LAS VEGAS
MARCH 12, 2026

STRANGER: Tom Marolda
LOCATION: Grape Street Café, 2120 Festival Plaza Drive #160, Las Vegas
THEME: Meeting the musician, songwriter and producer behind decades of top tunes

William Shatner’s cracking jokes. Stevie Wonder’s practicing. Everyone’s in high spirits, everything’s going great.

It’s Los Angeles, December 2013, and musician, songwriter and producer Tom Marolda is backstage at the 82nd Hollywood Christmas Parade.

Being surrounded by stars is business as usual for Tom. By this time he’s got decades of experience working with some of the music and movie industries’ biggest names: Cher. Sylvester and Frank Stallone. Imagine Dragons. Bon Jovi, especially Richie Sambora.

What’s unusual this time is the bad blood between once-best friend Tom and Richie. Things got messy about four years ago – Tom says Richie took the credit for a song they co-wrote, in the process screwing him out of not just money but also artistic recognition. Lawsuits were filed and settled, but the two haven’t spoken since then.

And now they’re here, both backstage. Richie spots Tom first.

“Motherfucker,” he says. Tom thinks Richie’s about to swing at him.

Tom’s telling me this tale over dinner on a mild night in Summerlin, Las Vegas. We’re at Grape Street Café, a restaurant Frank Stallone introduced him to, which became a fast favorite. He says it’s a rarity because you can’t find decent Italian food in the city, except for maybe one good pizza maker and a handful of valid pasta venues – this being one of them.

“Do you go by Anthony or Tony?” he asks.

I tell him I briefly tried out Tony in my teens. “A good Italian name,” he says with a smile. “My Grammy certification says Tony Marolda – they had to correct it.”

So what does he go by? “Tom, Tommy, Thomas. Whatever gets me a free dinner.”

That kind of gentle, smart quip will happen throughout the meal, and it gives some insight into Tom as a person from the get-go. He’s friendly and engaging from the start, is a first-class storyteller and has a roster of business partners and friends that would make any Hollywood agent jealous. Yet he’s not a name-dropper for the sake of it, and he’s modest. More than once he will say “to cut a long story short” when talking about his past.

Today, let’s keep the stories long. He deserves this free dinner.

And he’s right that this is decent Italian food, even if that’s hard to find in the city. My penne alla vodka with grilled chicken is simple but delicious. Tom’s having the jumbo cheese ravioli, four square envelope-sized slabs of romano, mozzarella and ricotta in pink sauce. When the waiter offers grated parmesan, Tom sits back and urges: “Let it snow.”

As the cheese falls, so does the conversation – back about 60 years, to where it all began.

Before he played the first note on any of his 8,000 and growing collection of songs, Tom’s tale begins in Trenton, New Jersey. “I come from a neighborhood where it was all mafia people. My father was an attorney and they would come to him when they were in jail, trying to throw favors at him, but we all said no, no, no. My friends were all wannabe gangsters. But at 11 years old, I wanted to try something else to get out of there. I started playing guitar.”

He took guitar lessons for six months and learned music theory: which chords fit certain notes, more of the mathematical and theoretical composition. “All the rules and regulations, which I totally love because to make something original you have to break the rules.”

After that he was self-taught, inspired by the likes of the Ventures – as an adult he’d befriend them through work – and the Beatles, who became popular when Tom was in his early teens.

Tom would play in bands, usually covering hits from already established groups. “I loved music but there was never a dime in it, but there was just something about it that felt right. And at some point, like 17 or 18, I got tired of playing other people’s music and started writing my own.”

He’s proud of The Toms, a one-man band that released an eponymous power-pop album in 1979 that got plenty of radio play and brought its creator acclaim. He now releases a new Toms album every year in April. He mentions across the table that the deadline for the 2026 release is almost here. “I have 12 songs recorded, but they’re not the way I want them yet.”

