When Tony is asked where he's from, he often says, rather candidly, that he "came out of the hollers of West Virginia when [he] was twenty-five." Most of his family, including his father, his close and distant cousins, and practically all of his aunts and uncles,sing and play an instrument. His family reunions, which used to be more than 500 to 1000 members strong, would always include gospel family groups, bluegrass bands and pickers from all over West Virginia in Tony's family tree.
"Music has been a part of my life ever since I can remember," Tony says," and it always will be."
In 1993, Tony and The Dixie Flyer Band won a talent contest then called The True Value Country Showdown, sponsored by the local Clear Channel station, WTCR. He took his band all the way to the state finals, won $1000, and caught the attention of the radio station and literally thousands of country music fans throughout the Tri-State area (Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky). He would begin opening for every major act booked in the area (Dan Seals, Billy Ray Cyrus, Merl Haggard, Clay Walker, Brooks and Dunn, and the list goes on and on) and gaining a reputation as the hottest local singer around.
By 1994 early '95, Tony and his Dixie Flyer Band were touring heavily, hitting every fair and festival in the three states, and being booked by both his fan club president, Mattie Terry, and local professional booking agent, Bill Heaberland.
Fast foward: after Buddy Cannon,current producer of Kenny Chesney's records(then head of A&R at Polygram Records, Toby Keith's label), caught wind of the West Virginia sensation, the record label exec flew up to watch a few shows and invited him down to meet about doing a project for Polygram Records. That deal was not to be, but it started the slow wheel of fortune turning for Tony. He would move to town in '95, land his first major cut on John Michael Montgomery's record Leave a Mark in '96, and have his first hit single as a professional Nashville songwriter in '99 off of Doug Stone's album, titled after the tune Tony penned, "Make Up in Love."
Tony has credits on songs recorded by Trisha Yearwood, Craig Morgan, Trent Tomlinson, Bucky Covington, John Michael Montgomery, Doug Stone, The Stephens Sisters, Johnny Bush, Kevin Denny, Clay Walker, George Strait, and many other artists out of Nashville. He still writes and sings his own music, has an office on Music Row with Cherry Lane Nashville, contracts out to sing for other writers on the row who need a voice to complete their demonstration recordings, and, as an English Professor and doctoral student of Anglo-Saxon Literature at the university, he reads voraciously.
He has a house in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife, Debbie, and two children, Savannah (nine), and Logan (six).
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