Tommy Bolin

Tommy Bolin is one of those names that makes me ache at what might have been. From Sioux City to Zephyr, the James Gang, and Deep Purple, he absorbed jazz and rock alike, and his work on Billy Cobham's Spectrum still floors me. He had a fluid, fearless touch on the guitar that few of his peers could match. Then it ended at twenty-five, far too soon. I keep coming back to how much fire he packed into so short a life. For me he is less a footnote and more a comet, brilliant, restless, and gone before we were ready.

Name (English)

Tommy Bolin

Name (Japanese)

トミー・ボーリン

Reading

とみー・ぼーりん

Born

August 1, 1951 – December 4, 1976

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Rabbit

Origin

Sioux City, Iowa, United States

Occupation

guitarist / jazz guitarist / composer / musician

• Official sitehttps://www.tbolin.com/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy%20Bolin
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%88%E3%83%9F%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9C%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q313670

Tags

• Iowa
• guitarist
• jazz guitarist
• composer

Last updated

2026-06-18

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.