction at album-rock radio. Shaw rejoined a reunited Styx that toured through 1996, resulting in the live album Return to Paradise in 1997. Styx issued the studio set Brave New World in 1999, by which time Shaw had already released his fourth solo album, 1998’s 7 Deadly Zens, and had explored recording a third Damn Yankees album with Blades and Nugent.
That project again dissolved, but Shaw stayed with Styx, which continued issuing albums such as 2003’s Cyclorama and 2005’s Big Bang Theory while he pursued side work. He and Blades delivered a second Shaw Blades collection, the covers album Influence, in 2007, and Shaw explored his country roots with the bluegrass record The Great Divide in 2011. Styx achieved its highest-charting album since 1983’s Kilroy Was Here when The Mission reached number 45 in 2017. The following year Shaw issued Sing for the Day!, a live recording made with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra.
Born in Montgomery, Alabama, and raised in the nearby suburb of Prattville, Shaw began playing guitar at age ten. Two years later his family relocated to Montgomery proper, where he intensified his practice and performed first with neighborhood friends, then with local outfits including Jabbo Stokes & the Jive Rockets. Following his high-school graduation in 1972, he moved to Nashville at the urging of talent agent Bobby “Smitty” Smith and joined the band the Smoke Ring, which soon became the horn-driven rock group MS Funk. He remained with MS Funk for several years as the ensemble shifted to Chicago, but left in 1975 when the group began veering toward disco. Shaw returned to Montgomery and played with Harvest until learning that Styx sought him as a replacement for John Curulewski.
Styx stood on the brink of a tour behind Equinox, the album that followed their breakthrough single “Lady,” and therefore required a guitarist immediately. Shaw accepted and quickly integrated himself, supplying original material and lead vocals to 1976’s Crystal Ball. The band reached a commercial peak with The Grand Illusion, partly through Shaw’s aggressive compositions led by “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man).” That record initiated a string of five Billboard Top Ten albums for Styx, which yielded four Top Ten singles including Shaw’s 1981 rocker “Too Much Time on My Hands.” Kilroy Was Here ended the streak in 1983; although it produced Top Ten hits “Mr. Roboto” and “Don’t Let It In,” the accompanying tour was marked by mounting friction that ended with Shaw’s exit at its conclusion in 1984.
After departing Styx, Shaw began his solo career with the 1984 album Girls with Guns. Its title track reached number 33 on the Billboard Top 40, while the follow-up “Lonely School” peaked at number 60. He wrote “Remo’s Theme (What If)” for the 1985 film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins; the track climbed to number 18 on Billboard’s rock chart and supplied the title for his second album, What If. A third solo release, Ambition, appeared in 1987 before Shaw formed a new band with touring drummer Michael Cartellone, Jack Blades, and Ted Nugent.
The resulting supergroup Damn Yankees issued a self-titled album in 1990 that earned double-platinum certification thanks to the power ballad “High Enough,” which rose to number three on Billboard’s Hot 100. The act proved short-lived; a second album, Don’t Tread, surfaced in 1992 before Nugent resumed his solo work. Shaw and Blades continued as Shaw Blades, releasing Hallucination in 1995, yet the project ended when the record failed to gain traction at album-rock radio. Shaw rejoined a reunited Styx that toured through 1996, resulting in the live album Return to Paradise in 1997. Styx issued the studio set Brave New World in 1999, by which time Shaw had already released his fourth solo album, 1998’s 7 Deadly Zens, and had explored recording a third Damn Yankees album with Blades and Nugent.
That project again dissolved, but Shaw stayed with Styx, which continued issuing albums such as 2003’s Cyclorama and 2005’s Big Bang Theory while he pursued side work. He and Blades delivered a second Shaw Blades collection, the covers album Influence, in 2007, and Shaw explored his country roots with the bluegrass record The Great Divide in 2011. Styx achieved its highest-charting album since 1983’s Kilroy Was Here when The Mission reached number 45 in 2017. The following year Shaw issued Sing for the Day!, a live recording made with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra.
Albums
Live
