From a decades long battle with alcoholism, which led him down the dark path of incarceration and homelessness, to finding sobriety and accomplishing his lifelong dream to professionally record his music, Songwriter Tommy Botz’s story is both a cautionary tale and an uplifting journey of redemption.
With much of today’s modern country music often glamorizing cold beers and heartache in an ever-continuous chain as a way to deal with pain, Tommy Botz is instead bringing his true-to-life struggle and its consequences to life through his music.
Though prominent in many of the songs off his latest release “Family & Friends”, a powerful light is shined on his struggle with the bottle and the lives it can impact in his single “Maggie”.
Botz has also penned a heartbreaking yet beautiful ballad in “Teddy Bear”, a song written for a fellow inmate while locked up in an Ohio penitentiary. “He knew that I wrote songs and came to my cell in tears one night because he just found out that his little girl had passed away” Says Botz, “His wife was losing her mind questioning her faith and he asked if i could write something for his daughter’s memory.
Additionally, Singer Rose Marie, Tommy’s fiancé who has stood by his side for 30 years, sings on the powerful gospel song “He’s Coming Back”.
LISTEN TO “HE’S COMING BACK” HERE
Now sober for over 16 years, you can see Tommy has truly come a long way. Since finishing his incarceration, he’s been off the streets for good – living quietly at The Ed Keating Center, a halfway house in Ohio, after having “crawled through the doors” on May 3rd, 2004 as a “homeless drunk with nowhere to go”.
There he met a kind old man named Jack Mulhall who told him that if he followed some direction he would never have to live like that again. “I wasn’t always a homeless drunk. I had dreams and goals like every young man has. I always loved country and gospel music.” says Botz, whose early interest led him to become the lead singer in two bands – The Chevells and The Caesars 5 early in his music career, winning a Battle of the Bands and winding up with an RCA recording contract. But after the loss of their guitar player and their contract being pulled, Botz’s drinking got worse and soon penitentiaries became a way of life.
From broken marriages to lost jobs, no car, and no license – living to drink and drinking to live became his routine. Finally, with several years of sobriety and working under his belt – he made the decision to go for his dream and finally record some of the over 200+ songs he had written over the years.
“One night while I was praying I heard in my heart – go for your dream and I will put someone in your life who believes in your music”, and after contacting Ante Up Studios owner Michael Seifert, the two began a collaboration that would ultimately become his 6-song EP “Family and Friends”.
Hear the full record at – http://www.adrunksdreamcomestrue.com
