Tom and his band at the time were playing in a bar in Maryland that Eric frequented. The night before the show Tom and Eric met. They got to talking about how the band was unhappy with their bass player. Of course, Eric mentioned that he played and so he was asked to try out. At this time he hadn’t played for a year, and didn’t even have his bass anymore. But he still auditioned, and made it.
On their 1984 tour a band called Precious Metal was opening for them. Jeff Labar was in this band, but although he was also a high school friend of Emily’s, Tom’s wife at the time, and also a fan of the band, he had never met Tom until he had already opened for them several times. When the band was getting ready to enter the studio, but their label kept telling them that that the guitarist wasn’t working out and wanted them to audition for a new one. Jeff was asked to audition, and made it.
They later realized that the drummer also wasn’t cutting it, so they looked for a replacement. They received hundreds of demos, one being from Fred Coury. He then auditioned at the Galaxy, and made it.
Eric then moved to Philadelphia with the band. They called themselves Saints in Hell. Michael Kelly Smith was also in this band, which was a heavy metal cover band with a few originals. They played in bars and had wild makeup and hair dye. However, they didn’t last long. Tom and Eric still stuck together, and through some bad times. Eric in particular had it rough, because he wasn’t settled in yet. He slept at Michael’s or Tom’s, and did all sorts of different jobs to earn a living. He and Tom also delivered film together for a local film processing company. They had to go all the way from north Jersey to southern Maryland. It barely paid the bills, but allowed them to have long hair and time to practice.
Months after the breakup of Saints in Hell Tom joined the Priscilla Harriet Band, which included Priscilla Harriet, the lead singer from north Jersey, Mike Shermick, another guitarist, and a drummer, with Eric on bass. This one didn’t last long either however. So Tom, Eric, Mike, and the drummer left and tried starting a new band. The drummer backed out, so auditions were held, and they got Tony. Their first show was at a local club called Dick Lee’s. They developed a strong local following, and played mostly original material. However, they got paid practically nothing.
Because they were doing so well they started looking for a name. They were all sitting around one day watching TV when a porno came on called “Cinderella Liberty” and the name Cinderella was born.
Around 1983 they started flooding record companies with tapes. At this time they were playing at the Galaxy in south Jersey and the Empire Rock Club in Philadelphia. Gene Simmons from KISS tried to work out a deal for them once, but it didn’t happen. Later Jon Bon Jovi saw them at the Empire and spoke to his label, Polygram, about them. Jon got Derek Shulman, the A & R person, to go see Cinderella live, and Cinderella was signed.
