With a Little Help from My Friends

Hey there, Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew has been digging deep into the crates and spinning Tom Keifer's take on "With a Little Help from My Friends" off the deluxe edition of his solo album The Way Life Goes, and man, this one hits different when you know the backstory. You all know the original from the Beatles, with Ringo taking the lead, and then Joe Cocker turned it into that soulful, church-like anthem that still raises the hairs on your arms. Keifer and his #keiferband took that Cocker arrangement and kicked it up into something grittier, more hard rock, with that raspy edge that only Tom can deliver. Savannah Keifer, his wife and bandmate, suggested it back when they were still rehearsing for the solo shows, before they'd even hit a stage together. She saw the theme of friendship and support fitting the encore slot perfectly. Tom was hesitant at first because Cocker has always been one of his idols, and he didn't want to step on sacred ground. But once they started working it up in the room, it took on a life of its own. They made it their own thing, and it became the first real creative spark between Tom and the touring band. From that point on, they played it every single night in the encore, and the fans kept hollering for a studio version. Eventually, they got it done in Nashville with producer Vance Powell, the same guy who's worked with Jack White and Chris Stapleton, and it landed on the 2017 deluxe package of The Way Life Goes alongside a couple of reworked takes on "Nobody's Fool" with Lzzy Hale from Halestorm. There's even a documentary on the bonus DVD called The Way Life's Goin' that shows the sessions and the chemistry in the studio. Tom has talked about how that song started meaning more to him after all the years of fighting through his vocal cord issues. He was told more than once he might never sing again, went through the surgeries and the long recovery, and the support from his family, his friends in the band, and the fans who stuck around through the canceled shows and the rough nights made that lyric feel personal. In one interview he put it out there that the song was for the people who had his back through all of it. It's that kind of real talk that makes the track land harder than just another cover. The Zoo Crew has been getting requests for it from you Zoo Freaks, and it fits right in with the freeform album rock we keep spinning over here at THE ZOO.

That brings us around to how Tom Keifer even got to the point of recording his own records and covering a Beatles classic with that much heart. He grew up in Springfield, Pennsylvania, in a house where music was around. His mom played piano and his dad played trumpet, though they didn't push it on him constantly. Still, he picked up a guitar when he was eight years old. Early lessons were more like song lessons than pure technique drills. The teacher would show up with books full of Beatles tunes, American folk songs, and some gospel, and Tom had to sing along while he learned the chords. That stuck with him. Then the late sixties and seventies hit, and he heard Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Aerosmith, Humble Pie, and the blues, and it all clicked. He wanted an electric guitar and started teaching himself those licks. High school was the cover band circuit around Philadelphia and South Jersey. He played in groups that did other people's songs night after night, and for a while that was the lifestyle. There were some rough stretches with substance issues during those years, and he thought about dropping out to chase music full time. His mom made a deal with him: stay in school and graduate, and she would get him a Gibson Les Paul. He did it, got the guitar, and that became a turning point. After high school he worked odd jobs to get by, walking race horses at the tracks and delivering film that needed developing at places like Fotomat. Those were the lean years while he started writing his own songs and figuring out that playing covers forever wasn't the end goal. He wanted to do original material the way the bands he looked up to did it.

The Cinderella story starts with a chance meeting that sounds like something out of a rock documentary. It was Halloween night, and Tom was in a bathroom stall at a club complaining about the bass player in the band he was with at the time. He turned around and asked the guy next to him if he played bass. That guy was Eric Brittingham. They jammed the next day on some Kiss covers, and not long after that Tom and Eric put Cinderella together with the idea that they would focus on their own songs. They named the band after spotting the title of an old movie in a cable guide one night while flipping channels. Early on Gene Simmons from Kiss took an interest and tried to help them get a deal, but it didn't pan out. Then Jon Bon Jovi caught them at the Empire Rock Club in Philadelphia while he was in town working on his own record. Bon Jovi liked what he heard, told his A&R guy at Mercury to forget the rough demos and go see them live, and that was the break. They got a developmental deal, wrote more songs, and ended up signed. Night Songs came out in 1986, went triple platinum, and the whole thing took off like a tornado. Tom has described those years as the band getting picked up and carried on a wild ride. Later the vocal problems hit, the partial paralysis of a vocal cord that doctors said couldn't be fixed with surgery or medicine. He had to retrain his voice from the ground up with a coach. That long recovery is part of why the solo years and albums like The Way Life Goes feel like a second chapter. The rootsy blues-rock feel on that record, the heartland edge mixed with the old Cinderella grit, shows a guy who never stopped writing and playing even when the odds looked bad.

If you want to dig deeper into Tom's world, check out his official website at tomkeifer.com, where you can find the full story on The Way Life Goes deluxe edition and the rest of the catalog. Catch the official updates on Facebook at TomKeiferOfficial, Instagram at tomkeiferofficial, and X at @TomKeiferMusic. There's also an active fan group on Facebook called Tom Keifer & Cinderella where folks share concert photos, videos, and stories at Tom Keifer & Cinderella group. The Zoo Crew will keep spinning the deep cuts and the stories that go with them for all you Zoo Freaks out there. Keep the requests coming and rock on.