His first experience with guitar, was when he heard a KISS song that he wanted to play. He paid some guy $5 to teach him how to play, but instead, the first thing the man taught him was to tune the guitar. He came back the next week, coughed up another $5, and was taught the C scale. That was it for him, he didn't touch a guitar for years after. Then when he heard a song by the Sex Pistols, he thought that he might be able to channel his feelings and political ideas through a guitar too, so he learned how to play. He went to Harvard University, where he majored in Political Science. This is when he practiced obsessively, at least 8 hours a day on the guitar. After his Harvard friends all left to become doctors and lawyers, Tom went to L.A, because that's where everyone said that you had to go to form a rock band. Going there with nothing, no friends, or anything except a Harvard Alumni phone directory, he started his rock career, he played with several bands, which were unsuccessful. He started teaching guitar to get along, and finally took a job as a California senator's secretary. He was fired when a woman called complaining that "colored people" were moving into her neighborhood, he told her that maybe the problem wasn't them, but the fact that she was racist. He then formed a band called "Lockup" with the guitarist of Tool, where Tom did backing vocals. He met up with Zack, and the rest is history... http://www.geocities.com/morellofiend/bio.html

from what I have heard some kick a55 training apparently.