His nickname is ‘Terrible,’ but bluesman’s life story is anything but

“Terrible” Tom Bowden shows up a few minutes late for an appointment in West Oakland — and, of course, a friend immediately lets him hear about it.

“What are you talking about?” Bowden counters. “I’ve been here since ’38 — 1938.”

And during that time, Bowden, 86, has become nothing short of a legend in the area: a immensely talented bluesman who draws comparisons to Otis Redding and has traveled in the same company as Aretha Franklin, B.B. King and many other iconic performers; an old-school tough guy who duked it out with a heavyweight champion and lived to tell about it; and a rough-and-tumble, larger-than-life character whose story includes stints in prison, drug addiction and, eventually, salvation.

And it’s highly likely that he’s the only person on the planet who can claim to have worked as a minister, a pimp and a bodyguard for one of the greatest stars in music history.

“I was Stevie Wonder’s bodyguard for a minute,” Bowden says.

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Not all of his past deeds. of course, deserve to be celebrated. But, then again, whose can? Yet, it’s hard to imagine that there’s any character in all of West Oakland with a story that’s more colorful and fascinating than the man called “Terrible” Tom. And that’s what’s helped make him such an icon around these parts.

“He’s the unofficial Mayor of West Oakland,” West Coast Blues Society founder Ronnie Stewart remarks of Bowden, a powerful R&B/blues belter who has been performing in local venues for at least seven decades.

Born Dec. 2, 1938, Bowden grew up on Wood Street — where he still lives today — and began singing at an early age, practicing his craft both on street corners and in church. He became a fixture in the nearby 7th entertainment district, collecting nickels from shining shoes, taking in the lay of land and earning quite a reputation with the use of his fists.

“Well, I lived in West Oakland — you had to know how to fight down here,” Bowden reasons.

Blues vocalist Tom “Terrible Tom” Bowden in front of the Continental Club in West Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. Bowden started his musical career in 1948 at the Lincoln Theatre on 7th Street in Oakland and also played at the Continental Club. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

He says he grew up “singing and fighting” — and both of those things would definitely play sizable roles in his development over the decades. When it comes to the latter, he’ll still drop into a boxing stance at a moment’s notice — bobbing and weaving in ways that should bring terror to most would-be opponents — and recounting many of the men who he vanquished in fights.

“I ain’t never lost,” Bowden recalls. “But I didn’t knock everyone out”

Press him on the subject — in (what we highly recommend to be) a relatively gentle fashion — and he’ll recount the hardest hit he ever took, which came courtesy of boxing great George Foreman.

“I didn’t go down,” Bowden remembers of the punch he took from the heavyweight champ. “But I went to the observatory — because I saw all the stars and Uranus and Jupiter as well.”

Bowden is able to manage a bit of smile, however, as he recalls the size of Foreman’s mighty fists.

“He didn’t have hands — he had hoofs,” Bowden (somewhat) laughs.

Boxing wasn’t his only area of specialty in the physical fitness realm. He was also quite good at baseball.

“That would have been my calling if I had discipline,” says Bowden, who points out that his father once played with the legendary pitcher Satchel Paige. “I hit the ball 480 feet in high school.”

Yet, it wasn’t baseball or even fighting that would turn out to be Bowden’s calling — although, for sure, the latter would remain a cornerstone for much of his life — but rather live entertainment. Things would greatly change for Bowden once he met the the Christy brothers and began booking shows at the siblings’ famed Continental Club on 12th Street in West Oakland. Turns out Bowden had a tremendous ability to spot rising talent and was soon bringing a number of future chart-toppers in to perform at the club.

“I got Aretha Franklin. I got the Temptations. I had Marvin Gaye. We had B.B. King, of course,” remembers Bowden. “(Crowds) knew it was going to be happening at the Continental Club.”

He’d also spend plenty of time on the stage himself, thrilling crowds at the iconic Esther’s Orbit Room and other West Oakland spots. He became known for his uncanny ability to sound just like Otis Redding — and reportedly even filled in at some gigs for the “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” singer after he died in 1967.

By all accounts, Bowden was — and remains — a captivating performer on the live stage.

“He comes with the real old-school, old church preaching type show,” Stewart says. “The kind you don’t see any more. He’s from the ’40s and ’50s when shows were shows. He’s straight church.”

“Terrible Tom” Bowden, right, sings Otis Redding’s “Sittin’ by the Dock of the Bay” with Fillmore Slim during the West Coast Blues Society’s Legacy of Blues show at the Continental Club in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

After making a solid name for himself in the clubs in West Oakland in the ’60s, Bowden went chasing the Hollywood dream and moved off to Los Angeles, where he’d perform at such celebrated venues as the Whisky a Go Go on Sunset Boulevard and even run a speakeasy that was frequented by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Red Foxx and Richard Pryor.

“Oh, yeah, them ’70s — I was wild,” Bowden admits.

Outside of the entertainment world, Bowden also enlisted in the Marines, but it turned out he wasn’t well suited for the military life.

“He beat the heck out of his drill instructor,” Stewart says. “So, they kicked him out, of course.”

Then there was the job he had at the old GM plant in Fremont — but, really, the less said about that the better.

“I don’t want to talk about General Motors — because I knocked out my boss and put him in a freight train,” Bowden remembers. “They walked me off the property. I couldn’t go to Fremont.”

He was also a self-described “crack head,” as well as a pimp, and spent a few years behind bars in the Nevada State Prison system, although he won’t elaborate — at least not on the record — as to situation that lead him to get sent there.

“You can’t write about what I did,” Bowden says.

Yet, he’d eventually straighten up and fly right, getting heavily involved with church — eventually becoming a minister — and started a recovery program. He’s now been sober for 34 years and runs a sober living environment (SL) program in Oakland called My Brothers Helper. And he gives all the credit for this success to God.

“I can’t give the credit to anyone else,” Bowden says. “Who else could change Terrible Tom?”

Fillmore Slim, 90, and “Terrible Tom” Bowden, 85, from left, sing with Reggie Rolls, right, as Kim Hyde, of Oakland, left, listens during the West Coast Blues Society’s Legacy of Blues show at the Continental Club in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Bowden has also remained active in the blues arena over the years, performing with Stewart in the West Coast Blues Society’s Caravan of All Stars and in other situations. In 2023, however, he’d experience a heart attack during one of his performances — although he says God was there to take care of him even in that moment.

“I fainted in the arms of a registered nurse — so I know God was with me,” Bowden says.

But he’s both looking and feeling good these days, which blues lovers found out when — for the first time in some 30 years — he took the stage to perform at his old stamping grounds of the Continental Club in West Oakland back in January.

“I was testing to see if if I could sing,” Bowden says. “I did alright.”

And now he’s looking forward to making even more memories at the Continental down the road.

“I am going to have my birthday party here,” he says.