Thomas Ellis Gimbel (born November 1, 1959) is an American rock musician and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a member of the rock band Foreigner from 1992 to 1993 and again from 1995 to 2021.

Early life

Born in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

, Gimbel started playing drums as a young child, beginning lessons in third grade. Later he got interested in the guitar. He played flute and guitar and was lead vocalist at

Northfield Mount Hermon School Northfield Mount Hermon School, often called NMH, is a co-educational preparatory school in Gill, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is a member of the Eight Schools Association. Present day NMH offers nearly 200 courses, including AP and ...

in a band called Your Sister's A** with Matt Thurber (

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

; who later played in The Rings), Travis Hudelson (drums; who later played with Rich Deans), Jim Steinwedell (lead guitar; who later played in Panzer A, Steven Harriman (lead guitar), and Robert Burns (bass). In the following year, he continued to play in bands at school, applying to music schools on the east coast. After high school, Gimbel attended the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

in Boston where he majored in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

and

arranging In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

. Не met guitarist Jon Butcher with whom he toured the United States. He played with Butcher for four years recording three studio albums for

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

. One of the songs he co-wrote with Butcher called "The Ritual" was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

Career

Aerosmith

Gimbel became a touring musician with

Aerosmith Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whi ...

from 1989 until 1995, performing

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, and backing vocals. During this time, he appeared in a "

Wayne's World "Wayne's World" was originally a recurring sketch from the NBC television series ''Saturday Night Live''. It evolved from a segment titled "Wayne's Power Minute" (1987) on the CBC Television series '' It's Only Rock & Roll'', as the main characte ...

" sketch on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'', and in the movie ''

Wayne's World 2 ''Wayne's World 2'' is a 1993 American comedy film directed by Stephen Surjik and starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as hosts of a public-access television cable television show in Aurora, Illinois. The film is the sequel to ''Wayne's World'' ( ...

'', where they performed two songs.

Foreigner

After touring with Aerosmith on the

Pump Tour The Pump Tour was a concert tour by American rock band Aerosmith that lasted twelve months, from mid-October 1989 to mid-October 1990. The tour was put on in support of the band's second consecutive multi-platinum album ''Pump'', released in Sept ...

from 1989 to 1990, Gimbel then joined up with Foreigner in 1992. He returned to Aerosmith in 1993–1994 for the

Get a Grip Tour The Get a Grip Tour was a concert tour by American hard rock band Aerosmith that lasted over eighteen months, from early June 1993 to mid-December 1994. The tour was put on in support of the band's third consecutive multi-platinum album ''Get ...

and later rejoined Foreigner in 1995, he has remained a member of Foreigner since that time. Gimbel played

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

, saxophone, and flute, as well as keyboards and backing vocals. In March 2021 Foreigner's bassist Jeff Pilson announced Gimbel's retirement from the band.

Personal life

When he is not on the road with Foreigner, Gimbel plays

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, and enjoys playing a wide variety of instruments. Thom has three older brothers and sisters and is among many others related to TV producer and

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

winner

Roger Gimbel Roger Gimbel (March 11, 1925 – April 26, 2011) was an American television producer who specialized in television movies. Many of Gimbel's television films dealt with real-life events, including '' Chernobyl: The Final Warning'', '' S.O.S. Titani ...

(1925–2011).

External links

* http://www.4eigner.net/theband/199506coro-thomgimbel.html * http://www.trht.net/artist/Thom+Gimbel Living people American multi-instrumentalists Musicians from Boston Berklee College of Music alumni Aerosmith members Foreigner (band) members Northfield Mount Hermon School alumni 1959 births {{US-rock-musician-stub