Tony Harnell
Encyclopedia
Antony "Tony" Harnell is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

 singer, best known for his work with the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

 band TNT
TNT (band)
TNT is a Norwegian hard rock/glam metal band from Trondheim, formed in 1982. The band has released twelve studio albums, three EPs and two live albums while going through numerous line-up changes since its formation...

.

Tony has led a career as a recording artist since the early 80's. He is also a songwriter and producer.

Biography

Tony Harnell was born in San Diego in the 1960s and has an older half sister by his father. His mother, Constance Haldaman was an opera singer while his father, Boyd Harnell was a photo-journalist. As a young teenager, he was a professional skateboarder and avid surfer.

Harnell has counted The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

, Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...

, and Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...

 as his early musical influences, the latter two having fused operatic technique with rock music. Other favorites include Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

, Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...

, Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

 and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 along with the more contemporary Francis Dunnery
Francis Dunnery
Francis Dunnery is an English musician, singer-songwriter, record producer and record label owner. He is best known as a solo performer , and for fronting the original lineup of the band It Bites between 1982 and 1990 .Dunnery served as a sideman and...

, Alanis Morissette
Alanis Morissette
Alanis Nadine Morissette is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and actress. She has won 16 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards, was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and also shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination...

, Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...

, and Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell is an American rock musician best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Soundgarden and as the former lead vocalist for Audioslave. He is also known for his numerous solo works and soundtrack contributions since 1998...

.

Getting started

Harnell started singing at the age of 5. At 17, he joined his first garage band and spent the next three years in approximately 15 bands and at 18 started studying with acclaimed vocal teacher Don Lawrence. He joined TNT in 1984 at the age of 21.

TNT

Ronni Le Tekrø stated "We heard an original sounding voice from heaven, and invited him to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 to join the band." The tape was a demo of several projects Tony had been involved with between 1981–84, including some songs from The Jackals, the New York City band Tony left to join TNT in 1984. The Jackals also included renowned drummer John Tempesta
John Tempesta
John Tempesta is a heavy metal drummer who has worked several bands including: Exodus, Testament and White Zombie. He also played with former White Zombie singer Rob Zombie as a solo artist and served as drum technician for heavy metal band Anthrax earlier in his career...

 who went on to play with Rob Zombie and is currently in The Cult. To this day Tony states he doesn't know how the demo got to TNT.

In 1984, after a show, Harnell was introduced to Mike Varney who began discussing this great band in Norway that was looking for a singer. He handed Harnell the tape of TNT and said to check them out. Of this experience, Harnell has said, "I took it home and I was blown away. It was that good. And it was exactly the kind of music I wanted to do at that point in my life."

The working relationship of TNT has always presented the challenge of geography, but it has also helped in the development of creative solutions. Upon his introduction to this Norwegian rock band, Harnell was impressed with the musicianship and style established while the rest of the band was convinced that this American brought the right voice to their music.

The special relationship and brotherly bond that Tony developed with guitarist Ronni Le Tekrø was the creative driving force in the band. The two of them wrote co-wrote all of TNT's material together during Tony's 22 year run with the band.

Steve Huey of AMG has written "With a level of musicianship higher than the average hair-metal band, Norway's TNT offered a prog-tinged take on pop-metal due largely to the stunning vocal range of lead singer Tony Harnell."

With TNT, Tony Harnell recorded 9 studio albums, two live videos and two "best of" cds, toured the U.S. several times with acts such as Stryper, Twisted Sister and Great White and headlined sold out tours in 89 in both the U.S. and Japan. From 1997-1999 TNT also toured Japan and Norway. In the 2000s on the heels of The Big Bang which went gold in Norway and the critically acclaimed My Religion he performed to huge audiences with TNT at festivals throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, including the Swedish Rock Festival with 20,000+ in attendance, where they shared the bill with numerous greats including metal legends, Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...

. TNT also supported the band Europe
Europe (band)
Europe is a Swedish rock band formed in Upplands Väsby in 1979 under the name Force by vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum and drummer Tony Reno. Although widely associated with glam metal, the band's sound incorporates heavy metal and hard rock elements...

 for the Lorca Festival show in Spain with 10,000+ fans in attendance.

It is estimated that TNT with Harnell sold between 1.5-2 million albums in total. They received a Norwegian Grammy award in 1987 for rock album of the year for "Tell No Tales" and received numerous silver, gold, diamond and platinum awards in Norway and Japan.

