Have you ever met a famous drummer?

Yay! What's the prize? There is a prize, right..?

Yes there is , J. You get to post more of your playing vids out here!

Aydee...I now know of who you speak...actually, I never met HIM..

BUT...it is a YOUNGER drummer also with a few popular DVD's, one most recently...and he has a rather...uhm...TALL EGO!...who's last name is often replaced by said word...;

Gotcha Jason : ). Like Stan said, most are very open to helping others in anyway they can and they identify with other people who are equally passionate about their craft and their instrument. However, there will always be a few exceptions who find such people intrusive & offensive.

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Funny to find out who's nice and who's not. Kind of disappointing re: the guy who won Wavelength the chance to post more vids because I love that guy's playing. Louis Bellson must have been incredibly nice - everyone seems to love him.

A friend told me of a highly respected drummer who, when he was in Oz, pulled the "Don't you know who I am?" line out in a drum shop so he could jump ahead of the customer in line before him. The shop assistant continued to serve the other customer :)
 
How about the guy whose name in a YouTube search gives you tons of football videos and just a score of drumming related clips?

Ladies & gentlemen, we have a winner!

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Oh really ! I never thought of him, he look a nice guy and from what we can see in his NYC apartment (from a tube video) give the impression of a humble & low profile guy. He may be inconfortable in public and shy in nature. Anyway he's a monster player...
 
Who I met:

Steve Gadd: Class all the way. Incredibly nice.

Dennis Chambers: Laid back, totally cool.

Steve Smith: Very bad experience at a clinic in Long Island, was so rude to the crowd and backstage staff. I was surprised by this and was expecting a different persona. I don't know what the hell went wrong.

Tommy Igoe: Incredibly gracious. Total class and humble. Gave me his new sticks and wrote out several fills I asked about for me afterwards. Stayed around answering questions until every last person had left.

Dave Weckl: Not a good experience, he was not happy with the sound and he never got over it. Played great, though but man, he was pissed off. Something went wrong before the clinic started I think.

Thomas Lang: Not my type of thing playing wise, but was very, very nice.

Keith Carlock: Super nice and very gracious.



I have to tell you most of the name players I've met are very nice! I think even the ones who weren't were probably just having a bad day. You know guys, these are PEOPLE and they are entitled to have some bad days too so I wouldn't be so quick to form a complete judgement on anyone on a single meeting.
 
Who I met:


Steve Smith: Very bad experience at a clinic in Long Island, was so rude to the crowd and backstage staff. I was surprised by this and was expecting a different persona. I don't know what the hell went wrong.

I have to tell you most of the name players I've met are very nice! I think even the ones who weren't were probably just having a bad day. You know guys, these are PEOPLE and they are entitled to have some bad days too so I wouldn't be so quick to form a complete judgement on anyone on a single meeting.

Follow the thread post by post and you'll make yourself your own opinion.
 
How about the guy whose name in a YouTube search gives you tons of football videos and just a score of drumming related clips?

Ladies & gentlemen, we have a winner!

...

A store I worked at hosted a clinic by him, so I hung out with him all day once helping him set up, etc.

I had heard horror stories, so I was prepared for the worse, but I found him to not be too bad. A little demanding, but nothing extreme. Although I've worked many, many clinics, and 90% of the time, I've found the name players to be super nice and humble people, so you could say by comparison he was a bit put off-ish, but not the worst experience with a name player I've ever had.
 
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Louis Bellson must have been incredibly nice - everyone seems to love him.

He was. I had the pleasure of hosting a drum clinic by him, one filming a concert he did, and seeing him in several other clinics. A true gentlemen, and a guy who just did NOT sweat the small stuff.

We had a duel clinic of Louie and Terry Bozzio. We get to sound check, and we have mics, a pa, the whole nine yards. Terry sets up, the sound guy puts mics on his kit, and Terry does a normal sound check (this was pre-mega huge kit Terry).

Louie shows up, has his assistant set up his drums, Louie makes sure it's looks right, and then leaves for dinner. The guy didn't care about formal sound checks! The sound man was baffled, but I thought it was cool that it just didn't concern him, Louie just trusted that everything would sound fine.