In Jersey, Tom also established a recording studio in the basement of his Mercerville home. Over a decade, it became the go-to for musicians in the area for its convenience and the fact that Tom could play all the instruments needed. “Everybody and their mother came through, the guys from Earth, Wind and Fire, the Clash, guys from Bruce Springsteen’s band, Bon Jovi, including Richie,” he says, reeling off marquee names like they’re just another visitor.

One of his first gigs in film and television, while still living on the east coast, was co-writing a song for the John Travolta movie “Stayin’ Alive” in 1983. It earned him a nomination at the 1984 Grammy Awards – no prize, but at least a nomination certificate, even if it did have to be reprinted because of the naming error the first time round.

Between the critical success and the industry connections, that was enough for Tom to move to Los Angeles in 1989, becoming a staff music writer for Paramount Pictures. He fell in love with the city during his visit to the Grammy ceremony, so moving wasn’t a tough choice.

Playing a more behind-the-scenes role in music also wasn’t a struggle, as by then he had children and didn’t want to leave for months at a time to tour as The Toms. “I enjoyed being on my own. I had the opportunity to go on tour but did not want to leave the family.” And pitching a one-man band to music venues and labels was a lot of work.

The career he developed led to work on many TV shows including “America’s Next Top Model,” “The Shield,” current Netflix hit “Bridgerton” and others.

The list of credits on feature films runs just as long, including “Rocky Balboa” and others with Sylvester Stallone and his brother Frank, who remains a close friend of Tom’s. Cher sang one of his songs on the soundtrack to the Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman movie “Days of Thunder,” coming about because Cher was dating Tom’s friend Richie Sambora.

There’s one movie in particular I want to ask about: 1989’s direct-to-video “Ninja Academy,” about a group of broadly written goofballs enrolling in LA’s best, well, Ninja Academy. Something about the film spoke to the absurd 10-year-old me watching it on VHS in 1990, and I’ve been honored to interview a couple of actors from it for Dining With Strangers.

I tell Tom that I’m just as grateful to dine with the man behind the movie’s music, a score and songs of genuine craft, especially an earworm of a song called “The Night I Spent The Week With You” that plays over the end credits. It’s a punchy number that Tom was inspired to write from British pop band ABC’s song “The Look of Love.” I dare say Tom’s is superior.

Tom’s tickled by the “Ninja Academy” connection between us and my interviews with actors Jack Fry and Robert Factor, and confides some eye-opening off-the-record stories about the making of the movie. The child whose mum let him rent the VHS tape in 1990 would have lost his mind at this part of the dinner.

And I realize that’s such a tease of a paragraph, so let’s move on. When I ask Tom which movie or TV song he’s most proud of, instantly he picks “Look Out For Number One” from the “Stayin’ Alive” soundtrack. Sly Stallone “said it’s one of the best songs he’d ever heard,” says Tom. “Because it taps into the human spirit; to look out for yourself, you’ve got to be a little stronger, a little smarter. You’ve got to look inward to what your heart is telling you.”

He adds, “I’ve had many disasters, many rejections. It’s part of the game, part of the career. I’ve been used to it from day one. But I also know that if you do the best that you can do, you have a better shot at the odds.” That includes a strict work ethic, he doesn’t drink or do drugs and woe betide any unprofessional musician that dares do either at work with Tom.

Looking out for number one also meant some heartbreak for Tom over the years.

He went through a divorce, then a second marriage, moved back to the east coast from LA for a while and eventually came back west, settling down in Las Vegas. His fiancée at the time fell in love with the city after seeing the famous Bellagio fountains in the movie “Ocean’s Eleven” and said they should move here. Tom liked the weather and the fact it was close to his friends Frank Stallone and Richie Sambora in LA. “Anything to get me out west.”

Although those two friendships have had their moments.

“I have no ego, the only thing I’m egotistic about is my band The Toms. When that first one was out, Frank took the album and recorded the whole thing over, started saying he wrote it. I disowned him at that point and wanted nothing to do with him. It was a really fucked-up thing to do and I let him know it. We had some physical fights about it.”

