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 later he became a Chief Engineer. 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, and together with a 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 since he started to perform music. 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. B.Thomas had a dream to go to Nashville, and he talked about this to some friends, he also said that he wanted to meet and perhaps work with people who had worked for his biggest influence, Garth Brooks. After this, some friends laughed about him and said "You`ll never go to Nashville, and you will never meet or work with some of that people. Well....... B.Thomas did it ! , thinking about this today, B.Thomas are laughing about those who said that ! :-) 

He went to Nashville Tennessee in USA in august 2007 and recorded an album with studio musicians 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 2007 album are people that have worked with music for Garth Brooks. The producer for B.Thomas back then, had worked with Garth before he became a Star, and maked demos with him. The mastering engineer, that mastered B.Thomas album back then, had just finished some songs for a Hits album for Garth at the time B.Thomas was there, B.Thomas and his buddy on this trip to Nashville was lucky to be the first two peoples in the world  outside of the production team and the artist himself to lissten to one of the country stars new songs at that time, a song who became a big hit all over the world only a week after. This was a great story for B.Thomas to tell those back home who earlyer had no faith in him going to Nashville and experience making music in this great city, and get to see some of those who had worked for his big influence GB. To this story it is also worth mentioning, on the B.Thomas album "True Blue Cowboy" back then, song number 2 on that album, "Did I Open My Eyes" was a song written by the record producer Lonnie Ratliff, the story of the song was that back in 1989 before Garth Brooks became a famous name, he had recorded this song as a demo, but it was not released with him. The producer offered this song from his catalogue for B.Thomas that recorded it. It has also been recorded with several other singers after.

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 artists as Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Toby Keith, Billy Currington and many others. They also played 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 worked 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 one electric guitar player. The trio played with professional Backingtracks of Garth Brooks music, were the guitars were removed, and all other instruments was kept in the mixes. Together they sounded like a 6-7 piece band, and this became better than ever. B.Thomas maked the songs his own and the guitar players did 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 continued playing with B.Thomas, one of the best electric guitar players around the area of  Narvik, Bjørn Nygård.

B.Thomas have beside this continued to release cover material up to the latest cover release, in December 2024. After this last release he announced that this journey now must come to and end, and he is from now one releasing his own music. Last time he relased a album with Non cover versions was back in 2007. In 2024 he started to produce a new album with own material, some songs was made of lyrics he had written years ago but not released, and he wrote some new lyrics and composed new music to all. Now in 2025 (by the time of this update) he have released a new album with his own music, and all songs he worked on during 2024 / 2025 has now come to life. The Pure B.Thomas Album "Now It`s Time To Tell My Story" was released the 7 of April 2025. B.Thomas also released a single / cover version of the Alan Jackson song "The Older I Get" in April 2025. B.Thomas will mainly focus on his own music in the future but he may also release a cover song in between.

BT Management