Several time I saw Bellson, where there ended up being an issue with a microphone, and Louie would just crack a joke "it doesn't matter, when I started, we didn't have microphones!" He was more about making sure his wife was comfortable and that his suit was on right then worrying about all the little things that most drummer worry about. Just genuine down to earth person.
 
Who WAS the worst experience, DrumEatDrum??

Just curious..

Heh...well, the moderators don't like name bashing around here, so I'll keep it to myself.

Let's just say the guys ego was Surfing as high as an Alien, and his very Moving tirade he delivered to me cause so much embarrassment to the drum company sponsoring the clinic that they issued an apology to me. But from what I hear, the guy is normally rather nice, so maybe it was just a particularly bad day for the guy. I certainly enjoy his writings now.

Still, that the worst clinic I ever worked, not the worst I've ever seen.
 
At age 14/15 My friends and I did volunteer work for Concord Jazz Records, Concord Calif. My friends mom was like "VP" or whatever under the owner, Carl Jefferson, in the 1970"s. The Concord Jazz Festival started at the "Concord High School Park", near the High School, in the early 70's. It finally moved to the Concord Pavillion, (Sleeptrain Pavillion, 2010).

We would help people find their seats, aisles etc etc hand out programs etc etc blah blah blah.........

I saw Jake Hannah, Louis Bellson, Airto.....several times. Also names I will never remember....but all Jazz greats! Mel Torme, Tony Bennett, etcccccccetera!

ONE NIGHT a the C P......I was "Backstage"....yes....where all drummers want to be.........I heard a loud mouthed guy talking to whomever....I turned around and it was.........Buddy Rich. Standing next to me and munching a hotdog with passion. I could not speak at that moment. I stared, looked, watched........but nothing came out of my mouth...sigh to this day.

After BR left to go to the stage his bus driver came up to me and asked why I did not say anything to him. I was just a chicken. He gave me a tour of the band bus and gave me a pair of his signature sticks.

A few minutes later I sat in the front row and was blown away!

My story.
 
When I was 16 I borrowed my dad's car to drive into Downtown Detroit (No, not from the suburbs, from outer Detroit) to The Drum Shop. I wanted to buy a practice pad and knew just what I wanted. After climbing the stairs to the second floor store I found the owner (a well known local show drummer) conversing with a small black gentleman. This went on for quite a while and I was getting a little steamed at being ignored. After all, I was ready to spend $15. As they broke up their conversation I was introduced to the other visitor and shook his hand. After he left the owner informed me I had just shaken the hand of Benny Benjamin, the famous Motown drummer. Still get a kick out of those names, James Jamerson and Benny Benjamin....If you haven't seen it watch Standing in the Shadows of Motown. It was a great time for music in Detroit!

O'C
 
Clint, nice to hear from you again, bud! My business is mainly advertising, which on the music end of it includes event management and music production. I'm also involved with franchising out a Philly based performance center to other cities around the world.

Nice try on the drummer Clint, no, it isn't Weckl ; )

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Oh, sorry Mr. Weckl! :eek:) Very cool with your business my friend. I wish you much success. I am involved in franchising as well. I have a business that I started 12 years ago that is beginning to take off. Anyway, glad to hear from you as well!
 
Wow Benny Benjamin...there's a name you don't hear much. Envy!
 
I met Travis Barker, along with the rest of of Blink-182, at a concert over the summer. I had so much questions for him that I ended up drawing a blank and just stood their in amazement that I was meeting my favorite drummer lol. I told him how much he inspired me and he told me it means a lot to him, but also said he wasn't even good. Even though I disagree, at least he's not cocky.
 
Chalk up a zero for me too. I've hung out and played with drummers and other musos who've played with "name bands" or artists in Oz but the musos themselves never had a profile. Not wild about meeting celebs because I'd probably just bug them by saying something inappropriate :)

Hercules, if Pierre Moerlen wasn't famous, he deserved to be. We've chatted about him before but too many people have missed out on the work of this wonderful drummer. Was he a nice guy?

