Born in
Indianapolis, Tobias grew up in
Lafayette and is a childhood friend of
Axl Rose. Following the formation of Rose's band
Hollywood Rose in 1983, the band's demo tape featured two songs co-written by Rose and Tobias: "
Shadow of Your Love" and "Back Off Bitch". Rose stated in an interview with
Rolling Stone in 1992 that the song was ten years old at that time. While Tobias contributed to the song at Rose's request, his inclusion caused friction between Rose and the band's then-lead guitarist
Slash due to an overdub made by Tobias of Slash's solo on the track. Rose further explained that the intention behind bringing in Tobias was to help the band in the studio: "The public gets a different story from the other guys – Slash, Duff, Matt – who have their own agendas. The original intentions between Paul and myself were that Paul was going to help me for as long as it took to get this thing together in whatever capacity that he could help me in. So when he first was brought into this, he was brought in as a writer to work with Slash. At the time those guys never suggested one name." In 1997, Tobias began working for Guns N' Roses full-time in a studio setting, jamming and recording song ideas with keyboardist
Dizzy Reed and then-lead guitarist
Robin Finck, among others. During these sessions, Tobias and Reed wrote the song "
Oh My God", which was later featured on the soundtrack of the 1999 film
End of Days. In January 2001, Tobias made his live debut with Guns N' Roses as the band played their first concerts in eight years at
Las Vegas's House of Blues and
Rock in Rio III. Rose introduced Tobias on stage at both shows as someone who had helped him keep the band together during the past years. In Rio, Rose also noted that Tobias had previously played live only a handful of times. The band played their next two concerts in December 2001, also in Las Vegas, which marked Tobias' last appearances as a band member. In mid-2002, due to his aversion to touring, Tobias was replaced in the band by
Richard Fortus. In July 2006, several of the band's demos were posted on MySpace. In 2008, Guns N' Roses released
Chinese Democracy, and Tobias was credited as a co-writer on seven songs, in addition to contributing arrangements, and guitar and piano parts. In 2018, Tobias was again associated with Guns N' Roses when "Shadow of Your Love" was released as a single and included on the deluxe edition of
Appetite for Destruction. == Discography ==