Professional Guitarist Tony Obrohta
From Tony Obrohta - Currently lead guitarist for The Wreckers. - Check out my website
The day I saw Pete Townsend in small town Illinois come sliding across the TV set at me I knew I would be a guitar player. I knew before that but the first sentence makes for a better story. The day that Muddy Waters died I stared at the Chicago Tribune’s front page picture for what felt like an hour and I knew that I would become a guitar player.
The hours spent in the local music store that was more Archie’s barbershop than music store taught me how to become the person that becomes a musician. The high school music director that shot down my request for a music theory class because I “wasn’t worth his time” taught me how to develop the perseverance of a musician. The wedding band that gigged for almost every weekend from age 13 through 18 made me learn about the sacrifices a musician must be willing to make.
I went to college, where I was completely broken down and rethought everything in the classical form. I heard Miles Davis for the first time, which took me a year to figure out. I ended up with a Bachelor of Music degree, and I thought I had it made. Two weeks later, on my first night in Nashville I saw Albert Lee and Ray Flack on the same stage and I wanted to go back to school. I ended up in a van pulling a trailer instead, going up and down the east coast playing 4 or 5 nights a week in–shall we say–interesting venues? Oh yeah, the southwest has some very lovely nightclubs and personages as well.
Got what I call my first taste of being a real Nashville musician playing in Wal-Mart parking lots with a new act for one summer. Missed out on a few auditions along the way and played the Nashville beer halls until I landed a gig as Suzy Bogus’s guitar player. She was so kind.
I spent five years crawling around stages and traveling in planes, trains, automobiles, ships, waking up early for radio visits, and everything else that is being a professional guitar player with Jo Dee Messina.
Then I went to play for Wynonna, who has been the next step in an ongoing progression that is my musical career to this point. It sure is fun to do what you love and have the word play in your job title. It sure is fun to be a musician.
Check out my solo on Wynonna’s DVD - Scenes From a Lifetime.
I am currently playing for The Wreckers. See you out there.