He left the band in April 2006 for both "personal and professional" reasons and made it clear that this time it's for good. He performed his last show with the band on June 30, 2006 and a DVD was released in the Autumn of 2006 that features the second to last show in Madrid, Spain on April 1, 2006. Although it was stated by Ronni Le Tekrø in an interview that Tony left the band "in the middle of a tour", he actually resigned after the final show in Madrid and agreed to perform the one show left on the books at that time, which was Polar Rock Festival in the north of Norway. He did perform this final show with the band though they had already been touring with new singer Tony Mills by that time. Polar Rock Fest asked that Tony Harnell perform with the band and he agreed out of respect for the promoter and to say goodbye to the fans in Norway. Harnell brought Mills up on stage for the last song of the set to pass the torch over and they sang Harley Davidson together, Tony's least favorite TNT song from the 1st album before he was a member. He has said in interviews that this was not the song he would have wanted to be the last he sang on stage with TNT as he felt strongly that it did not represent the music he created with the band.

Morning Wood

Morning Wood refers to the eponymous CD released by Tony and an all-star line-up including, Al Pitrelli, Chuck Bonfonte and Danny Mirada. The project grew out of the series of shows Tony had participated in with Al's cover band, Ethyl Mertz. It was an acoustic project and mostly about the musicians enjoying themselves. When it was decided to record some tracks, the name Morning Wood surfaced. On how the CD came together, Tony said "We had been playing live with that line-up and the shows sounded really good so we just went in and recorded the band live and finished the thing in about ten days."

The CD was first released in Japan in 1994 during TNT's first break-up and in 2002 was re-released in Europe as Tony Harnell and Morning Wood. This project provided Tony an opportunity to do something a little different after working continuously with TNT for close to 10 years straight. Tony explained that having the opportunity to write and work with these musicians was a great change of pace and "a lot of fun."

Westworld

The Westworld
Westworld (American band)
Westworld was an American hard rock band formed in 1998 by vocalist Tony Harnell and guitarist Mark Reale. They were later joined by bassist Bruno Ravel and drummer John O'Reilly and released their first album in 1999.-Band members:*Tony Harnell – vocals...

 project features Tony, Mark Reale
Mark Reale
Mark Reale is an American heavy metal guitarist best known for being the only constant original member in the band RiotMark was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1955. He grew up listening to The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Michael Schenker, Gary Moore, Ritchie Blackmore and lists George Harrison as one of...

, Bruno Ravel
Bruno Ravel
Bruno Ravel, born May 1, 1964, is a bassist and guitarist who is most famous for playing in the band Danger Danger.Before Danger Danger, he was in the band Hotshot, along with original Danger Danger lead vocalist Mike Pont and Danger Danger drummer Steve West...

 and John O'Reilly, with Keyboardist Josh Pincus and Mark Wood
Mark Wood (violinist)
Mark Winthrop Wood is an electric violinist, as well as the founder of Wood Violins, a company that makes unique electric violins. He is also an Emmy-winning composer. His music and strings education program has been featured on news programs nationwide....

. When asked about the project, Tony has said that "Westworld was originally intended as a one-off side project and we never thought it would be received as well as it has been."

Since its inception, Westworld release three studio albums and a live album and performed shows throughout the New York area, in Los Angeles, as well as a tour in Japan and the ZRock festival show in England in 2002.

Starbreaker

Starbreaker, a project featuring Tony, John Macaluso, Magnus Karlsson, and Fabrizio Grossi, released their first album in 2005. A second Starbreaker album, Love's Dying Wish, was released in 2008. The band never toured.

Video games

Tony has done a few tracks for the Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog (character)
, trademarked Sonic The Hedgehog, is a video game character and the main protagonist of the Sonic video game series released by Sega, as well as in numerous spin-off comics, cartoons, and a feature film. The first game was released on June 23, 1991, to provide Sega with a mascot to rival Nintendo's...

 video game series. His first track for the series was "It Doesn't Matter" on the soundtrack of Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure
is a 1999 platform video game developed by Sonic Team and released on December 23, 1998, in Japan by Sega for the Dreamcast. One of its development titles was Sonic RPG...

 released in 1998 by SEGA
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...

. Harnell returned in 2001 to perform a rewritten version of the theme for Sonic in Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic Adventure 2 is a platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Dreamcast video game console. It was released in North America on June 19, 2001 and in Japan on June 23, 2001 to mark the 10th anniversary of the release of the first Sonic the Hedgehog game. It is the sequel...

, as well as the first stage theme "Escape from the City" with fellow rock musician Ted Poley
Ted Poley
Ted Harris Poley is a rock singer and drummer most famous for being in the band Danger Danger.-Biography:...

