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Here is Tom's bio...
Tom was inspired to become a musician after attending a Judas Priest show back in 1981. He was standing second row when Glenn Tipton touched Tom’s hand. From that magical moment on, Tom knew that he wanted to be a performer on stage playing in front of thousands of people.
His parents bought him his first guitar, a black Ibanez Les Paul Custom. After six months of diligent practicing, he joined a band called Muthas. They played pure Heavy Metal music and that was exactly what Tom wanted to do.
His first stage performance was in 1982. However, after a couple of shows he left and joined Freeze Frame, a band that consisted of his schoolmates. They practiced religiously and played nearly every club in the area, sometimes playing 3 or 4 shows in two days. After a while, they gained a reputation as being an incredible live band.
In 1985, Tom met Mat Sinner. Mat produced Freeze Frame’s second demo and they became a supporting act for Sinner on several occasions. Freeze Frame had a song entitled “Everybody Needs Somebody,” which later appeared on Sinner’s “Dangerous Charm“ album in 1987.
After winning several competitions, Freeze Frame parted ways in the spring 1987. Tom then joined Privacy, an AOR influenced band. They played Marlboro festivals in Germany. After some shows and studio work, he left the band later that year. Just after leaving Privacy, Tom received a call from Mat Sinner asking him to audition because they lost their guitarist. A few days after the audition, Tom became a member of Sinner.
Sinner’s new line up had only two and a half weeks to prepare for a European tour. On January 15th, 1988, Tom played his first live show with Sinner in Copenhagen. The tour finished in Zurich and was a huge success. This was the start of a long friendship and collaboration between Mat Sinner and Tom Naumann. Sinner took a break in 1989 and Mat Sinner was back with a solo album in 1990 entitled “Back to the Bullet” for BMG. Tom composed two songs on the album and also appeared on the record. Following up with a headlining European Tour and Open Air festivals that summer.
In 1992, Sinner reformed again and released “No More Alibis” ,toured Germany as headliner and performed at several festivals in Europe. They also supported Germany’s own Victory on their European tour that year. In the meantime, Tom started to produce several bands in his hometown and did a couple of studio sessions.
After numerous performances, Sinner took a second break to write for their next album, “Respect.” Mat and Tom went to New York City to collaborate with songwriter Marc Ribler (Mitch Malloy, Helix). After their trip to New York, Sinner hit the Wisseloord Studios in Hilversum, Netherlands.
When the album was finished, Mat and Tom promoted the record all over the world.
After the album’s release, Sinner hit the road again for another headlining tour in Germany and also joined Mr. Big’s European Tour as a supporting act in 1994. Countries visited were Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Czech Rep. Switzerland, Germany, Holland and England. The tour had many sold out shows and Sinner gained a larger fan base. Along with that, Sinner started getting major attention in Japan. In the summertime, Sinner supported Whitesnake and did a lot of Open-Air shows.
Soon after that, Sinner was back in the studio to record their next record, “Bottom Line.” After the release, Sinner was back on the road again to tour Europe with Savatage in
1996. They also did many headlining shows. Tom made a special guest appearance on The Heat’s “Goldfinger” album released by Milestone records.
When 1997 rolled around, Sinner released “Judgement Day”. The album was a huge success in Europe and Sinner followed up with a European tour along side German metalheads Gravedigger. After this tour, Sinner decided to tour Germany as a headlining act.
Later, Tom was asked to do a show with a band called Just Priest, who did classic Judas Priest cover songs. The vocalist in Just Priest was non other than Ralf Scheepers, former screamer of Tyran`Pace and Gamma Ray. Mat Sinner also joined Just Priest for this show as well. After this successful show, the three made up their minds to write some tunes together and Primal Fear was born.
Primal fear, with Esslingen’s own Klaus Sperling on drums, entered the studio and recorded their debut record. The album took Germany by storm and entered the charts at position 48 in February 1998. Primal Fear toured with Running Wild to promote their successful album.
In between tours, Sinner went into the studio to record “Nature of Evil”. After that, Primal Fear went back on the road. Festivals were booked for the summertime and the band played W.O.A., With Full Force, Dynamo Open Air, and Monsters of Rock. In the meantime, Sinner’s “ Nature of Evil” was released and entered the German charts at position 63.
Primal Fear settled on another European Tour in the late fall with Swedish band, Hammerfall. Then the band came back home in November and Sinner hit the road to support Deep Purple’s German tour in December. Primal Fear went back into the studio in February 1999 to record their second album called “Jaws of Death” and at that time they recorded “Breaker” for an Accept tribute release. Sinner also joined that release with their version of the classic metal anthem “Balls to the Wall.”
These were the last recordings for Tom with both bands. After its release “Jaws of Death” went straight into the German charts and reached number 49. Soon after its release, Primal Fear invaded festivals all over Europe.
In August 1999, Tom parted ways with Primal Fear and took a break from the music business.
Two years later, Tom performed with the German band Metalium for some summer festivals throughout Europe and he felt that his metal heart was still beating for more. In September 2001, he accompanied his buddies from Primal Fear to perform a one night only performance in Stuttgart. The band performed old Judas Priest stuff and Primal Fear tunes. Naumann is currently co-producing and playing guitar on the upcoming 2003 Sinner release.
Soon to be continued………………………….
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