About Tom Wright
 Wright was born in Alabama in 1944. In the early 1960s, he studied photography at England's Ealing Art School, where he met Pete Townshend, founder of the rock group the Who. Wright turned Townshend on to Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and marijuana; Townshend found in Wright a lifelong friend and creative sounding board. "Had I not met Tom Wright," Townshend muses in his foreword to Wright's first book, Roadwork: Rock & Roll Turned Inside Out, "the Who would never have become successful."
Wright became the Who's official photographer in 1967 and chronicled the group's development, including their 1989 farewell tour. From 1967 to 1970 he managed the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan, where the Who's rock opera Tommy premiered. In addition to his extensive work with the Who, Tom also served as photographer or road manager for the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and the Faces, the James Gang, J. D. Souther, the Thunderbirds, Elvis Costello, Bob Seger, the Eagles, and others.
Wright's photographs of rock performers, audiences, and concert venues comprise an intimate, behind-the-scenes history of rock and roll from the 1960s to the 1990s in the United States and Great Britain. Over the years, Tom has allowed limited commercial access to his work. Only an exclusive coterie of musicians, a handful of record company executives, and a few lucky Christie’s auction winners own copies of Wright’s arresting images.
In 1993, Wright's vast collection of photographic prints, negatives, tapes, phonograph recordings, and correspondence – over 500,000 items, still being unboxed and cataloged – was acquired by the Center for American History on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin.
In 2007, Wright chronicled his journey through three decades and countless lives in Roadwork: Rock & Roll Turned Inside Out, hailed by Townshend as "about the best book on rock 'n' roll you'll ever see"; by Steve Riggio, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble Booksellers, as "probably the best book on rock & roll ever published"; and by Don Carleton, director of the Center for American History, as "a major contribution to the literature of rock and roll."
"Tom Wright is the Jack Kerouac of rock and roll photography."
--Joe Walsh
"Tom Wright – a fucking great photographer with a special touch."
--Keith Richards
"The errant conscience of his camera has captured both the flippancy and the passion of the times. His view is acute and original, utterly unique."
--Pete Townshend
"Roadwork is a breezy and warm insider’s view of the music world told by someone who loved the life and the people — but also isn’t afraid to say what he really thought of them (or, apparently, tell them to their faces)."
--Gary Graff, Oakland Press
"Among the photos and stories about the bands, [Roadwork's] overwhelming emotion is one of family and relationships. Sons and daughters, wives and mothers, bandmates as mates, are all part of the rock-music milieu seldom on display for public consumption."
--Eric C. Shoaf, Vintage Guitar
"Roadwork is more than just a selection of 'greatest hits' from a rock photographer's portfolio. By placing his personal narrative alongside the images, Wright raises some fundamental questions: What was rock 'n' roll? What was that era?"
--John T. Davis, Austin Monthly
"[Roadwork is] one of the best music scene memoirs ever written."
--Rick Coates, Northern Express
"[Roadwork is] a memoir of a life spent (and frequently misspent] in the eye of the rock hurricane. Wright's stories are every bit as candid and memorable as his photography."
--Fred Mills, Harp
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