Donald Thomas "Tom" Scholz was born on March 10, 1947 and was raised in Toledo, Ohio. He is most well known as the founder of the rock band Boston.
As a kid, Tom was a tinkerer. By age 5 or 6 he had built his own toy power boat. He then graduated to toy airplanes, complete with many crashes, and by age 12, an electric motor.
Tom went away to school at MIT, graduating with both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering. Upon arrival at school he had no interest in rock and roll. His musical experience to that point was classical music from a couple years of piano lessons. Until he heard the sounds of the Yardbirds and The Kinks. Then, he started teaching himself basic guitar chords. The first piece of music he ever wrote, he wrote on an electric piano, and it became known as "Foreplay," the instrumental intro to the Boston song "Long Time."
After graduation, he took a job as a Design Engineer with Polaroid. One of the projects he worked on was developing a sound system for analog instant movies. Through this experience he learned about audio tape and production of recordings. He started booking himself studio time to work on music demos. Things weren't going well with the studio time, so he built a home studio in his apartment basement. He would work all day for Polaroid, then go home and record all night in his studio. He also played in a few bar bands, and in those bands, he met singer Brad Delp, and the other musicians who would make up the initial lineup of Boston.
After his demo tape recorded in his basement was complete, he mailed copies to every record label he could find in the yellow pages. He received an overwhelming number of rejections, but he received three hits, and the band signed with Epic Records. Ironically, Tom had sent out a different demo tape years before to Epic and received an insulting rejection letter.
For their first album, the label sent a producer to meet with the band and he asked the band to come to LA and record with him. Tom did not feel he could control the sound as well, and demanded to be able to record in his basement. He made an agreement with the producer - he could record the album in his basement, and the producer would mix it in LA, and run interference with the record label. Most of the album was recorded exactly like the demo, in Tom's basement studio, with him playing virtually every instrument. Every song was written or co-written by Tom.
Boston's debut album 'Boston,' was released in 1976. Tom was still working for Polaroid and planned to quit music if the album flopped. Instead, it was a huge hit, certified gold within 2 months, certified platinum within 3 months, selling over 2 million copies within six months. It would go on to sell over 20 million copies and was the best selling debut album ever, until topped by GNR's "Appetite For Destruction." The album had three hit singles with "More Than a Feeling", "Long Time", and "Peace of Mind, and reached #3 on the Billboard charts.
Boston followed that album up with two more hit albums, "Don't Look Back," and "Third Stage," which both went to #1 on the charts. "Third Stage" contained their only #1 hit, "Amanda."
Boston went on to have a long career, with numerous member changes, and still tours to this day. Tom is the only remaining original member, although guitarist Gary Pihl joined Boston shortly before "Third Stage" was released in the '80s, is also still in the band.
Tom kept on being a tinkerer, and throughout his career would modify his amplifiers, pedals, and other equipment. In the '80s he created a portable headphone amplifier called the Rockman.
Additional products were manufactured, and Tom founded the company 'Scholz Research & Development, Inc.,' which continued manufacturing his products. Product sales waned as the digital age entered in the 1990s. In 1995, Tom sold the company to Dunlop. Dunlop closed the company, but continues to manufacture some of his products.
He still likes his music listened to, and produced, the good old way - analog. "Personally, I can’t listen to digitally reproduced music for more than a couple hours without wanting to shoot myself." Tom has also said he doesn't listen to any music other than Boston, because he doesn't want to be influenced by it. The last album he purchased was by The James Gang in 1973. He's not interested in music - just his music.
In a 2013 interview he was asked what he thought about guitarists The Edge (U2) and Andy Summers (The Police), and he said "I have to confess: I don’t know who they are. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I don’t listen to any other music – not since about 1974. The only times when I’ll hear other music will be at the ice skating rink or the gym." He doesn't listen to music in the car. He said he's heard enough snippets of music out and about to recognize what pop music sounds like these days.
Happy birthday to a great Ohio export!
