Thomas O'Keefe (born January 22, 1964) is a
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
musician and author, best known for his work with
Antiseen,
Whiskeytown and
Train
A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...
.
Early years
O'Keefe was born in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...
, and lived in Connecticut until the age of 14. His family moved to
Mooresville, NC (Metro Charlotte) in 1978.
Thomas O'Keefe attended
South Iredell High School,
finishing in 1982.
After discovering
punk rock
Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...
, O'Keefe joined and started a number of bands.
Judas Bullethead and Antiseen
O'Keefe and Jeff Clayton started
Jeff Leopard in 1983 and released ''Jeff Leopard Live at the Yellow Rose'' in 1984. Jeff Leopard's first show was in
Boone, North Carolina
Boone is a town in and the county seat of Watauga County, North Carolina, United States. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, Boone is the home of Appalachian State University and the headquarters of the disaster and me ...
, on October 1, 1983.
Other North Carolina bands on that bill were N.R.G,
Antiseen and
Fetchin Bones.
O'Keefe tried out for the lead guitar player of Antiseen in 1984, but it never came to be. "I was too broke to afford an amp", O'Keefe stated in a mid-1990s Antiseen interview.
was the spinoff of Jeff Leopard. O'Keefe recorded it as
Judas Leopard, his Jeff Leopard stage name. Clayton recorded as "Bullethead" an old nickname given to him by Joe Young.
"If they Itch, Scratch Em" was released in 1987 and reviewed in ''Spin'' in 1987. All instruments were played by Clayton and O'Keefe, even though neither was a drummer. The follow-up "Honest, It's just a Cold Sore", was released in 1988. "Honest" was recorded with a lot of studio musicians, including members of the band
Black Acid Disco. After Judas Bullethead played a few shows, the band released "The King is Dead / Oh Baby" in 1989 and went on hiatus. A long talked about "Greatest Hits" CD is still a possibility.
O'Keefe officially joined Antiseen in 1988 and recorded the ''
Blood of Freaks'' EP. Antiseen recorded over 20 records during the early 1990s. The band toured Europe three times and played concerts all over the US, including a cancelled show in Los Angeles on the day of the
LA Riots Los Angeles riots or protests may refer to:
*1992 Los Angeles riots, following the acquittal of police officers accused of using excessive force against Rodney King
*Watts riots, of 1965, following an arrest for drunk driving in the Watts neighborh ...
.
After a very short stint as the band's manager, he stopped playing in Antiseen in the fall of 1995.
Tour manager
O'Keefe first worked as a tour manager with
Lustre in 1996. (
Antiseen drummer
Greg Clayton was the drummer of Lustre.) After Lustre was dropped by
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...
, O'Keefe worked with
D Generation,
, Stir,
Mandy Moore
Amanda Leigh "Mandy" Moore (born April 10, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She rose to fame with her 1999 debut single "Candy (Mandy Moore song), Candy", which peaked at number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot ...
and
Tonic.
O'Keefe started tour-managing
Train
A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...
as their debut CD ''Train'' was just hitting. Since 1999, Train has played hundred of concerts in the US, Canada, South America, Europe and Australia.
He also toured with Rockstar Supernova in 2007 with
Johnny Colt,
Lucas Rossi,
Gilby Clarke
Gilbert J. Clarke (born August 17, 1962) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is known for having a three-year tenure as the rhythm guitarist of Guns N' Roses, replacing Izzy Stradlin in 1991 during the Use Your ...
and
Tommy Lee
Thomas Lee (born Thomas Lee Bass; October 3, 1962) is an American musician who co-founded and plays drums for the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. He also founded rap metal band Methods of Mayhem and has pursued solo musical projects.
Early ...
.
Train finished its 2.5-year-long tour for the ''
Save Me, San Francisco'' CD in December 2011. On that tour, Train performed 350 concerts in 30 countries, ending with a show in
Guangzhou, China
Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
on December 10, 2011.
After 13 years, O'Keefe quit working with Train in September 2012 and moved to
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
, where he worked at
Crush Management
Crush Music is a New York City and Los Angeles based full-service talent management firm that focuses on managing musical artists, such as Miley Cyrus, Sia, Kesha, Green Day, Panic! at the Disco, Lorde, Train (band), Train, Weezer, and Fall Out Bo ...
Nashville Office. He worked with
Ashley Monroe and
Striking Matches. In 2014, as the Crush Nashville office closed, O'Keefe went back to tour managing, working with
Sia,
Dashboard Confessional and
Third Eye Blind.
