Great drummers - quotes

This just made me laugh.
"I probably should sit down and learn some stuff. About 3 or 4 years ago I bought a little pad, a practice pad. I wanted to learn how to bounce my sticks. I don’t know how to do that, so I sat there trying to do press rolls, and I gave up after two hours going, “This is bullshit. That ain’t gonna be loud enough!” -- Dave Grohl
 
"When it comes time to perform, intellect must yield to instinct"

Ken Werner from his book "Effortless Mastery"
 
What a great thread.

My only contribution is that I think it should be stickied.

I'm not a great drummer but feel free to quote that.
 
Neil Peart recounts a few 'drummer jokes' in his book, Roadshow.

How do you get the drummer off the porch?
Pay for the pizza.

How can you tell if the stage is level?
Drool comes out both sides of the drummers mouth.

What do you call a drummer in a three-piece suit?
The defendant.
 
OK....more Neil.

Oh his outlook of the whole touring lifestyle,

"You get up in the morning and you go to work".

And one more joke from Roadshow.

What's the difference between a savings bond and a drummer?
One will mature and make money.
 
More Neil???????

Ok, ok.......

From his book 'Traveling Music' , he tells the story of meeting Charlie Watts just before Rush took the stage at 'SARS-Stock' in Toronto a few years back. Summed up in an email from Geddy.....

"BTW, I will never forget that moment before we went onstage when Charlie Watts came over to shake your hand (at the worst possible moment!) and watching your face go through all the motions of....a. who is this old guy? b. what does he want? c. oh for god's sake it's Charlie Watts!"
 
Sorry for necroing this thread, but I just watched a video from Gene Hoglan that's a real goldmine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jKxX1FI9t8

at 2:14
"Here's an example of I how learned to count to.. well to some crazy number right here. It's really hard. Let me try to count this as we go, this is a really weird one: a 2 3 4 5 6 - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 - 1 2 3 4 5 [pauses] What kinda counting was that. I just counted to 21 or something, that's retarded. Way to go guys"

And of course:
3:10
"When I play drums, I like it when orange strings come out of my head."

Gene is such a beast, haha.
 
" Someone asked me about the use of the metronome and I answered that you should use it only if you cannot keep time and are trying to develop a sense of holding time at a certain level. But to play metronomic time is another inhuman aspect. The time should be at the same place, but to make it elastic sounding, it may have to get a little faster or slower. A metronome locks you into "bap bap bap bap."

Max Roach. Words of wisdom.
 
"That whole thing of replicating what others do is a siren call. The sirens lure you to the rocks of unoriginality."

Stewart Copeland, being tactful as usual.
 
"...first of all you can't sound like Max Roach ... you can't sound like Buddy Rich or whoever it is that you are trying to emulate. You Can't do it . So it behooves you to check out what they're doing and try to execute some of the things you hear them doing that are part of the drumming tradition....and it's going to comeout sounding like you anyway.
So don't be afraid of influences ...it's a big big problem.
I've heard young musicians in schools and conservatories all around the world.
I ask them if they listen to Horace Silver or have they listened to Tommy Flanagan, or Hank Jones?....' no no' ... have you listened to Sonny Rollins?.... 'no no I don't wanna sound like anyone I don't wanna be....' ......I think it's a huge mistake ..... huge huge huge.
and if you were writing poetry you would study great poets, if you were a painter you would study great painters ...it doesn't mean you are going to paint like them ..but you have to understand conceptually what goes into creating something of a certain level and a certain feeling.... and so.... don't be afraid of influences "

- Lewis Nash


"I believe that playing like someone is a great help. I believe it gives someone a vocabulary. It gives you things that you don't have. and playing like people that have come before is the basis so that you can decide for yourself what you want to play and what you don't want to play. If you don't do these things then you never know ... you're just floundering around and being insecure and for lack of better reasons everyone walks around saying... well I've got my own style .... but I did I practiced everything they did so that I could decide what is was I didn't want ."

_ Tony Williams




" I'm the best....Keith Moon type....drummer in the world."

- Keith Moon
 
Since Zappa was a drummer:
DJ's are to musicians, as fire hydrants are to dogs.
 
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AVH is right about that!
But his sets always looked so cool and inspired me extremely :love:
Although I always wondered what kind of sound was coming out of bass drum no. 3,4,5,6?
He had connected them with some tubes.
But was there a sound coming out?

By the way, I was born in 1969 and grew up with Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Accept, Helloween, Kiss, Dio, Rainbow, Journey, Scorpions and Chastain (I like Ken Mary very much! In my eyes a totally underrated drummer!).
You couldn't get past those huge „drum castles“:cool:
 
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“Nice rack!
Beautiful set as well!”
Thanks!
Yes, that rack is great! You have so many ways to build your set. Everything is mounted bombproof, nothing wobbles there.
I am an engineer and I love to „tinkering“ at the rack :)
With all the memory locks and the clamps (always in the same position), I need about an hour for the complete set up.
But the set of the pic would never be built like this on the stage! So it stands only in our rehearsal room.
At our gigs I play a regular 6-piece Sonor Performa with only one kick drum. Than I play a Giant Step middle pedal (great pedal(y)).
 
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