Thomas Howard Lichtenstein

Thomas Howard LichtensteinBorn in the 1960s in the back of a Cadillac. Parents were flower children age but notflower children. More like nerd children.Hung out with all the famous rock stars of the 70's: Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, JimMorrison, The Who, Jackson Browne, etc.Then he woke up and realized it was all a dream.Wandered off to L.A. in the 80's where he spent months on the beach in SantaMonica contemplating his navel.Attended a now defunct music school at the same time as Michael Jackson.Got vocal coaching from the same coaches as Stevie Wonder, but that didn't seemto help. Took a few dance and acting classes and went to a few auditions where hegot so nervous he threw up. This did not help with the audition process.Formed a band with fellow defunct school mates and started playing at biker barsand yuppy bars around Los Angeles county.Had a lot of beer spilled on him. Witnessed several interesting bar fights while tryingto play his Roland D-50 and Yamaha DX-7 keyboards and sing at the same time.An agent offered the band a 3 month gig in Kyoto, Japan and promised they wouldlive in a "mansion" while they stayed in Japan. Went to Japan and discovered thatthe local meaning of the word mansion is "tiny apartment".Cramped quarters led to personality clashes and band broke up with much acrimonyat the end of the 3 months. Had blown money on beer and snacks, so he returned toJapan several times to learn karate and Japanese language. Huh?Met Megumi in Osaka and was smitten.Married in the U.S. in 1995 but went to Japan to have a wedding party. Neverreturned to the US, but some part of him feels sad about that.Started co-writing songs and singing for Konami games (DDR, DrumMania,GuitarFreaks) and also as the announcer for the games. Favorite part is trying tocrack up the guys in the sound booth with weird voices and cultural references theycan't understand...Continued playing piano and singing in hotel lounges every night for years andyears. Worst experience: Had to perform Billy Joel's "Honesty" 5 times in one night.Finally changed the arrangement to a 40's swing version because he was sick of it. That was actually kinda cool...