Everyone on my mom's side of the family were musicians I don't associate with my father, or his side of the family. My grandfather was a touring musician and played for just about every Bluegrass legend you can imagine. Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanely, Larry Sparks, Joe Isaacs - you name it, and if he didn't play with them, chances are he was good friends. He'd established hometown fame with his own Bluegrass bands in his old age, but on a national scale, he always stopped just short of being 'famous'. Not only was I the first of my family to play drums, but I was also the first to play anything besides Bluegrass or Country music. A lot of people don't believe me when I tell them I was almost 10 years old before I heard Rock music for the first time.
A man who played banjo for my grandfather's band ended up dating my mother, and in addition to Bluegrass, he liked Classic Rock. He had a copy of AC/DC's 'Back In Black' record, and every night I'd go through his bag, and if he had it with him, I'd stay up until near time to go to school listening to the CD over and over again. Then in 01' I believe, my mother bought me my first CD for christmas - it was Bon Jovi's Crush album. It wasn't long after that I got interested in drums.
My mother tried to get me to learn just about everything else except drums, and refused to buy me anything that had to do with the instrument. My first drum set was bought at a garage sale for 60 dollars, and it SUCKED, but I loved it. So anytime I got a little bit of money, I bought anything to do with drums that I could afford, rather it was heads, sticks, beaters, whatever. I just loved going to music stores or pawn shops and buying drum stuff.
I seriously got into drums when I was in highschool. I had friends who wanted to start a band, but couldn't play anything. One of them bought a cheap guitar and learned tabs. The other one was pretty much forced into playing bass. After that we found several different guitarists (all leaving from typical teenage drama), and eventually we just all stopped talking. We claimed our goal was to sound like Mastodon, In Flames, and bands like that, but we done well to make an AC/DC cover recognizable when we played. But I learned from the experience.
My mom's attitude toward me drumming has changed. She has a country music outfit, and I'm often asked to play when her regular drummers aren't available, which is fine because I always get paid. She's now pretty encouraging of it, and actually buys tickets to my bands' shows when she isn't busy with her own music.