Tyson lived in Stillwater, Oklahoma for most of his life. Born April 24, 1984. His parents are divorced. Being an AC/DC fan, Tyson loved rock music. Tyson met up with Nick Wheeler at a party, where he falsely informed Nick he could play bass in order to join Nick’s current band. Tyson then quickly picked up bass, and Nick and Tyson eventually formed their own band.

Tyson is a model and has appeared in Glamour Magazine as well as in various advertisments and fashion shows. He recently wrapped his debut film performance in the Anna Faris comedy The House Bunny that was released on August 22, 2008. He currently resides in Destin, Florida.

Like the other three members of AAR, Tyson has a tattoo of the AAR logo on his right chest. But to make his a bit different from the others, he later got another tattoo of a power outlet with a cord plugging into his AAR tattoo. He also has a tattoo of a black heart on the outside of his right thumb, like bandmate Chris Gaylor (the two decided to get the heart tattoo together on Chris’s birthday one year), and the Tournado symbol on the underside of his right armpit.

Tyson uses a variety of basses including a blue Gibson Thunderbird in the Dirty Little Secret and a ebony V Bass in The Last Song video.

Quotes
“Guys don’t feel anything…I don’t, unless I’m writing a song. Guys have like five feelings and girls have like 105.”

(On the first time he heard the song “Swing, Swing” on the radio) “Yeah. I’ll never forget. I just left this party in Oklahoma. The local station had just started playing it. I was with this chick and we were driving back to her place and at 2:01 in the morning, Swing Swing came on, which was totally crazy and it helped me out at the end of the date. I got to come inside. It was a touch of fate; perfect timing.”

“I’m sensitive, but I’m not a pu**y. That’s all I knew when I was writing songs. I didn’t know about comparing life to an ocean or using metaphors. I was not a deep child. I have a short attention span.”

“I’d be up all night watching AC/DC, then jumping up on the table in my pajamas and pretending to be Bon Scott.”

“I went right out, got a bass and learned how to play it. I stayed inside the whole time during Christmas break until I could come out and join the band.”

(on fame) “Yeah, and everybody who moves out to L.A. gets that Hollywood thing in their blood, and their second record always sounds like s**t. And if we end up there, we take it back.”

“We’re always searching for the right hook. It never gets too complicated with us. It’s checkers, not chess.”

“I like that people feel like they can trust their own secrets with our band. It’s kind of cool. Not only is it an outlet for them to escape to when they listen to the record, it’s also some place they can go to. I think it helps to connect to the band more.”

“You can buy music or you can steal music, as long as you f***ing feel music!”

“A lot of people think that we rule! I don’t know what it is… It’s like we stepped in something. It’s called ‘awesome’. And we can’t walk it off… It’s like sh*t mixed with glue. It’s magic shit. Imagine the exact opposite of what normal shit smells like, and that is what our magic shit smells like! So thank you everyone!”

“If you could burn anything and have the residue be candy or cereal, the world would be engulfed in flames. I would even burn some people.”

“If you go to a rock show and just stand there, what the hell? You stand like cattle in your school’s cafetaria line. You don’t go to a rock show… and stand. And if you do, don’t come to OUR rock show!”

“I know what I am, you know what you are. Be happy with who you are. If you’re not happy then go shove a f***ing pole up your ***.”

“Fear is the fuel of the weak, and I will not put that in my f***ing car.”

“If I had a guilty pleasure on my ipod it would be that I have no ipod.”

“I’m not gay, but I love men and women equally.”

“I really don’t listen to music unless I’m entertaining people. I’ll put it on because I know that silence is frightening to people, but I love it. I love the sound of the world just as much as I love music. I’ve got the rest of my life to listen to the best music that’s ever been made.”

Trivia
» The first thing Tyson bought with the money he made from their debut album was a TV set for Nick Wheeler.
» Tyson was only 16 when he wrote the songs on the band’s debut album “The All-American Rejects.”
» Tyson’s favorite song from the record “Move Along” is Move Along.
» Tyson is in the August 2006 issue of Teen People in which he and his ex-girlfriend, Kim Smith are modeling in a section called “All-American Style”.
» Tyson is a smoker.
» Tyson writes left-handed, plays bass right-handed.
» Tyson has his own clothing line called “Butter”/”T. Bourne Ritkins”. (Butter Official Myspace)
» Tyson had to learn how to play bass in only a few weeks in order to join the band.
» Tyson claims that his biggest fan is his little sister.
» Tyson says that his favorite band is N*SYNC.
» Tyson has the AAR symbol tattooed on his front-right side just below his shoulder.
» Tyson wrote all the lyrics to all of the songs on their self titled album.
» Tyson won’t drive with the radio on. He thinks the music distracts him from coming up with his own riffs.
» Tyson’s favorite cereal is Vanilla Frosted Mini-Wheats.
» On stage, Tyson is known for dancing crazily during Nick Wheeler’s solos.
» Tyson chipped his front teeth from hitting himself with a microphone.
» Tyson wrote the songs on the band’s sophomore album “Move Along” for an ex-girlfriend who cheated on him.
» Tyson is one of the founding members of The All-American Rejects.
» In addition to playing bass for The All-American Rejects, Tyson also occasionally plays piano for AAR.
» According to J-14 Magazine, Tyson weighed about 215 pounds in 9th grade, but since then has lost 65 pounds.
» Tyson is a fan of Def Leppard.
» Tyson’s parents are divorced.
» Tyson graduated early to pursue his career in music, but he walked with the rest of his class a year later.
» Tyson is one of the actors (Cody) in ‘House Bunny’.

Time Line