“So you punched Frank Stallone?”

“Oh, of course.”

“You were the Rocky to his Paulie.”

“I was the real Rocky,” he says with a knowing laugh.

“And another person I had it out with was Richie Sambora,” says Tom. The problem started around 2008 or 2009, when Richie asked Tom to help write a theme for the CBS entertainment show “The Insider.” Tom arrived at Richie’s house to find his friend passed out drunk in a chair – Richie was battling alcoholism, as his father had before him.

Tom waited, came back hours later, and the two got to work with acoustic guitars and tape recorders. CBS then said they didn’t want lyrics, which meant less money. Tom suggested they whisper instead – “Let’s get inside” – and they built a full production around that.

A month after Richie told Tom they wouldn’t use it, Tom heard his own song on television. When he called Richie out on it, he denied Tom had written it at all, crediting another writing partner instead. Tom had recording tapes as proof. He had video. Richie wouldn’t budge.

So Tom sued Richie, CBS, every affiliate station. They settled. Tom got his name on the track and a fraction of what Richie received. The song kept earning royalties for eight more months until CBS pulled it because of the lawsuit. And all this time Tom and Richie didn’t speak.

They were silent for years. Now we’re back in December 2013, at the 82nd Hollywood Christmas Parade. As Tom tells it, he hears someone backstage mention Stevie Wonder’s got a guest: Richie Sambora. “Oh shit, that must mean he’s in the building,” Tom thinks.

Seconds later, who comes out of a nearby door? It’s Richie.

He sees his former friend right away and says, “Motherfucker.”

Tom tenses up, thinking Richie’s going to start swinging, ready for a scrap. But Richie throws his arms out, pulling his buddy in for a hug, apologizing for what he did. “I’ve been calling you. Where you been? Everything’s cool. Right? Are you still mad at me about it?” asks Richie.

All the while William Shatner’s watching, thinking what’s up with these Jersey boys?

“You know, just as long as you admit it to me, I don’t care if you admit it to the world,” Tom tells Richie, who nods. Richie admits he was fucked-up drunk back then, how he was screwing up royally, not just with Tom but with his wife and the rest of his life. He’s sorry.

“Richie, you should listen to me more often.”

Friends again, the duo often meet up at Sambora’s LA home to play and write music. Tom also hangs out often with Frank Stallone when in the city, and they talk on the phone weekly.

Here in Summerlin, he has a recording studio that’s had visits from Rod Stewart, Imagine Dragons and other notables. Tom also teaches music to people of all ages. “I like to pass on all my musical knowledge to anybody who wants to learn. Kids starting bands, seniors bored out of their gourd, people who have writing or recording a song on their bucket list. I don’t make a lot of money out of it, but I don’t care. It’s rewarding sharing all my knowledge.”

Tom works every day of the week, whether that’s creating another hit for an artist, perfecting a score for a movie or television show, teaching kids and adults how to play music, recording, working on his own music as The Toms, and all that on top of being a dad.

It’s a full life. And right now, it needs dessert. It arrives, and I’m having a basic but well-made lemon sorbet. Tom’s having an apple tart with ice cream and caramel sauce. “That’s fruit, that’s healthy. It’s my fruit that I never get enough of,” he says.

We linger over our dishes. I could listen to his stories for hours, but dinner’s coming to an end. I’ll hang back to pay the check and get my Uber back to the Strip, so Tom gets up to leave.

I stand to shake his hand, thanking him for coming out.

“A highlight of my year so far. This was unbelievable,” he says.

Same, Tom, same.

Well, that’s his story, and it’s still playing out. So if you’re dancing at a club, or you’re waiting in a doctor’s office, or watching your favorite movie and hear a tune you love, check the credits. Because you never can tell. Tom Marolda just might have written it.