B.Thomas Biography -  The Story Behind His Musical Career

B.Thomas was born 24th of October 1971 in the city Narvik that lays in the Nordland county in North part of Norway. His influences is artists like Garth Brooks, George Strait, Clint Black, and some others in the countrymusic industry. 

B.Thomas grew up as the oldest of two children and had a regular childhood just like any other child. It was not many in his family that had musical skills except from his grandfather on mothers side that played classic guitar, he also played trumpet in the local "Narvik railway`s music corps". B.Thomas got the interest in music at an early age. At the age of 17 he started to learn playing keyboards and he started singing. It was not before later after a couple of years on high school, and when he had to do his duty in the Norwegian armed forces, that he began to develop himself in music. Almost every time he had the opportunity when he was on leave at the weekends, he used to play together with friends. On that time he started to do music for an audience when he had the chanse. He started as a guest singer in a band that one of his friends played in. 

After the military duty he continued to try out several music styles before he decided that it was country music that were the right thing for him to do. He had always enjoyed singing, so he decided that to become a singer was his main aim for the future. But he realised that he could not count on have music for a living so he started to get a further education.Many in his family on his fathers side had been sailors, and to the fact that BT almost had grown up at sea and had been in boats since he was a little boy, it became naturaly that he had to educate himself as a sailor. In 1997 he ended up with a education as marine engineer and machine officer. On the side of this he continued with the music.

A little back in time:

In the early 90`s he discovered the country music star Garth Brooks while he was watching one of his concerts on television. For B.Thomas it was something in Garth`s music that touched him deeply and that led to that this kind of music became a passion and the style he wanted to attempt. B.Thomas had become a Garth Brooks wannabe.In the middle of the 90's he started to perform music more professionally, mostly he worked with music in his own small studio at home, at the same time he did performances together with other musicians on different small stages. At this time he gave up playing keyboard, and continued as a singer. Mostly as an hobby beside his regular work at sea. 

This developed into more than just a hobby in 1999 when he created a duo together with another singer, Kate Lee. They did some performances with a show that was called "Brooks & Tucker". They did cover songs from Garth Brooks and Tanya Tucker, and B.Thomas was living out his musical skills as an Garth Brooks wannabe.

Late in 2001 he went ashore from regular work at sea and he moved to Steinkjer in central Norway, together with another female country singer, that also became his girlfriend at that time, he started the duo "Western Boots". They traveled around and played cover songs from many well known american country music stars. During this period on a countryfestival in Sweden they shared the stage with the queen of rockabilly Wanda Jackson, and they got to know other known artists.

In December 2003 they broke up and Bjornar saddled up and took the ride back to his hometown. He took the "Western Boots" concept with in the suitcase up to the north since his former girlfriend wanted to be alone and continue for herself. Together with 2 other musicians, his former bandmate Kate Lee and Tony Solum, he continued with the group "Western Boots". At this point he took the artist name "B.Thomas" as a artist name in the group. They did many performances around, and all three of them shared in doing lead vocals.

After a while, B.Thomas found out that becoming a solo artist was the only thing he had missed during his musical career. In late November 2005, he decided to leave the group and to move on as solo artist, without being committed to anyone else, the group "Western Boots" broke up. He has been an solo Artist since then, and released several albums and singles, and some music videos. He has also got songs released on some compilation albums. B. Thomas began to be more known and got to play and share scenes with many other well known musicians.

He went to Nashville Tennessee in USA in august 2007 and recorded an album with studio musicans that have played on records for artists like Dolly Parton, George Jones and other well known singers. The producer and  also the  mastering engineer behind his album are people that have worked with music for Garth Brooks.

In September 2007 he formed his own live band "Redneck Cowboys", together with some musicians in and around his hometown Narvik. Together they was known as "B.Thomas & Redneck Cowboys".  B.Thomas and his band developed themselves to play music from many different countrymusic stars, cover versions from musicians as Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Toby Keith, Billy Currington and many others. They also play their own stuff.

They`ve played  many concerts since the beginning on many different places, all from small stages in bars and clubs to bigger events and outdoor arenas. They have participated and played on events with other well known artists like Wendel Adkins from USA, Keith Austin from USA/Norway, Arly Karlsen, Bengt Pedersen & Nashville Express and many others. They became a sucessfull group within country music in North Norway, and they also became well known other places. In December 2011 B.Thomas "retired" from live gigs, and the band continued with one of the guitar players as a lead singer, they took the name "Blårøyk" and started to play Blues. 

B.Thomas continued working with music in studio, and released several albums with Garth Brooks music during the years from 2011 to 2019. In 2018 B.Thomas started to announce a comeback on the road, and have been working to put together a new live group.

In April 2019 they placed the first B.Thomas show after 8 years away from stage, now with a new setup, B.Thomas on lead vocals, one acoustic guitar player and on electric guitar player. The trio plays with professional Backingtracks of Garth Brooks music, were the guitars are removed, and all other instruments are kept in the mixes. Together they sound as a 6-7 piece band, and is better than ever. B.Thomas make the songs his own and the guitar players are doing a very good job to make the versions sound as close to the originals as possible. Only one of the musicians from the former live band is still playing with B.Thomas, one of the best electric guitar players around the area of  Narvik. Bjørn Nygård

BT Management