The young artist that went from playing in his parent’s
garage to being identified as a rock god among the youths takes the world by
storm as his very first album debuts this February. He has kindly agreed to be interviewed
by Sound Alive on his journey from the modern low life from the bad part of
town, to a man who is recognized
worldwide for his talent. Harrison, a 25 year old pure bred Londoner started
with nothing. He was raised by his father who became a compulsive alcoholic after
his mother’s death and despite his father issues, he still inspired young Harrison.
It wasn’t the booze or the drugs or even the late night gambling that inspired
Harrison, it was his father’s passion for music. Harrison recalls his father
when he picked up a guitar and says that “he always gripped it tightly and for
a few moments that his fingers made the strings buzz, the world seem a smaller
and kinder place. However after he put the guitar down, he freed his hands for
more cider.” When asked about the hardships that faced him, Harrison didn’t
mind his father as after his mother passed away they became almost strangers
that shared a living room, but what he did mind was all the opportunities that he
didn’t take when it came to music. Harrison told us “I started to learn to play
guitar too late and that messed up my whole life, I watched my dad have 10
minute ramps on the guitar once a week and instead of learning, I just sat
around waiting for my dad’s next drunk performance. Even though my old man was
who he was, I still looked up to him as a reminder to never become like him. I
don’t want to spend my life singing The Beatles songs in my boxers”
“I picked up a guitar for the first time when I was 16 –
at that age, boys cared more about girls than instruments but for me at 16
something changed in my life. After my father’s death, learning to play guitar
was the only way to keep at least one of my parents alive. I was a 16 year old
orphan that was always at the wrong place at the wrong time.” Harrison recalls
how he first got into crime because of his search for acceptance and lack of
family. When asked about what he did after he turned 18 and left his foster
family, Harrison simply replied “F***k all and nothing.” He went on to tell us
that he regretted not trying to make it as an artist from an earlier age, that
way he would have kept out of trouble. Harrison, through the ages 18 to 21, was
arrested multiple times for driving under influence, robbery and possession of
drugs which when asked about he said “Yes, I’m not going to hide it because
people should know me, as millions of people around the world look up to me.
They shouldn't and it is pretty messed up that teenage girls and boys look up
to me and call me a ‘hard ass’ or ‘bad boy’ as if it was something to be proud
of that I spent most of my adolescence getting arrested.” And so Harry Eaborn
became Tom Harrison, the garage at Harrison’s father’s place that became his
when he turned 18, became their practice space. Harrison added “we always had
one thing on our mind: ‘what trouble can we cause now’ and it was hard for us
to stop feeling like this as our life styles changed so much. James and I
started working at Guitar Guitar which was a store that sold every musical
instrument a guy needed to start a band. I struggled with paying for the house
that my folks left me and so James and I lived together which helped me and the
future of my career.” It was when Harrison turned 22 that the major changes
started to occur: he got help quitting his drug addiction and James and him
only visit the pubs to celebrate new singles to keep their alcohol levels low.
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