[3] Tommy Z has also traveled regularly to various war torn areas since 2003, to entertain American troops overseas in Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Japan, South Korea, Djibouti, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Egypt, Turkey, Guam, Alaska and other distant locales on behalf of USO/AFE.
[3] In 2013, his second release, Sometimes, gained a higher profile, being played on both FM radio and the internet, and it made the initial voting for recordings submitted under the Best Blues Album category for a Grammy Award.
[4] He is a Canisius College graduate,[3] an oftimes guitar teacher, and has composed music for film and TV including Ryan and Sean's Not So Excellent Adventure, Last Comic Standing (NBC), Animal Planet's Swamp Wars (main title), and America's Next Top Model.
[12][13] Tommy Z wrote eight of the tracks on the album, which were partly inspired by both his experience of driving in blizzard conditions on Route 219 in New York, and the loss of a friend and business associate.
[6][14] The Tommy Z Band was chosen as the headliner for the 2019 and 2020 Buffalo Ball Drop,[15] the second biggest New Year's Eve celebration of its kind in the country with crowds estimated at 40,000.
[citation needed] Tommy Z travelled to Nashville, Tennessee, in January 2020 to work on Blizzard of Blues's follow up, called Plug in and Play, with the record producer Tom Hambridge.