The Home Depot Worker Who Became Boston’s Lead Singer
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2025
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Tommy DeCarlo’s story feels like a lost lyric from a Boston song. He worked at Home Depot by day and sang their music at night, never expecting anyone to hear him beyond a few friends. Then a homemade recording traveled farther than he ever could have planned. The surviving members of Boston, led by guitarist and founder Tom Scholz, invited him to join the band that had sold more than 75 million albums worldwide. In time, DeCarlo stepped onto the same stages where Brad Delp once sang "Don’t Look Back" and "Smokin’". Greg Hengler tells the story of a lifelong fan who went from customer service to concert stages, finding himself inside the very sound that shaped his youth.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | What I told people, I was making a podcast about Benghazi. |
| 0:08.5 | Nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why? |
| 0:15.1 | Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies. |
| 0:18.5 | From prologue projects and Pushkin Industries, this is Fiasco, Benghazi. |
| 0:23.6 | What difference at this point does it make? |
| 0:26.6 | Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:33.6 | You know, And we continue with our American stories. |
| 0:48.1 | The rock band Boston has sold over 75 million albums with classic kids like more than a feeling, peace of mind, rock and roll |
| 0:57.7 | band, smoking, and don't look back. Here's Greg Hengler with his story about a Home Depot |
| 1:03.6 | employee and his favorite rock and roll band. When our favorite songs are played, we all do the same |
| 1:10.7 | thing. We turn it up and played, we all do the same thing. |
| 1:11.6 | We turn it up and we sing along. |
| 1:14.1 | But the idea of living a rock and roll fantasy and being the lead singer in your favorite |
| 1:19.1 | band is only played out on the big screen and on television, right? For everyone who ever dreamed of |
| 1:30.3 | For everyone who ever dreamed of being a rock star, |
| 1:35.3 | Meet Tommy DeCarlo. |
| 1:37.3 | He sings every night to tens of thousands of screaming fans, |
| 1:41.3 | but only months before his gig as the lead singer of the legendary rock band, |
| 1:47.0 | Boston, 42-year-old Tommy wore the orange apron and worked on the floor at Home Depot in Charlotte, North Carolina, |
| 1:56.0 | where his singing was confined to the shower and karaoke bars. |
| 2:02.1 | Here's De Carlo. |
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