Pridgen won the Guitar Center Drum-Off at age 9 and at age 10 was the youngest recipient for a Zildjian endorsement in the nearly 400 year history of the company. Thomas has studied with David Garibaldi, Walfredo Reyes Jr, Troy Luketta, and Curtis Nutall. He endorses DW Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Evans Drumheads, Pro-Mark Drumsticks.

Thomas was the recipient of a 4 year scholarship to Berklee College of Music in 1999 at the age of 15; he was the youngest musician to ever receive this scholarship.[1] He has played in clinics with Walfredo Reyes, Jr. and Dennis Chambers. By his teenage years he had already done studio sessions with many Bay Area Gospel artists.
In 2007 he joined The Mars Volta. The band has been performing to sell out concerts through the world including their Australian tour during 2008.
Pridgen’s style on the hit Bedlam in Goliath used “blistering 32nd-note full-set combinations, stunning single-stroke rolls, and blazing single bass drum patterns”  along with creative and precise paradiddle technique.
Thomas Pridgen has been voted as Best Up and Coming Drummer by Modern Drummer magazine.

Besides his work with The Mars Volta, he has also been involved with Christian Scott, Keyshia Cole and Wicked Wisdom.
He was featured along side Tony Royster Jr., Eric Moore and others in drumming DVD entitled “Shed Sessions”, a Gospel Chops DVD.
Thomas is featured on the Modern Drummer 2008 DVD.