Tom Stepp was born in Huntington, West Virginia
and began playing piano by ear almost before he could walk!
Based music instruction at age six and formed his first band
when he was 12. Tom first performed in a club in Michigan as
part of a duo when he was fifteen. Tom went into the Navy when
he was nineteen and performed with bands at night. When his enlistment
was over Tom moved to Houston, Texas and began working as an
electronics technician during the day, and looked for piano and
recording gigs at night.
He received a break due to a recording the Sunbelt Hotel circuit
in Houston. It's then that Tom was noticed by Steve Pasadena,
Texas, home of the mechanical bull and the Paramount Motion Picture
Saurian Cowboy'' starring John Travolta and Debra Winger.
Tom toured with Mickey Gilley and Johnny Lee and the Urban
Cowboy Band for almost three years, and in the process played
many large venues on the bill with bands like Alabama, Hank
Williams Jr., Jerry Lee Lewis (Mickey's first cousin), Juice
Newton and others. He also played in Las Vegas with the band
at the Aladdin Casino. Tom returned to Houston at that point
to continue his recording career and to attend school.
Around that point in time Tom was contacted by a friend that
was singing backup with Wayne Newton in Las Vegas atCaesar's
Palace. Wayne needed a keyboard player and hired Tom who was
flown out to Las Vegas very soon after that phone call where
he performed with the band. It was with Wayne that he first
traveled to Hawaii to perform at the Hilton Hawaiian Village
and fell in love with the islands.
Tom was performing at Bally's Casino in Las Vegas the night
his father died of cancer.
It was after this tragedy that Tom made up his mind to ''go
solo'' and move to Hawaii. He moved to Waikiki and quickly
obtained solo work at the Sheraton outrider Hotel in Honolulu
on the beach.
It was It was in Hawaii that Tom performed on his first cruise
ship, American Hawaii's Independence. In later years he performed
on several other cruise ships, primarily in the Caribbean.
After about several years in Hawaii Tom received an offer and
moved to California where he ended up as bandleader, keyboardist
and lead vocalist at the Sportsman's Lodge, a well known restaurant,
club and hotel in Hollywood.
After being ''held over'' a considerable length of time and
breaking all of the club's bar records, Tom was offered at
solo club tour in Japan where he traveled, performed and was
eventually held over at Playboy Club's famous Century Court
Club in Roppongi, Tokyo. Tom was offered a tour of Europe for
almost two years, performing also in Ireland, England, France,
returning. He ended up staying in Denmark, Switzerland and
Holland before returning.
At this point he moved back to Texas and began selling real
estate for Remax, as well as playing in clubs and parties in
Houston and Austin, his current residence.