Rock and Roll Dreams Come True

We all had our rock-star dreams, didn't we? I wanted to be Elton John, flamboyantly banging the piano. Perhaps you imagined yourself flailing away at the drum kit like Keith Moon or Carl Palmer, or wailing on lead guitar like Hendrix or Page or Clapton or Eddie Van Halen. And who didn't want to be a frontman -- like Robert Plant, Bono, Steven Tyler or Freddie Mercury?

For most of us, the dream ended when we realized that even if we had musical talent, we didn't have enough (for many, the dream lives on when we play Guitar Hero or Rock Band). But some of us find other outlets. Take Tommy DeCarlo who used his MySpace page to post videos of himself singing Boston songs. That got him a little closer to the dream, if only because he wasn't pretending in front of a mirror with a hairbrush for a microphone -- he found a real audience.

But that wasn't all it got him. Boston is preparing to hit the road this summer for its first tour since 2004, and its first since the suicide of original lead singer Brad Delp last year. Founder Tom Scholz replaced Delp with two singers: Michael Sweet, formerly of Stryper, and DeCarlo, formerly of MySpace, who first joined the band at its tribute to Delp last year after Scholz saw his MySpace page.

"I haven't heard anyone else sing like that in 35 years," Scholz said of DeCarlo, who does indeed sound uncannily like Delp.

And so, if a guy whose day job is credit manager at Home Depot can end up living his rock-star dreams well after he turns 40, there might be hope for the rest of us.

Maybe you'll get to be Eddie Vedder yet.

Comments

[K.]

Michael Sweet is not "formerly" of Stryper, he is still with them.