These are just more facts on the boys, that are more specific. These are from the bi-weekly trivia and facts from the mailing lists, and so one will be added every other week.
1. Tom was in several bands before Cinderella, including Fascination, Shove, Telepath, and Diamond. They were mostly glam cover bands.
2. Tom and Eric were in a band together before Cinderella called Saints in Hell. There was another person in this band that didn't quite last long
enough to be in Cinderella. He was, however, later in a band that sounded alot like our boys. He was also married to one of Tom's sisters. This man was Michael Kelly Smith.
3. Eric’s favorite bass was purple.
4. Fred did not play on any part of the album Night Songs. He had just become part of the band, and so he didn’t play on it. He was however still on the cover and listed as drummer.
5. Jon Bon Jovi saw Cinderella at the Empire rock club. He liked what he saw/heard, and so he went to his label. Schulman, the A & R guy at PolyGram had mixed feelings. They were signed, but to a six-month development option contract.
6. Gene Simmons of KISS had tried to work out a deal with Cinderella and his record company. It fell through, although they did learn from him.
7. Fred's first band was called Sunjammer. He was 13 at the time, and the mayor of his town let them play in bars!
8. Jeff was in the band Precious Metal when he opened for Cinderella. He had know Emily Pember, Tom's
wife at the time, since high school, and was a Cinderella fan, but he hadn't even met the guys until he had opened for them several times already. As the current version of Cinderella was about to enter the studio, Polygram was telling them that the guitarist wasn't working, and the boys liked how Jeff played, so they asked him to audition.
9. Tom and Eric worked with a band called Bad Romance. Tom sang on one song - a cover of 'Love Hurts'- and both he and Eric co-wrote 'Love Is Blind' with the singer, Joanna Dean, and the guitarist, Steve Eriks. This song had the same riffs and stuff Cinderella's 'Hot N Bothered'. Eric also co-wrote 'Whitest Lies' with Joanna. Their album came out in 1991.
10. Gary Nutt filled in for Eric in one Cinderella tour because Eric was in a car accident. He was hospitalized.
11. Tom Keifer's real name is Carl Thomas Keifer
12. Here is a quote from an article that includes an interview with Tom. It tells when and why 'Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)' was written:
"I was really in love and we were making our first record and everything
seemed perfect. I was driving to the studio one night thinking, 'What if
this all went away? What if it all f***ed up somehow? What would that
feel like?" And 'Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)' was born :)
13. When the Priscilla Harriet Band came to an end, Tom and Eric decided they wanted to get serious about their music and get a record deal. They held auditions and this was the lineup they got
14. Cinderella entered the studio, but the drummer and guitarist weren't cutting it. Auditions were held again, turning up guitarist Jeff Labar and drummer Jim Drnc. Drnc also wasn't right, so Jody Cortez, a session drummer, finished the album. Then another round of auditions yielded Fred Coury.
15. Emily Pember, Tom's former wife, designed the Cinderella logo.
16. Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones was involved in the making of Cinderella's Heartbreak Station album . He did the string arrangements for Heartbreak Station and Winds of Change.
17. Tom's first new car was a 1983 Subaru GL. He got it in 83. This is the same car that was used by him and Eric to deliver film for a local film
processing company. In four years Tom put on over 104,000 miles on it! This is also where some Cindersongs were born!
18. Tom was not at his high school graduation because his band "Shove" was performing at a club that night. His parents went and recieved his diploma for him.
19. Tom studied guitar, piano, and voice. The rest of what he knows he either taught himself or learned from other musicians.
20. Tom's sister Georgene plays piano as a hobby. His sister Liz used to play guitar, and his other sister Adie used to play the cello.
21. Tom was fifteen years old when he started growing his hair out.
22. Tom's first car was a Plymouth Duster. It was used, but it had a
sunroof!He got it when he was 18.
23. Jeff went to Upper Darby High School, along with Lori, Eric's ex-wife, and Emily, Tom's ex-wife.
24. Curt Ritchie was at one time the guitarist of Saints In Hell.
25. Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora were featured in the “Save Me” video.
26. The picture for the cover of the Night Songs album was shot at Headhouse Square in Downtown Philadelphia.
27. Cinderella's cover of “Move Over” was featured on the Make A Difference Foundation’s benefit album. Tom also sang it at Farm Aid.
28. On the Long Cold Winter tour, Cinderella had 254 shows.
29. On November 17, 1989, Tom made an appearance at his old high school, in Springfield, PA, as a guest speaker to speak out against drug and alcohol abuse.
30. For the second leg of the U.S. Heartbreak Station tour, Cinderella co-headlined with David Lee Roth. Extreme was the opening act, and was later replaced by Thunder.
31. Tom once "hurt" his double neck at a show on the Hearbreak Station tour.
He says that so many things went wrong that night, starting with the
monitors being bad, the generator was bad, lights and sound were going on
and off. The guitars were out of tune all night and the presets in the
keyboards were changing in the middle of the songs, both an effect of the
power. The sustain pedal on his piano didn't work, and that was the last
straw. He got up on the stage riser and threw his double neck on the
main stage. oopsie :)
32. Kevin Valentine, the first drummer that took Fred's place when he left,
was also linked to Kiss in a couple of ways. He worked on four demos
with Paul Stanley, which ended up on the Kiss Hot in the Shade record,
and also worked with Gene Simmons on some demos.
Additional info: When Fred left before Still Climbing was released, the guys looked hard for a new drummer that not only played good, but fit well with them. Kevin Valentine, former drummer of the band Shadow KIng, was picked. Then he left, and Ray Brinkler played. Before they found a drummer, Fred came back to shoot 'Hot and Bothered' for "Wayne's World"
He left to "seek other opportunities", and I heard there were no hard feelings. Soon after, they all went off to do their own thing.
This was the lineup when they got signed.
