He was one of the founding members of the 1980s alternative rock band The Replacements, along with drummer Chris Mars, his older brother Bob Stinson, and singer-songwriter Paul Westerberg. Tommy Stinson was only 12 years old when he joined the band in 1979. He dropped out of high school in 10th grade in 1983 to go on tour with the band.
Bob Stinson left The Replacements in 1986, but Tommy Stinson stayed with the band until they broke up in 1991.
After the Replacements disbanded, Stinson formed the band Bash & Pop who in 1993 released one album Friday Night Is Killing Me. In February 1995, his brother died at the age of 35 as a result of years of substance abuse.
After Bash & Pop broke up, Stinson formed a band called Perfect, who released an EP in 1996 titled When Squirrels Play Chicken. In 1997 Perfect's album Seven Days a Week was shelved due to record company problems, but was later released in 2004 under the title Once, Twice, Three Times a Maybe.
In 1998 Stinson appeared on Puff Daddy's "It's All About The Benjamins (Rock Remix)" along with Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. He also can be seen playing bass for the song in the music video.
Also in 1998, Stinson joined Guns N Roses, and he has been their bass player ever since. His bass playing is featured prominently on their long-delayed Chinese Democracy album which appeared in late 2008. Stinson has pursued a variety of other projects during Guns N Roses' abundant downtime.
Stinson played bass for the recording of MOTH's 2002 album "Provisions, Fiction and Gear".
In 2004, in addition to the long-shelved album by Perfect, Stinson released a solo album Village Gorilla Head which was well-received by the music press.
In the fall of 2005, Tommy joined Soul Asylum for a few gigs in tribute to Karl Mueller. Stinson and Dave Pirner (founding member of Soul Asylum ) were friends in high school in Minneapolis, MN. He and BT also scored the Jennifer Garner movie Catch and Release.
In between touring and writing, he managed to produce Bobot Adrenaline's debut album Unfurled.
In December 2005, he reunited with his surviving Replacements bandmates Paul Westerberg and original drummer Chris Mars to record two new songs for a greatest-hits collection. Stinson further collaborated with Westerberg on the soundtrack to the Sony feature film Open Season, recording bass tracks for 'Love You in the Fall' and 'Right to Arm Bears'.
On November 24, 2006 at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena, Axl Rose called the Eagles of Death Metal (one of Guns N Roses' opening acts) the "Pigeons of Shit Metal." Jesse Hughes, the Eagles of Death Metal's lead singer, told the New Musical Express that Stinson took his bass off and threw it on the floor saying "Fuck you, that's it" and threatened to leave the band. Stinson did not leave Guns N Roses; however, the Eagles of Death Metal were fired from the tour. On December 2, 2006, Stinson issued a statement reading, in part: "Eagles of Death Metal were a suggestion of mine a while ago. Turns out they were the wrong band for our crowd. They were booed and did not play for as long as they were scheduled to. ... In the past I have thrown my bass. I have never thrown it at Axl or anyone else in the band nor has anyone thrown my bass back at me... yet. Axl has been a dear friend to me for nine years. We have no problem communicating and wish that people would stay the fuck out of shit they don't know anything about."
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