. Following this in 2004, Harnell performed the Team Sonic theme for Sonic Heroes
Sonic Heroes
is a 2004 platforming single-player/multiplayer video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series developed by Sonic Team USA. It is the first multiplatform title in the Sonic series, developed for Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox and released in Japan in December 2003, in North America in...

 called "We Can", again with Poley. In 2011, Harnell confirmed via Facebook that he was scheduled to re-record "Escape from the City" with Poley for the game Sonic Generations
Sonic Generations
is a 2011 platform video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, produced by Sonic Team for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Nintendo 3DS...

, the track appearing in the Modern City Escape level.

Theater

In January 2007 Tony was asked by Air Supply songwriter and guitarist Graham Russell to perform the role of Robin in his musical "Heart Of The Rose", which Graham calls the true story of Robin Hood. The one off performance was for what is known in the theater world as a "backer's audition" for New York's theater elite to raise money and interest in the musical. It was a successful show and the musical is still being worked on. Tony hopes to branch out more into theater productions in the future.

Solo career

In 2008, Harnell released his first solo material in demo form through his website only. Entitled Cinematic
Cinematic (EP)
Cinematic is the first demo EP by former TNT and current Starbreaker singer Tony Harnell, released on September 23, 2008, for free on his official website, and later through Dovetone Music. It is Harnell's debut release as a solo artist...

. The EP features 6 songs that may or may not appear on his upcoming full-length solo album.
  • "The Show": Written by Harnell/Gibson/Berntoft - Produced by Mats Berntoft
  • "Out from Under the Black Cloud": Written by Harnell/Altzar - Produced by Lizette
  • "One Way Ride": Written by Harnell/Altzar - Produced by Lizette
  • "Cinematic": Written by Harnell/Altzar - Produced by Lizette
  • "I Don't Want Anything": Written by Harnell/Gibson-Produced by Mats Berntoft
  • "Unholy: Harnell/Gibson/Berntoft- Produced by Mats Berntoft


It is not decided if these songs will be featured on his forthcoming solo album.

Tony Harnell & The Mercury Train "Round Trip", released in 2010

The album was recorded in two separate periods. The music was recorded live over two days at the end of 2008 in Brooklyn, NY. The vocals were recorded from late 2009 into early 2010 by Tony in his home studio. The vocal sessions started 7 months after a successful 5 hour surgery to remove his thyroid gland following a diagnosis of thyroid cancer in Jan 2009. The surgery threatened to end his singing career due to its location across the front of his neck near delicate muscles and tendons used in singing. But with the skill of an excellent surgeon, the help of his long time voice coach Don Lawrence and extensive physical therapy he regained his voice completely. The cancer was totally cleaned out and his doctors don't expect it to return. Tony calls the first few months of 2009 "the worst of his life". During his recovery period, his mother, who was battling breast cancer for several years, finally succumbed to the disease on April 24, 2009, just one and a half months after Tony's ordeal. Tony says the album was the "perfect tool to retrain his voice and put the painful past with TNT behind him on his own terms". "Round Trip" which was released in the autumn of 2010 is a retrospective of all his past work plus one new song and was recorded with his favorite local musicians in New York. The album features Brandon Wilde on bass and vocals, Jason Hagen on acoustic guitar, Brad Gunyon on drums, Chris Foley on lead guitar and his wife Amy Harnell on backing vocals and recorder.
On April 1, 2011 Tony released a new digital single worldwide called "Take What You're Giving" which starts a new chapter in Tony's ever evolving sound and has charted in Norway and Sweden. He is currently working on a book and a solo album and regularly performs in New York City.

In 2010 Tony went back to work on the live scene performing in his home town of New York City, traveling to Norway for the Norway Rock Festival which featured Slash, Gary Moore, Queensryche and other top names.

In November 2010 Tony performed 13 shows throughout Spain in Queen Symphonic Rhapsody which featured a 40 piece symphony orchestra from Russia. Tony was one of four solo singers performing in a two and a half hour show featuring the music of Queen in classical theaters.

In 2011 he hopes to do more live shows as he keeps busy recording and writing...

Solo

  • Tony Harnell & Morning Wood Morning Wood (1994)
  • Cinematic
    Cinematic (EP)
    Cinematic is the first demo EP by former TNT and current Starbreaker singer Tony Harnell, released on September 23, 2008, for free on his official website, and later through Dovetone Music. It is Harnell's debut release as a solo artist...

    self released (2008)
  • Tony Harnell & The Mercury Train Round Trip (2010)
  • "Take What You're Giving" self released digital single (2011)

TNT

  • Knights of the New Thunder
    Knights of the New Thunder
    - Band :*Tony Harnell – vocals *Ronni Le Tekrø – guitars*Morty Black – bass guitar*Morten "Diesel" Dahl – drums, percussion-Sources:**...

