It was a late night in 1985, and the Tonight Show’s star
guest had cancelled at the last minute. Suddenly the world’s most popular talk
show host had nothing to talk about. Johnny Carson turned to his audience and
asked if anyone had studied piano for five+ years. David Tolley’s hand went up,
and he was asked to step onstage. David – wearing jeans, flip flops and a Nike T-shirt
– approached the grand piano and sat down. He mesmerized both host and audience
with a rendition of “Memories.” What was meant to be a funny time filler ended
up launching a career. David was seventh in a family with eight children. He’d
been a piano student since age seven. He was valedictorian at Ohio’s first performing
arts high school, and he’d studied performance and composition at OSU. After
his debut, David wrote for Spielberg and Disney, and performed for presidents
and royalty. Today he teaches music at Delaware State University.
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