Elliott was only nine years old when he lost his mother  Patricia Williams in a bus accident in 1989. 

At the time, Patricia was 22 weeks pregnant with a baby daughter. Neither Patricia nor the baby survived the crash.

Tony and his sister Brandi were stopped from attending their mother's funeral as they were considered too young to witness the tragedy.

After his mother's death, the siblings moved in with their biological father Jerome Elliott. However, as his father was in and out of jail, Tony shifted to South Carolina to live with an aunt named Blondell Kidd; whereas, Brandi moved in with another aunt in Atlanta.

Tony resented his father for years but later forgave him after he became a father to two children and a mentor to hundreds of young kids. Further, his father Jerome is now sober and has given up his old life of crime.