    (Eur, Jap 1984), (U.S. 1985)
  • Tell No Tales
    Tell No Tales
    - Band :*Tony Harnell – vocals*Ronni Le Tekrø – guitars, guitar synthesizer*Morty Black – bass guitar, pedal synthesizer*Morten "Diesel" Dahl – drums, percussion-Additional personnel:*Håkon Iversen – background vocals*Bård Svendsen – keyboards and programming...

    (1987)
  • Intuition (1989)
  • Forever Shine On (Official Live Video recorded during sold out tour) (1989)
  • Realized Fantasies
    Realized Fantasies
    - Band :*Tony Harnell – vocals*Ronni Le Tekrø – guitars, keyboards, 1/4 stepper guitar*Morty Black – bass guitar*John Macaluso – drums, percussion-Additional personnel:*Joe Lynn Turner – background vocals*Dag Stokke – keyboards on track 6...

    (1992)
  • Three Nights in Tokyo
    Three Nights in Tokyo
    - Band :*Tony Harnell – vocals*Ronni Le Tekrø – guitars*Morty Black – bass guitar*John Macaluso – drums, percussion-Sources:*...

     (Live) (1992)
  • Till Next Time – The Best of TNT (Best of) (1995)
  • Firefly
    Firefly (TNT album)
    The song "Soldier of the Light" was never meant for the album. It was a demo from the Realized Fantasies sessions and was put on Firefly because the Japanese record company liked it so much....

    (1997)
  • Transistor
    Transistor (TNT album)
    "Just Like God" is not included on the Japanese edition.- Band :*Tony Harnell – vocals*Ronni Le Tekrø – guitars, backing vocals on "Free Again"*Morty Black – bass guitar, backing vocals on "Free Again"-Additional personnel:...

    (1999)
  • The Big Bang – The Essential Collection (Best of) (2003)
  • Give Me A Sign
    Give Me a Sign
    -Music video:On February 17, a music video was put into the planning process. The band shot the video for "Give Me a Sign" with acclaimed director Nigel Dick...

     (2003)
  • My Religion
    My Religion (album)
    * The guitar effect in "She Needs Me" was created using the overdrive effect, and punching a hole in the speaker's powertube.* "She Needs Me" is Tony Harnell's favorite song on My Religion.- Band :*Tony Harnell – vocals*Ronni Le Tekrø – guitars...

    (2004)
  • All the Way to the Sun
    All the Way to the Sun
    All the Way to the Sun is the ninth studio album by the Norwegian hard rock band TNT. The album was first rumoured to be on the heavy side of TNT, but came out in the end as a more straight forward pop rock album. It did not get as many positive reviews as My Religion but was still regarded as a...

    (2005)
  • Live in Madrid
    Live in Madrid
    Live In Madrid is a live CD + DVD package by the Norwegian hard rock band TNT. It was the last TNT album recorded with vocalist Tony Harnell, who left the band in 2006.-Track listing - CD / DVD:#"Invisible Noise"#"As Far as the Eye Can See"...

    - CD + DVD package (2006)

Westworld

  • Westworld
    Westworld (Westworld album)
    Westworld is the debut album by the hard rock group Westworld.-Track listing:All songs written by Tony Harnell/Mark Reale.# "Illusions" – 5:07# "I Belong" – 2:57# "Pigeon Hole" – 4:07# "Heart Song" – 5:29# "Little Voices" – 4:29...

    (1999)
  • Skin
    Skin (Westworld album)
    -Track listing:All songs written by Tony Harnell/Mark Reale except where noted.# "Skin" – 4:40# "Ice Queen" – 5:07# "Uneasy" – 5:18# "Limbo" – 6:55# "Black Shadow Symphony" – 5:22# "Tomorrow's Yesterday" – 3:47# "Out There" – 4:54...

    (2000)
  • Cyberdreams
    Cyberdreams (album)
    Cyberdreams is the third studio album by the hard rock group Westworld.-Track listing:# "Cyberdreamer" – 5:50# "When I Come Home" – 4:49...

    (2002)
  • Live... In the Flesh
    Live... In the Flesh
    Live... In the Flesh is the first live album by the hard rock group Westworld. The album was recorded on May 19th, 2001 at The Chance in Poughkeepsie, New York.-Track listing:All songs written by Tony Harnell/Mark Reale except where noted....

    (2001)

Awards and accolades

  • 3 Silver album awards
  • 5 Gold album awards
  • 3 Platinum album awards
  • 6 'Top Requested' videos on MTV
  • The Norwegian Grammy Award for 'Rock Album of the Year', 1987
  • Voted Best Live Act of the Year, in Japan, 1989
  • Voted Best Live Act of the Year, in Europe, 2004

External links

  • http://www.tonyharnell.com/
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