Tom Scholz
| Tom Scholz | |
|---|---|
Tom Scholz live with Boston June 13, 2008 Hinckley, Minnesota
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Donald Thomas Scholz |
| Born |
March 10, 1947 Toledo, Ohio, United States |
| Genres | Hard rock, progressive rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, inventor |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1969–present |
| Labels | Epic, CBS, MCA |
| Notable instruments | |
| Gibson Les Paul | |
Donald Thomas "Tom" Scholz (born March 10, 1947) is an American rock musician, songwriter, inventor, engineer, and philanthropist, best known as the founder of the band Boston. He is also the inventor of the Rockman portable guitar amplifier. He has been described by Allmusic as "a notoriously 'un-rock n' roll' figure who never enjoyed the limelight of being a performer," preferring to concentrate almost exclusively on his music, and in more recent years, spending much of his time working with charities.
Tom Scholz was born in Toledo, Ohio and raised in the suburb of Ottawa Hills. His father, Don Scholz, was a homebuilder who garnered considerable wealth from his designs of prefabricated luxury houses and founded Scholz Design, the forerunner of Scholz Homes Inc.
His mother Olive was valedictorian of her class, and went on to become an architectural designer and a landscape architect.
As a child, Scholz studied classical piano. He also had a penchant for tinkering with everything from go-carts to model airplanes and was always building or designing. A top student and a member of the varsity basketball team, he graduated from Ottawa Hills High School in 1965. Prior to his musical career, Scholz received both a bachelor's degree (1969) and a master's degree (1970) in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked for Polaroid Corporation as a senior product design engineer. Scholz would then reside in Boston.
Scholz had a keen interest in music and began recording demos in his home studio while working at Polaroid. These demos attracted the interest of Epic Records who signed Scholz and singer Brad Delp to a recording contract. Scholz believed his demos were good enough to comprise the full contents of Boston's debut album, but Epic told Scholz to re-record the demos. Most of the guitar, bass, and keyboards were performed by Scholz, although other players were involved sporadically throughout the recordings. Epic did not want the album recorded entirely in Scholz's home as Scholz had intended (the label suggested using a recording studio), but most of what ended up on the album was indeed ultimately recorded by Scholz in his basement. The album was released in 1976 and became the biggest-selling debut album by any artist up to that time. Scholz's reputed perfectionism delayed the follow-up album for two years. When it was finally released, he was unhappy with the result, Don't Look Back, and claimed that it was released under pressure from the record company. Scholz then declared he would not release any more music unless he was completely satisfied with the final product. Consequently, Boston's third album, Third Stage, did not appear until 1986. That album was certified 4x platinum, and "Amanda" reached the top of the singles chart. Scholz and Brad Delp were the only members of the original group to appear on the album.
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