Kris Thomson started playing drums in Germany when he was 13 after trying the trumpet for 2 days. This led to playing in the school performance group at band festivals around Germany. A year later was asked to join a group with his best friend on vocals - the Dave Haines Group. Kris had to get a note to play live because he was 16 at the time.

He came to Canada in 1983, got into high school marching and jazz bands, met guys who were into the hard rock scene and rehearsed a lot - he spent the next 2 years basically practicing drums in the basement of his parents’ house - and then started looking for groups to join or form. He landed a gig with Sweet Lucy, a cover band that did a set of Deep Purple tunes. This was a great band with good players with work lined up in the A club circuits - just add booze and drugs. He left to form an Iron Maiden tribute band but the group couldn’t hold down a vocalist to do the Dickinson stuff.

That was it for him. Disillusioned with trying to keep a group together, he dropped out of the scene for a good 5 years.
A move to Camrose in ‘97 unearthed more players in a few short months than he'd found in Calgary in 8 years. His first group, Balance, played a lot of local gigs, opening for Captain Tractor and Trooper. A chance meeting through a friend hooked Kris up with a musician from Wetaskiwin. This was the start of a group called Unchained, but not being one to rest on his laurels, he spent time networking.

A friend told him to check out a piano player hosting jams. This led to Kris joining the Jaron Rovensky Band which played numerous gigs around Alberta, culminating in a gig at the Big Valley Jamboree.

Kris’s music career, like Tabasco Cat, has had more lives than he’d care to admit, the latest being his foray into opening his own music store. Shaggy, as we call him, says Tabasco Cat is a great band with great guys who know how to play and have fun.