Tom Rohm

Biography

ENGLISH:

Born 1955 (capricorn) in Neu-Ulm (Bavaria).
I grew up in a musical family. My father played the cello, my mother the violin, they loved classical music and met in a youth orchestra. I had basic musical education: recorder, piano, flute, singing classes. We used to sing a lot. I learned my first guitar chords from my cousins and when I was 12 I started to play during boy scouts, church and in school bands.

Growing up next to American army bases and having regular contact with GIs infected me with the music “virus” and the lifestyle and philosophy of the late 60s & early 70s, which led me to “drop-out” of a regular German middle-class surrounding. I left school and moved to France partly to avoid being drafted and to try to start a communal band in Colombes, Paris.
In 1973 I had my first small gigs in Paris (Centre Americaine). I then left the big city due to the first oil crisis and I moved south. I lived in different communes, earning money picking fruits, making goat cheese and herding cattle in the Swiss Alps.
In 1975 I had a “born again” experience, and started living a life of faith following the adage of “where God guides, he provides.”
In 1977 I started to earn my livelihood through busking and playing small gigs in Hamburg, Germany: Reeperbahn, Knust & other small local stages.
During the years 1978- 80 I played regular gigs in the legendary Hofrestaurant and played for Sting, Toto, the Hollies, Ricardo Cocciante and other celebrities like Catharina Valente and Otto Walkes.
From 1981-84 I lived in Uruguay and had appearances in Radio & TV with singer Pamela Charrie (USA).
The years 1985-87 found me living in a mobile home with a wife and 4 kids. We busked all over Switzerland, Austria and former Yugoslavia.
From 1987-89 I was in Thailand, doing volunteer work in orphanages, prisons and refugee camps.
After the wall fell in 1989 I made several trips to the former GDR and played some gigs there, also in the Greifenstein festival.
During the Balkan wars in 1991-93, I was in Hungary and did volunteer work in Bosnian refugee camps, organising musical programmes with my older kids.
In 1995 we settled down in Austria.
In 1996 I started the group “Tom’s Crew” establishing my profession as a musician.
From 2000-2016 I recorded and published several CDs. I played gigs solo & with different bands and projects. (see: music)

Family is very important to me and I am a proud father of 10 children and a grandfather of 5. From 1978 onwards, I lived and travelled with Heidi, my wife and mother of my 9 children.
I am now living single and am continuing to live my life playing music and travelling. Over the last 18 years, I have been performing regular weekly gigs at the Rogner Bad Blumau.
I speak German, English, French, Spanish and Italian.