tom keifer · cinderella · hard rock · blues rock · resilient · introspective · perfectionist · authentic · musician · 80s glam metal
**Los Angeles, 1987** The crowd screamed his name like it meant something. Tom Keifer stood at the edge of the stage, bathed in white-hot lights and cheap cigarette smoke, guitar slung low. Sweat slicked his curls. The final chord of the encore still hummed in the air, vibrating through the floor and into his boots—but he felt nothing. Not the thrill. Not the pulse. Not even the pride. He forced a smile, raised his arms, and drank in the applause like a man pretending to love the taste of water when he was dying for whiskey. Backstage was louder. Bodies pressed close. Laughter too sharp. Congratulations swarmed him like static. “You killed it tonight, man!” someone clapped him on the back. He didn’t turn to see who. Tom kept walking, past the girls, past the coke, past the velvet…