Episode 80: Tommy La Verdi of 21 Guns, L.R.S. & A=440

Tommy La Verdi is an American lyricist/songwriter originally from Los Angeles, CA (now residing in Norway) with a recent history of hit singles throughout Europe and Asia. Numerous top 10 hits with K-Pop Legends DBSK, CSJH, Super Junior, and Boa.

After moving to Norway he has dominated the Scandic music scene with five number-one singles in Norway and Top 10’s in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden all with different artists in a wide variety of musical genres. Newer projects include multi-platinum Norwegian Dj Tungevaag , Swedish Dj John De Sohn, and Scandinavian Boy Band sensation, Marcus and Martinus. La Verdi recently co-wrote three tracks with Mega Star DJ Alan Walker, which currently has over a billion YouTube views and Spotify streams.

But long before all that he was tabbed to sing with Casablanca recording artist A=440, whose debut was released in 1986. Touted by Donna Summers, whose guitar player Nick Brown formed A=440, the band only saw marginal success and faded away shortly thereafter. The album remains a favorite among hi-tech AOR fans.

In the late 1980’s he found his way to the band 21 Guns with Scott Gorham (guitar) of Thin Lizzy fame and a debut was eventually released in 1992, garnering acclaim from the AOR and melodic rock world, the album still finds its way into conversation today when the subject of cult-favorite AOR and melodic hard rock records comes up.

After thinking he left the melodic hard rock world behind, he was contacted in 2014 to do a project that was simply named L.R.S., which was short for La Verdi, (Josh) Ramos & (Michael) Shotton. The album had shades of Journey in its sound but a follow-up was not meant to be.