- Before No Doubt, Tom played in his sister's metal band
called Rising.
- Tom says that if he weren't in the band he would definitely
be an elementary school teacher.
- Tom has a dog named Vinny who was thanked in the Return Of Saturn credits. "He's the cutest freaking
dog ever"
- Tom studied Music Theory for five semesters at Orange Coast Community College.
- Trapped In A Box began as a short poem Tom had written
- Tom helped create the official ND site
- Tom's first guitar was a 12-string that his ex-nun Aunt
Ruth gave him.
- When No Doubt recorded TK, Tom didn't own any guitars.
He had to rent all of them!
- Tom worked
with Shifty (from Crazytown) on his solo album - Shifty's sister is Mieke, who is Tom's wife.
- Tom was an
avid Kiss fan as a teenager
- Tom has never
officially been welcomed into the band
- It was Tom's
idea to record Beacon Street themselves
- Tom loves to
surf, something he does everytime he comes to Australia
- Tom claims
to be the 'nerd' of the band
- He would be
interested in becoming a producer who discovers new talent in Orange County when he is no longer performing
- Tom is adopted
- He has three
siblings - John, Gina, and Ellen
- Tom ran a music
equipment rental business, even after the band signed with Interscope
- He enjoys collecting
old radios and Saturday afternoon home-improvement shows
- "Success has
the potential to poision your mind with weird, crappy thoughts. Some people would trade in their girlfriends to go out with
some supermodel or something stupid like that. Its a slimy business."
- "It's probably
easier to have sex to this record than the last." (On Rock Steady)
- Tom also loves
home decorating
- "I like Simple
Kind Of Life the best (over Exgirlfriend) because there was a Mexican street fair in East LA that we filmed some of the scenes.
And also because it was done in a graveyard and there were helicopters flying around, which was really cool. Adrian says it's
his favourite too because he always wanted to drink in a graveyard and he was able to drink between takes."
- "Music is a
menue. We are desert."
- "Yes, those
shows we played at Berkeley Square were among the sweatiest rock concerts on record. I do remember that one show where I got
spit on a lot. This one guy kept spitting on me. And since he couldn't move in the pit I spit this lougi on him."
Tom: "This is the sound check where Tony continually messes up, and Adrian misses his cue, so if you hear
any wrong notes, be sure to point that out to Tony or Adrian"
- "I had this teacher in the 7th grade, who used to
always call Disney Land the Tragic Kingdom."
- "They'd be like 'what are we playin next' and I'd be like 'oh nothing much...another song about
tony'."
- "Sometimes I tell Tony, 'you should have just stayed with her. It would be a lot easier. Everybody
would be happy, getting along.' But people have to follow their own hearts. I think they still care deeply for each other
but it's hard to breakup with your girlfriend and then live with her. That's a tall order. They've done a great job of pulling
it off. When we're all together, we get along pretty good."
- "Look, we can divide the world into 2 types of people, those
who are negative and those who are positive. The negatives are bitter and afraid and spend their time shouting to the world
about how terrible everything is. The positives, they enjoy life, treat others well, and listen to music that moves them inside
regardless of what everyone else says. We in No Doubt have always been in complete control of what we do. No one makes our
music for us or tells us what to do, especially all those negatives out there. Rock Steady is the truest expression of what
we want to do right now, and we're celebrating that fact right now. Enjoy it! We are."
- Adrian: "Tom is obsessed with spending as little money as possible."
- "This is something I've wanted for many years now and I never really thought it would happen.
It's like a dream cometrue to here our songs on the radio. I know the music industries and people who listen to music
these days are pretty fickle and this may be our 1-hit-wonder and it may be gone tommorow, but we're gonna have a lot of fun
in the meantime."
- "If Eric hadn't left, Gwen wouldn't have found her voice. And as soon as that happened,
she started writing songs and expressing her own thoughts, and the music took on a new life. The stuff that we were
writing had this new sparkle that it never had before. It's pretty neat to watch from the side as someone blossoms into
an artist."
- "There were sections of the stage where I couldn't even walk because her vocal were so loud."
- "I'm the opposite of Tony. I'm lazy, I would just let something go and later regret it. I always
do this in life."
