Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tommy Taylor. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tommy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I think creating my first solo album “Across the Stars” would definitely be the most meaningful project that I have worked on. I never dreamed I would write songs. At best I thought I might cherry pick the catalogues of all of the wonderful writers I had worked with and interpret them for a record. To finally have an album completed of my own songs, elegantly produced, is something I probably never expected.

I spent almost my entire career lending my “creative juices” either to projects that I believed I had a vested interest in, or solo projects for others. It was just the road I got on when I was little. Just walking, not really knowing where to go or how to go about it. Somehow, I was always doing “okay.” But nobody ever really reached out and tried to give me direction. I’ve had to learn what I know, sometimes by getting the figurative crap knocked out of me.

At the end of the day, no matter how much you know you contributed to making something really great, if you aren’t a bonafide “band member” in the eyes of the industry, or the name of the artist on the record, your involvement can easily be glossed over, buried, or forgotten entirely.

I decided I wanted to make my own music that no one could take away from me. For better or worse, it would be mine. I would much rather be the one looking to GIVE credit where credit is due, than the person seeking it. I never forget people who help me.

I was able to use everything that I had learned working with other writers and producers, to come up with my own style and my own songs. I was able to choose the augmentation to help me realize the recordings. It was amazing, all of the people who came on board to help me do just that. It was as if by some magic, I was able to have some the greatest musicians and arrangers on earth, all excited for me to make my own music and to make sure that every part was universe class. It really gave me a sense of how much my life and my struggles and my contributions meant to others. I tear up just thinking about it sometimes. People’s actions go far beyond words. I reflect on the outcome and see how much I am loved by those people.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Tommy Taylor. I’m a music industry professional based in Austin, Texas. WOW! That sounds so odd. I just wanted to be in a band.

I play drums, guitar, sing, write songs and produce records.
I started working professionally at age 11 in and around the Austin area. I’m the youngest person to have ever joined the Austin Federation of Musicians at age 13 or 14, if memory serves. I started out like many kids, as The Beatles arrived on American soil, aspiring to follow in their footsteps. I began playing guitar at age 7 and shifted to drums at 9. By the time I was 10, I was in a band and it just went on from there. This was at a time when it was extremely abnormal for kids to be actually out playing live. My friends and I were just enough better than that, to be able to start working recreation centers and church dances and things. Soon we were breaking into the nightclubs. There was no one like us really. Not like today, when there are so many opportunities for kids to get into the local scenes.

I’m basically self taught and I play strictly by ear. I know very little about the technical aspects of music.
I learned by doing. By the time I was in High School, I was often playing 7 nights a week. You get good at what you repeat. It’s a discipline in and of itself really. Showing up night after night, for 4 hours a night. Playing your instrument and learning to be entertaining. Even when at times you may be completely bored with the routine.

In 1977, I joined a 4 piece, aspiring pop-rock group named Christopher Cross. Of course the rest is somewhat history. In 1979, we created a record album that blew Austin onto the world stage and set records for Grammy awards and sales for debut releases. The band was never recognized as such. The leader Chris Geppert, assumed the Cross moniker.

In 1984 I teamed up with legendary Austin guitarist Eric Johnson. I recorded his first 3 major label albums. “Cliffs of Dover” from the Ah Via Musicom Lp, won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental in 1991 and was also a number one record. We continue to work together, off and on, to this day.

All during those years, I was also doing studio work as a vocalist, drummer and percussionist. I always paid attention to the processes and I was also contributing to the arrangements and production ideas.
I did some credited co/producing with a few other folks in the early 80s.

In 2023 I released my solo debut Across the Stars. It is a collection of nine, self penned, songs that I co produced with my good friend Mark Hallman, who worked with Carole King and Dan Fogelberg among others. Rather than a typical, side man’s vanity project, I wanted to make a record that was equal to or better than any other I had ever worked on prior. I think I achieved that. During that process I began to realize my strengths as a producer more and more. I’m now pretty confident in that arena and I will be doing selected projects outside of my own in the future.

You know, 45 years have passed since we first released the Christopher Cross debut. I doubt any of us thought it would wear the test of time as it has. I work with other artists now that are somewhat in awe of the fact that I helped make that album. Whenever they announce that I was the drummer on that record when they are introducing me on stage, I have to admit, that no matter what else has transpired regarding that period of my life, I will stand proud and own that when it is acknowledged. Very often the audience is taken aback by the sudden awareness of who is behind this face.

