I didn’t have traditional stage fright. If there was 500 people in the audience or three people in the audience, it didn’t really make a difference. What made a difference was the conductor. Everything that I was scared about as a drummer was him. It was his face. It was whether or not he’d approve of my playing.
I didn’t have traditional stage fright. If there was 500 people in the audience or three people in the audience, it didn’t really make a difference. What made a difference was the conductor. Everything that I was scared about as a drummer was him.
John Bonham, probably the greatest drummer ever – all of us wanted to play drums like him.
I don’t want people to think that I think I’m this great drummer because, to me, I’m just a kid playing drums, and I love music.
I wanted to be a professional drummer.
But Apple really beats to a different drummer. I used to say that Apple should be the Sony of this business, but in reality, I think Apple should be the Apple of this business.
I’d really like having a couple days of being a rock star, although I’d rather be a backup – like maybe the drummer for Muse… It would also be fun to be gorgeous, like be Charlize Theron, just for a couple of days.
A drummer is usually like the backbone.
I started trying to do my own music at home, and I was like, ‘You know what, I can play the guitar, sort of. And I can do these things, sort of. And I can make these crazy noises on my computer, sort of. But I need a ridiculously good drummer. I need someone to help me with string arrangements.’
I am also a drummer of sorts. I’ve got an electronic set sitting in my bedroom.
I have to give my family credit for putting up with the racket, because as some of you may know, its not the easiest thing in the world to live with a kid who’s trying to become a rock and roll drummer.
My dream job is to be a rock drummer and the alternate drummer for the Foo Fighters.
If your child marches to a different beat, a different drummer, you might just have to go along with that music. Help them achieve what’s important to them.
If someone said, ‘What was anything you could wish for,’ it would have been to have Donald Tardy in my band as my drummer.
In my case, it’s hard to be like a simple drummer who doesn’t play all over the place.
A great way to get your rhythm playing together is to work with a drummer, preferably someone that has a good groove and plays solidly in time.
I think my first experience of art, or the joy in making art, was playing the horn at some high-school dance or bar mitzvah or wedding, looking at a roomful of people moving their bodies around in time to what I was doing. There was a piano player, a bass player, a drummer, and my breath making the melody.
People like Art Blakey and Buddy Rich, you look at them playing music, and it’s just like looking at a heavy metal drummer. I mean, they’re playing with the same amount of ferocity. It’s not to say all jazz is like that.
But I’ve always liked to be the kind of drummer and musician who likes to go outside of what’s expected of me, and I’ve always been able to do more than you necessarily hear with every band I’ve ever played in.
We’ve got the pretty-boy lead singer and the fat, dumpy drummer, and I’m the zany guitarist. Sure, we’ve played up the image at times. But it’s the music that matters most.
I was a jazz drummer, and it was my life for a while: what I lived and breathed every day.
Something happens when the music starts, and all that tiredness just goes away. When it’s going like that, I’ll take on any 20-year-old hot-shot drummer who wants to try me.
I used to be a drummer in a band, and I really loved playing the drums, so I look forward to the right opportunity to do that at some point. Maybe even on TV. Every single live performance I’m doing on TV, I want it to be different and unique.
My son Wesley has just turned 13. He was 12 during the recording of this record and he is quite a drummer already and has been studying drums since he was four, but he’s also very interested in African percussion and studies percussion.
I never desperately wanted to be a jazz drummer. If anything, I was motivated a lot by fear. Fear of the conductor, fear of the future.
To me, a great drummer isn’t always about somebody with chops who can shred. A great drummer is someone who is part of a great band.
Being the drummer of Fall Out Boy, and any other project I’ve ever done, is most importantly about playing for the music. Staying out of the way when it’s needed and playing more when it makes sense.
I’ve heard the stories. Like, Eric Clapton said he wanted to burn his guitar when he heard Jimi Hendrix play. I never understood that because, when I went and saw a great drummer or heard one, all I wanted to do was practice.
I can only get my drummer in the winter; he plays with Grand Funk all summer.
As a drummer, I’m rhythmically so disabled that it’s hilarious.
I had a rock and roll band as a kid. What I wanted to be in was a country band, but in Sandy Hook, Ky., you’re hard-pressed to find a steel guitar player or a drummer.
As a drummer, I always approach things as, ‘I want to play just enough to keep other drummers interested, but not enough to go over the average listener’s head.’
I think my first experience of art, or the joy in making art, was playing the horn at some high-school dance or bar mitzvah or wedding, looking at a roomful of people moving their bodies around in time to what I was doing. There was a piano player, a bass player, a drummer, and my breath making the melody.
I don’t have perfect pitch. My drums sound like a drummer, not a drum machine.
For me, it’s always easier playing with a drummer.
I was thrilled to hear Mick Jones wanted me to be involved in celebrating 40 years of Foreigner. I spent three years as their drummer and had a great time.
I remember the first 45 record I bought. It was called ‘A Dog a Donut’; it was a breakbeat. Actually, I think I bought two at one time, and the other one was ‘Dance to the Drummer’s Beat.’ Those are breakbeats. I paid a dollar for it, for each one. Your average producer or DJ would know who came out with those.
Don’t get too caught up in the typical ideas of what makes a good drummer. Those things are sort of unattainable, and they’re not always creatively your most useful things to know.
You don’t have to be a great drummer to be the most important guy in the band.
It was that famous joke: What’s the last thing the drummer said before he got kicked out of the band? ‘Hey, I wrote a song.’
Keith Moon is not interested in jazz and won’t ever be a jazz drummer because he’s more interested in looking good and being screamed at.