O'Keefe is currently the tour manager for
Weezer
Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Brian Bell (guitar, keyboards, backing ...
.
Other projects
O'Keefe played with ANTISEEN for their 20th, 25th and 30th anniversary shows in Charlotte. They recorded a live album called ''LIVE POSSUM'' in 2013 with the classic Antiseen lineup of Clayton, Young, O'Keefe, and Clayton.
O'Keefe and Jeff Clayton reunited Judas Bullethead for the first time in 25 years and performed at the Antiseen 30th anniversary show in October 2013. They played two shows in North Carolina in 2019 and are planning re-releasing the three EPs that are long out of print in 2020.
O'Keefe was an adjunct Professor at Segue 61, a local music college in Nashville which is affiliated with
Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina.
O'Keefe's first book, "Waiting to Derail, Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown - Alt Country's Brillant Wreck"" was released by Skyhorse Publishing on June 26, 2018.
Personal life
O'Keefe married his longtime girlfriend Stephanie Marriott on October 2, 1999, in
Blowing Rock, North Carolina, and they live in
Green Hills in Nashville, Tennessee. Their daughter, Sophia, was born in Raleigh in October 2007.
Discography with Antiseen
LPs
* ''HONOUR AMONG THIEVES''
* ''RAW SHIT''
* ''NOISE FOR THE SAKE OF NOISE''
* ''DESTRUCTO BLITZKRIEG''
* ''GG ALLIN & ANTiSEEN: MURDER JUNKIES''
* ''SOUTHERN HOSTILITY''
* ''EAT MORE POSSUM''
* TPOS release
10-inch records
* ''Hell''
CDs
* ''GG ALLIN & ANTiSEEN:MURDER JUNKIES''
* ''SOUTHERN HOSTILITY''
* ''NOISE FOR THE SAKE OF NOISE'' (ALSO RELEASED IN EUROPE ON ZUMA LABEL)
* ''THE DESTRUCTO YEARS''
* ''GG ALLIN & ANTiSEEN:MURDER JUNKIES''
* ''EAT MORE POSSUM''
ZUMA/SAFEHOUSE
* ''HELL''
* ''SOUTHERN HOSTILITY/EAT MORE POSSUM''
Cassettes
* LIVE AT THE PARK ELEVATOR
* GG ALLIN AND ANTISEEN
* THE DESTRUCTO YEARS
* SOUTHERN HOSTILITY
* EAT MORE POSSUM
8-track tapes
* ''ANTiSEEN CONQUERS THE NORTH'' (INCLUDES WXCI RADIO BROADCAST 7" AS WELL AS 6 EXTRA TRACKS)
7-inch singles and EPs
* ''BLOOD OF FREAKS''
* ''WXCI RADIO BROADCAST''
* ''TWO HEADED DOG/CAUSE I LOVE YOU''
* ''KILL THE BUSINESS'' (SPLIT w/RANCID VAT)
* ''WALKING DEAD/HAUNTED HOUSE''
* ''MY GOD CAN BEAT UP YOUR GOD''
* ''PSYCHO KILLER/HEAVY MUD''
* ''TODAY YOUR LOVE/THE WITCH''
* ''IT LOOKS GOOD FOR THEM TO CARE/FUCK ALL Y'ALL''
* ''DATE RAPE'' (SPLIT w/RANCID VAT)
* ''FORNICATION/I CAN'T CONTROL MYSELF''
* ''THE EVIL ONES''
* ''GG ALLIN & ANTiSEEN''
* ''BARBECUED BRAINS'' (BOOTLEG)
* ''THE VAULT OF ANTiSEEN''
* ''WE GOT THIS FAR (WITHOUT YOU)/(WE WILL NOT) REMEMBER YOU'' (SUB POP)
* ''RAID OVER EUROPE'' /TEAR IT UP
* ''LIVE IN THE FATHERLAND''
* ''I'VE AGED TWENTY YEARS IN FIVE''
* ''MASTERS OF THE SKY/1969''
* '' DEEDS OF THE DAMNED'' (SPLIT w/RANCID VAT)
* ''CACTUS JACK'' (SPLIT w/SEDUCER)
* '' 1+2'' (JAPANESE 7")
* ''BLOOD OF FREAKS'' (reissue)
References
External links
Thomas O'Keefe Facebook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okeefe, Thomas
Musicians from Raleigh, North Carolina
American punk rock bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
1964 births
Living people
Guitarists from North Carolina
20th-century American bass guitarists
People from Green Hills, Tennessee
Musicians from Nashville, Tennessee
20th-century American male musicians