How did you build your audience on social media?

The various social media platforms function differently and it’s funny how generational they are.
I was a late convert. I’ve never been one to do what everyone else was doing.

I was on Twitter for a second and it was such a minefield I just left. If you tweet or X or whatever you do, that’s cool. It didn’t resonate with me. Facebook turned out to be my jam. I got on because most of my old school chums were there. Lots of people in music too.

Someone said I should start an “artist page” for Tommy Taylor. I scoffed. thought maybe I would get 100 people. A nice lady I met at the NAMM show one year, commandeered a bunch of her friends one day to join and I got up to like 400. I thought that was it.
Now I have nearly 8000!

Instagram is harder. It’s like all the kids of Gen-Z left facebook because their parents were on it…and went to Instagram. I’m more of a “words” than a “pictures” person so it’s not a super workable for me. I keep my hand in there. I love interacting with my fans on Facebook and I think that is what you have to really understand. You can’t fake it. You have to love it. Lots of people have a “socials” person who posts for them. I could never do that. I told my Facebook followers on day one, “it’s really me, it will always be me.”

One of the biggest things I figured out was invitation. If you comment on someone’s post and you get people interacting with your comment, you can click on those icons and a list shows up. You can then invite them to like/follow your page. That is a huge way to build a following of people who might not ever realize who you are. It’s a relatively small conversion rate but if you are persistent you can grow that way. This is especially effective in my case in the music world. If I comment on a post by an artist that I like or who is in a similar vein to me musically, that is a great way to get people to come and check out my music. Because they were on that person’s page, they might already be amenable to listening to something like what I make.
Also if someone shares YOUR post, then anyone who likes it on the shared version is also eligible to be invited by clicking on the likes on your original post where they will show up. You can add a lot of people that way.

The elusive “blue check” mark is something that I’m not sure I understand. I have 6 Grammy Award winning recordings to my credit. I have several Multi-Platinum albums. Major Record Label affiliations. Millions of record sales worldwide. Press. A designated Youtube Artist Channel. A linked Instagram Profile. A Wikipedia Page. A Discogs Page. Television Appearances. Several thousand followers. I have yet to convince Meta that I am a bonafide public figure. No one, even their own people can give me a good reason. Oh well. It’s still fun and it’s really about the fans.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I think we all have certain unattainable aspirations that we entertain early on.
Mine was that I was going to be the greatest drummer who ever lived. I just simply expected it.
I had been lauded on since I rather burst on the local scene at 13. My lifelong friend Ron Coleman put an addendum to an ad for my group at the famous New Orleans Club in Austin, that read, “Sensational 13 Year Old Drummer.” I had no plan. I just thought, ‘well I’m better than I ought to be, and that will just exponentially increase and voile’!’

Sometime in 1972, Buddy Rich came to play with his band at Reagan High School in Austin. I wasn’t into jazz or Big Band and I didn’t have a clue about how to play that. Rock and Roll baby! Still, my father had always said Buddy Rich was the best, so I decided I owed it to myself to check him out. Now my father was probably parroting everyone in his generation because I don’t think he would know. So it came to pass. I went to the Reagan gymnasium and made my way to the front of the stage to watch “The Best.”

Buddy Came out…and sat behind the kit. His band started playing and he took off. We were about a half a minute in when my heart sank into my shoes. I was NOT going to be the greatest drummer who ever lived. That seat…was already taken. Even with what has transpired since I still believe he is the untouchable. Unbelievable this guy. I very quickly, while still being assaulted by more and more outrageous drumming, had to rethink my plan. What could my new goal be? I had to become the Greatest Tommy Taylor who ever lived! Sounds easy. It’s taken a lifetime to begin to achieve it. Not everyone is going to be a Buddy Rich in their field. You have to figure out what is going to make you different. What is it about who you are and how that is presented that will set you apart from the herd? It’s a lofty goal, but certainly pivotal in this case.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://TommyTaylor.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tommytaylorofficial/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TommyTaylorOfficial/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TommyTaylorOfficial

Image Credits

1. Doug Brons
2 Wade Johnson
4 Greer Ruedin
5 Greer Ruedin
6 David Lanford
7 Steve Chadie