Hi Pollyanna,

I have to say that Pierre was as nice as his playing is wonderful!!! I was only in my early 20s and had snuck in the back door to see the soundcheck for Oldfield - Pierre did a drumsolo for the soundcheck and it was just awesome!! All of the roadies stopped work and sat wherever they happened to be and watched silently until Pierre was finished, then they went back to work - noone batted an eyelid when Oldfield did his soundcheck......

So there I was, sitting up the back of the auditorium reflecting on that ... I looked up and Pierre came walking up the aisle and said hello - I was really freaked out that he would take the trouble to do that.

I found a couple of vids of Pierre playing with Tribute not long ago - hope the link still works - there are 4 parts to the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSRpATKd5VQ&feature=related
 
Famous drummer? Can't say that I have, except maybe Lee Pearson, who played with the World Saxophone Quartet at my town's jazz fest. He's not too famous, but his solo was 10x better than Pearts 2 septembers ago that I saw, I couldn't believe it. Not that Peart wasn't amazing or anything! I've also met David Murray from the world sax quart as well, but he's not a drummer...
 
Hi Pollyanna,

I have to say that Pierre was as nice as his playing is wonderful!!! I was only in my early 20s and had snuck in the back door to see the soundcheck for Oldfield - Pierre did a drumsolo for the soundcheck and it was just awesome!! All of the roadies stopped work and sat wherever they happened to be and watched silently until Pierre was finished, then they went back to work - noone batted an eyelid when Oldfield did his soundcheck......

So there I was, sitting up the back of the auditorium reflecting on that ... I looked up and Pierre came walking up the aisle and said hello - I was really freaked out that he would take the trouble to do that.

I found a couple of vids of Pierre playing with Tribute not long ago - hope the link still works - there are 4 parts to the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSRpATKd5VQ&feature=related

I've been a fan for a long time, Hercules, so I'm glad he was a nice guy. Ta for the link - I only really know his work with Gong. My fave drumming performance of his is the studio track, Cat in Clark's Shoes - yeah!

From the 4:10 mark to 6 mins is drumming heaven - he was like a super-tight fusion version version of Keith Moon at times :)
 
Well, you asked! I am very lucky that, because I work in the business I know, either as friends or clients, many of the folks listed on this site. Many others I have met in my travels. The first group includes, among others, Stanton Moore, Nick Rich, John Blackwell, Terry Bozzio, Casey Grillo, Carlos McSwain, Billy Ashbaugh. Keith Carlock, Jonathon Moffitt, Omar Phillips, Derek Roddy, Brent Easton, Curt Bisquera and lots of other folks from within the industry including Don Lombardi, Ronn Dunnett, John DeChristopher, Cathy Rich, Danny Britt, Art Verdi and lots more. I am lucky enough to have met Dave Weckl, Steve Gadd, Harvey Mason, Lennie White, James Gadson, Bernard Purdie, Neil Peart, Chad Smith, Tommy Igoe, Pete Erskine, Jojo Mayer, Jeff Porcaro, Carlos Vega, Johnny Vidacovich, Cindy Blackman, Chad Smith, Jim Riley, Benny Greb, Ringo, Greg Bissonette, Steve Smith, Ian Paice, Cozy Powell. Steve Jordan, Chad Wackerman, Sheila E., Efrain Toro and many, many others.

I find there to be a real community of drummers who genuinely help and support each other. These are great drummers but more importantly, almost without exception, these are good, kind and generous people. I am honored to know them!

This is just a quick list I did off the top of my head and I am sure I have forgotten several - please don't be offended, I love you too!

Paul
 
Let's just say the guys ego was Surfing as high as an Alien, and his very Moving tirade he delivered to me cause so much embarrassment to the drum company sponsoring the clinic that they issued an apology to me. But from what I hear, the guy is normally rather nice, so maybe it was just a particularly bad day for the guy. I certainly enjoy his writings now.


My low point was a meeting with a big, highly respected technical master clinician with a lot of DVDs under his belt.

How ironic that they both were schooled by the same master drummer....
 
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