The Early Years
Tom Sadge has been an entertainer since his preteen years. As a young child, he sang in "minstrels" along with his mother Rita. Most likely Tom inherited his gift of mimickry and talent for singing from his Mom who, at about age seventeen, was offered a job as a singer during the Big Band Era. The eldest daughter of a fatherless family of nine turned down the opportunity and remained at home to help her widowed mother.

While still in his very early teens, Tom sang with friends in "garage bands" and performed in high school musical productions, as well.

After a stint in the Navy, which took him to the Philippines and just off the coast of Vietnam, Tom worked as a lead singer for various bands in the Cape Cod, Massachusetts and other New England areas. Tom Sadge later lived and worked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Biloxi, Mississippi before returning to his native Avoca PA in the early 1980s. It was there in his hometown that Tom met and married his wife, Marion. Marion, also a NEPA native, had recently returned after several years of working in the fashion industry (as a buyer) in Allentown and New York City. Two days after Tom introduced himself to Marion they went on their first date and, until Tom started traveling for business in late 1997, never were apart except for working hours.

In those early days, Tom Sadge the known as the "The Singing DJ" throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA). He performed uncanny singing impressions of Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Barry Manilow, Tony Bennett, Johnny Cash and spun the hit records of the day, as well. Marion, who worked in store management (as merchandise manager) for Allentown-based Hess's Department Stores during the day, was invited by Tom to accompany him to every "gig" at night. Marion served not only as an enthusiastic audience member, but also in the capacity of a cocktail waitress, agent, manager, and anything else needed! When the couple married and the their first child was born a year later, Tom encouraged Marion to leave her career behind and become a full-time mother. She also became the full-time agent & manager and idea-person behind Tom's budding career.

Tom Sadge's popularity as an entertainer grew throughout the 1980s and mid-1990s: he filled nightclubs to capacity, was booked a year in advance for weddings, was voted "Best Entertainer" by the readers of the area's most popular newspaper, The Citizens' Voice, did some voiceover work on commercials, and recorded his own original 45 entitled Love Songs, which was written by Jim Frushon. (There are NO known copies of this song available, sorry!)

In the mid to later ninties Tom was invited to join Jumpin' Jeff Walker's The Wack Jobs(sometimes spelled incorrectly as The Whack Jobs). Jeff was, an is to this day, the wild and crazily intelligent drive-time DJ on the very popular NEPA radio station KRZ 98.5 FM. The WackJobs is an ever-changing studio group of very talented musicians and singers who pool their talents, under the direction of Jeff Walter, to record timely parody songs written by Jeff.

As a Neil Diamond soundalike (and using other voices), Tom was the featured voice (or performed background vocals) on several of The WackJubs early "hits", including "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" and "Pittston Man" (a variation of The Village People's YMCA): (Spank Me CD). Tom continues to work on occasion with his good friend Jeff Walker and The Wack Jobs. His most recent contribution was a song recorded in early December 2007.

Around this time, Tom Sadge was frequently invited by Jeff to "stump the listeners" on the Pittston-based radio station: listeners were invited to call in and try to distinguish Tom's voice from the "real Neil Diamond." They rarely could.

Tom's popularity as a club DJ continued to grow after the new millenium. However, working every night in smoke-filled clubs had long-since lost its allure for this family man. Tom and Marion had their second child in 1994, and the late nights/early mornings plus being booked up to 2 years in advance for weekend events and weddings meant far too little time spent at home with his family. Tom was ready to perform less often and for larger and more sophisticated audiences on a national level. Tom and Marion agreed that a career transition was needed.

A New Career
The idea of Tom as a Neil Diamond impersonator was born one morning in November 1996. Tom's parents had gifted the Sadges with a 10th anniversary souvenier booklet from John Stuart's Legends in Concert. The Las Vegas strip production show was breaking attendance records since its debut in 1984 - largely due to the Elvis impersonator frenzy. In addition to the Presley centerpiece, the Imperial Palace show featured a revolving cast of celebrity lookalikes and soundalikes: Neil Diamond, Judy Garland, Liza Minelli, Marilyn Monroe, Cher etc.

Marion was browsing throught the booklet one morning to see how much the stars of Legends in Concert really looked like the real celebrities they represented on stage. After examining the many full-color photos with a magnifying glass, she came to the realization that these Las Vegas performers were not dead ringers for the real thing, but rather were artfully, and often heavily, made up! Taking a black Sharpie® in hand and grabbing a black and white glossy publicity photo of the blonde-haired and blue-eyed Tom Sadge, 0Marion went to work transforming Tom's image into a close resemblance of Neil Diamond. Later that day Marion showed Tom the photo and announced that he was going to be not only the best Neil Diamond soundalike, as he already was, but the best Neil Diamond tribute artist - celebrity impersonator! Convincing Tom the transformatoin would work took a bit longer than redesigning the photo. However, anyone who really knows Marion and Tom also knows they are a dynamic and determined couple. Soon the Sadges went to work with 100% effort into making the dream a reality.

