Tom Shipley of Folk-Rock Duo Brewer & Shipley (‘One Toke Over the Line’) Dies
by Greg Brodsky
Tom Shipley, who, beginning in the late ’60s partnered with Mike Brewer in the American folk-rock duo Brewer & Shipley, best known for their 1971 hit single “One Toke Over the Line,” died August 24, 2025. The news of his passing at age 84, at University Hospital in Columbia, Missouri, was announced on Sept. 3 on his Facebook page. No cause of death was revealed. [Shipley had announced Brewer’s death on Dec. 17, 2024, noting he had visited “my friend of 65 years and musical partner for over 60” three days before Brewer’s passing at a hospital in Branson, Missouri.]
A tribute on Shipley’s Facebook page noted, “Passion for his art ran deep, whether it was music, writing or video. Every song he wrote and sang, every article he published, and every video he produced were inspired by passion. And every one of them told a story. Tom was unsurpassed at telling a story, and he had a million of them! Sometimes you just had to be patient to get to the end.”
Tom Shipley, in an undated photo on his Facebook page.
Shipley was born April 1, 1941, in Youngstown, Ohio. He grew up listening to early rock ‘n’ roll and played trumpet in high school but gave up the instrument for guitar after hearing Pete Seeger and falling in love with folk music. While in college he played “open mic” nights at various beatnik coffee houses. After college he hit the road and played the American folk circuit. Brewer, three years younger, was born in Oklahoma City, Okla. The pair met at the Blind Owl Coffee House in Kent, Ohio, in 1964, but didn’t become musical partners until 1968.
By the mid-’60s, Brewer had relocated to Los Angeles and formed a band with Tom Mastin, Billy Mundi (later of the Mothers of Invention) and Jim Fielder (who became an original member of Blood, Sweat and Tears). When Brewer became a staff songwriter for A&M Records’ music publishing company, he reunited with Shipley and they began writing songs together. The pair recorded a debut album for A&M but ultimately moved back to the Midwest, settling in Kansas City, Missouri.
They were soon signed to Kama Sutra Records in New York and their second album for the label, 1970’s Tarkio, featured “One Toke Over the Line,” written a few years earlier, as its lead-off track. In a 1971 interview with Rolling Stone‘s Ben Fong-Torres, Brewer said, “One day we were pretty much stoned and all and Tom says, ‘Man, I’m one toke over the line tonight.’ I liked the way that sounded and so I wrote a song around it.”
The country-flavored track features an irresistible sing-along chorus:
“One toke over the line, sweet Jesus
One toke over the line
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line”
In early 1971, Kama Sutra released “One Toke…” as a single—produced by Nick Gravenites, former lead vocalist for the Electric Flag—and watched as it remarkably climbed all the way to #10 on the Hot 100, even after the FCC issued a warning to radio stations informing them that a “toke” was hippie code for inhaling the evil weed, a veiled suggestion that playing the record might not be a good idea.
Related: “One Toke Over the Line” performed on The Lawrence Welk Show
In a biography on the duo’s website, Brewer explained what precipitated their move back to the Midwest. “We really didn’t care for L.A. very much. We had just had enough and figured there had to be a better way to make music, without living there. So, we left California and ended up coming back to the heartland. We ended up in Kansas City and started a management/production company with some friends, Good Karma Productions.
“Our management went to the East Coast to shop some labels. Buddah signed us, because Neil Bogart (the label’s president) at the time was known as the king of bubblegum–you know, 1910 Fruitgum Company and all that stuff. He was trying to shatter that image and looking for album artists. And that’s what Tom and I were. We were never about singles. Every song on our albums was just as important as the next one. All of our albums, we meant to be whole packages.” A collection of them is available here.
The website lists the significant stars that the duo opened for over the years including Elton John, Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Bonnie Raitt, Electric Light Orchestra, Blood Sweat & Tears, James Taylor, Stephen Stills, The Beach Boys, Loggins & Messina, Linda Ronstadt, John Sebastian, and The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, among others.
Related: Musician and celebrity deaths of 2025
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