Biography

Slim Man Bio

Born Tim Camponeschi, when Slim Man was five years old, his Dad showed him a movie --’The Five Pennies’, starring Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong. When Young Slim (Slim Boy) saw Louis sing and play, he told his Dad...”That’s what I want to do.”

He then studied trumpet for ten years, and taught himself how to sing and play guitar as well. He studied calssical music at Peabody Preparatory. He took private jazz piano lessons, voice lessons, theory and harmony lessons.

While in middle school he took up bass, and started the legendary pre-punk band ‘Momma Max’, who opened up for Iggy Pop and the Stooges, The Raspberries, and others. During this time, he snuck backstage and met Jimi Hendrix, and a week later, saw Led Zeppelin --the only time they opened up for the Who. He saw the Doors--first two tours.

Slim Man’s First Big Break came when he went on a trip to NYC to meet a publisher who expressed some interest in Slim’s Songs. Except the publisher had other interests in mind. Mr. Man left the meeting and started calling other publishers.

A few hours later, he was in the office of Roxanne Gordy, Motown executive and niece of the famous Berry Gordy. Motown signed Slim Man as a songwriter, and one of the first tunes he wrote (Summer Days) was included on Angela Bofill’s first critically acclaimed CD, ‘Angie’. He also wrote songs for the Temptations, Carl Anderson, and others.

While working at Motown in NYC, Slim Man became friendly with a record company downstairs from Motown’s office. The record company? Stiff Records. Stiff had Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Ian Dury and others on their roster, and Stiff expressed some interest in some Slim Songs, and named the project...BootCamp.

BootCamp had considerable success. They had two of the first hundred videos ever played on MTV. They did shows with the B-52s, Squeeze, Split Enz, The Tubes, Johnny Winter and a bunch of other bands.

After the break-up of BootCamp, Slim Man started organizing and MC-ing nationwide country music talent contests sponsored by Marlboro. The contest was a Big Deal--$50,000.00 and a contract with producer Barry Beckett (Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Jr.)

It was during the contest that the Slim Man name came about. An alias was needed to avoid the losing bands, and Slim Man was born. His Big Discovery during the Marlboro contest? Ronnie Dunn, who later joined Kix Brooks to form the Grammy-winning Country Duo, Brooks and Dunn.

After the Marlboro Contest ran its course, Slim Man started writing and producing songs featuring a rock singer named Brian Jack, who landed a deal with Epic based on the Slim Man songs. Producer Frankie LaRocca (Spin Doctors) was hired, but none of the original Slim Man songs were used. Brian Jack was dropped from Epic after four non-Slim songs.

So, undaunted, Slim Man went back into the studio, re-sang the songs he’d written for Brian Jack, added a few new songs, and...End of the Rainbow, the very first Slim Man CD, was born. The CD yielded a Top Ten Hit, ‘Faith In Us’, and the CD went on to be included in over a dozen Top Ten lists for the year (1995).

J.D. Considine (Rolling Stone) says of the Slim Man style “...a near perfect example of how jazz and soul can be combined as pop.”