For the next several years, Tom and Marion worked non-stop on researching the magic of Neil Diamond's look, sound and stage presence. Practicing makeup, designing costumes and shopping for the right fabrics and trims, choreographing the Neil Diamond two-step, hand gestures, and general posturing, posing for publicity photos, making a promo CD, and putting together a promo package took up every spare moment of the couples' time. The whole family (even toddler Therese and preteen Fred) worked at stringing beads for the trademark Jazz Singer era Neil Diamond shirts that Marion had designed, based on the late Bill Whitton originals. The goal was to make the name "Tom Sadge" became synonymous with the magic of Neil Diamond!

Finally, after a year or so, and many sacrifices on the part of the entire family, Tom Sadge was ready to take to the stage as a Neil Diamond impersonator. He made is debut in the fall of 1997 as part of the Legends show at the University of Western Ontario. Because of work obligations and their two children, Marion could not accompany Tom on this very exciting trip. However, Tom's proud father, Fred, as well as his mother, Rita and beloved Aunt Anne were in the audience that night to cheer him on! His Neil Diamond tribute was an instant success and Tom has never looked back: Tom Sadge has since performed as Neil Diamond thousands of times in both public and private for audiences of 10 to 68,000 during an Philadelphia Eagles vs Dallas Cowboys pregame show.

West Coast - East Coast
For the first several years, Tom Sadge's popularity as a celebrity impersonator was concentrated mainly on the East Coast (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, etc.) of the U.S. and throughout Canada where, throughout 1998 and 1999, the tribute artist was the only American to tour from Toronto thru Vancouver with Legends Alive.

While Tom Sadge toured as Neil Diamond, Marion Sadge continued working behind the scenes to "polish" the Diamond! Part of this work entailed learning more about the Neil Diamond world through internet research. She discovered that there are several sites and message boards devoted strictly to Neil Diamond, and it was through these sites that Marion became acquainted with some of the most devoted of Neil Diamond's fans, who sometimes playfully refer to themselves as The Diamondheads.

By early 2001, Marion had learned enough about web design to put www.TomSadge.com online.

Eventually, Tom and Marion came to know several of Neil Diamond fans through various online Neil Diamond chat sitesw. Many of Neil Diamond's fans also began to travel to Tom's shows for a "Neil fix" - especially when their idol wasn't touring! Tom and Marion keep in touch with several of these fans today.

Because of Tom's internet presence, word spread to the West Coast about Tom Sadge's outstanding tribute to Neil Diamond. Eventually, he was hired to perform as a regular at private, corporate and production shows in Nevada, California, New Mexico, Arizona and Washington.

Family Man
Although he frequently works on the West Coast and Canada, Tom Sadge's heart resides in Pittston, a small east coast town between Scranton and WIlkes-Barre PA. Tom's hearby birthplace, Avoca PA, is known for its large Irish-American population and annual St. Patrick's Day Parade!

In addition to Marion and the children, Tom remains close to his extended family of relatives.

Who's "THE BEST"?
Neil Diamond!
Often, a discussion will come up amongst Diamond fans about who is "the best" Neil Diamond impersonator, lookalike, soundalike or tribute artist. The answer is simple....no one! Each has his own style of bringing Neil's music to the public. No one will every be as good as the "Real Neil". And no one knows that better or is more respectful to the talent of Neil Diamond than Tom!

Tom Sadge has been a fan of Neil Diamond since 1968: he was only 11 years old. Only two years earlier, in 1966, Neil Diamond had scored his first number one hit, I'm A Believer, for the Monkees! It was at this early age that Tom Sadge began polishing and perfecting, the uncanny vocal impression of Neil Diamond's voice that has now made Tom "almost famous"!

Tom is grateful to the many other fans of Neil Diamond who have supported and encouraged him over the past several years, as well. Many are regular audience members who make taking to the stage a delightful experience!

To perform Neil Diamond's songs as closely as possible as the original legend - Neil Diamond - performed them is Tom's goal, and he is proud to do so. Why add to or change perfection?

<--Photo on left: Tom with Helen Braddock, a Neil Diamond fan and friend of Tom.

As Tom says, "Nothing is more rewarding than hearing audience members tell you after a show that they got the chills because you looked and sounded so much like Neil Diamond on stage. It makes all the hard work worthwhile."

Praise from Neil Diamond
Has Neil Diamond ever seen Tom perform? We cannot say for sure! However, Neil Diamond is very familiar with Tom's work: the great entertainer has met with Tom, posed for photos with Tom and acknowledged him, as well, on several occasions. During a western Pennsylvania concert in 2002, Neil Diamond told the vast audience "This guy sounds just like me!", then extended the microphone toward Tom so he cold sing a bar of "Sweet Caroline". Needless to say, this moment was one of the highlights of Tom's career!

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