Today On Tour. Fan Clutchs and Friends
Since my last entry into TheBestDrummerInTheWorld.com, a lot has changed. I started a tour bus /tour support company. It has completely consumed my every waking moment. The business has expanded super fast and has given me a massive pile of inspiration to write from. To simplify, for the purpose of just getting back into it. I drive bands around in a big tour bus. I have 5 buses, which means 5 guys plus who drive for me. Over the past few days I had a fan clutch go bad. Remember, I’m still basically a drummer. Rule one of touring is always GET TO THE SHOW. or Make the show happen. Long story short. It took me 10 hours in the engine bay of the bus to pull out the old fan clutch. This began as soon as i parked after driving 7 hours through the night to Madison Wisconsin. It was about 20 degrees out. After spending $500 to have the $1400 new fan clutch overnighted to my hotel, I spent another 9 hours putting this new one in. Slept of 6 hours and drove another 7 hours to Detroit, where I now sit writing this. The juice of the story however is the fights I had with my friends and loved ones while all of this was going on. We have this situation where we have the potential for instant communication with everyone in our lives. My wife is on a different tour and she was texting me for a play by play. My best friend lives in the bay area and we got in a girlfriend type of fight because I wasn’t really engaged in our conversation. Today, on the other side, It really hits me that the pace of these things is way out of whack. Instant communication is a blessing and also a huge curse. But a curse, because its out of synch with the actual pace of life. For 19 hours, literally every second of my life was completely consumed with the logistics of swapping out a fan clutch. Something I had never done before. 2 Ubers to Harbor Freight to get tools I kind of figured I needed. I couldn’t get this bolt off. I stripped 3 of the bolt. I had to cut them off with an angle grinder. There was no room to fit an angle grinder in between the fan and the radiator. On and on, in my mind non stop for 19 hours. All the while, I have no room to bail out. Blow it off. Take a step back. Relax, it’ll work out fine. None of that. If...
What Is The Best?
Maintaining a website like this has its ups and downs. Just like life. Lately I’ve been feeling guilty for not writing some interviews I’ve done over the past few months. Basically I’ve been busy drumming and touring and generally just living life. Some things have happened recently that I’m going to share with you for the purpose of making myself known to you, the person reading this. It has to do with “being great” or being “the best.” Basically, I never really thought this site would become the journey it has become, and most of the time I just do my things and stuff happens in life and I meet some people and I get inspired and I do an interview and learn things and do some gigs and work on things in my drumming and improve here and there and just basically “live my life.” There are some things that happen that I sometimes have a hard time understanding the significance of and they can sometimes stick in my head and sort of “jam up the works.” This is a story about that. As you may know, I play in a band called Led Zeppelin 2. And that means I get to get into the “character” of John Henry Bonham, arguably the greatest rock drummer of all time. It’s a beautiful challenge to do this. Here’s how I see it. I get to take on the role of another person who I only know through the products he created in his life. His product is music. And he was part of a group of people who created something together that is beyond this world, which all great music IS. Music is not a part of this world, it is something above it all. Call it manic, call it spiritual, call it life force, but if it’s great it touches something timeless inside you. So I get to adopt an identity that happened to bend space and time and transcend life and create something bigger. And doing this action for me allows me a vehicle to work certain things out for myself. But my journey through life sometimes has things that I don’t always have perspective on at the time. And this year of 2013 had some that I’m just getting perspective on. I’ve owed you this story for a year. Each year for about the past five years now, my band Led Zeppelin 2 (a band name as cocky as The Best Drummer In The World) has steadily grown bigger and bigger. In our hometown of Chicago, we sold out three nights at House of Blues. Almost 1,400 people a night times three nights was something I’m super proud of. Definitely a great year. As I write this, I’m lying in bed...
Kenny Aronoff: The Band Guy For Everybody – Part 1
I want to start off by saying that I don’t get “star struck” when I meet famous people. And I’ve met a bunch. Now, I do get super excited when I get to interview drummers because I know the gig to a large degree, and when I get to meet a drummer I admire, it tends to be because I love the music they’ve made or the bands they’ve played in. Meeting Kenny Aronoff is something quite different for me. Not that I got starstruck. Because to meet Kenny is to meet a totally down to earth great guy who is super easy to talk shop with. But when you realize you’re talking with a guy who has played on over 500 records, the correct term is awestruck. And I love being in awe of other people. I love seeing the greatness of other human beings. And in the world of drumming, Kenny Aronoff is one of the greats. But to have played on over 500 records and toured for countless numbers of years and played with literally the greatest artists in the history of music, you want to make sure that you really dig in. Because the lessons that come from a success story like Kenny Aronoff’s are lessons that apply far beyond the world of drums. His story is not just about how to be a great drummer, but about how to live your passion and rise to the top of the game you play. And if the soul of a great band is the drummer, then Kenny has lessons on how to be a fully spiritual entity, because he is able to bring that soul into an incredible number of different situations and still maintain the soul of a “band guy”. And if you ever needed proof of the truly spiritual nature of music, go see Kenny on tour with John Fogerty touring behind his album Wrote A Song For Everyone, and you will realize that music might be the most powerful thread that holds us all together. TheBestDrummerInTheWorld.com: Kenny, I imagine that if I said you’re a busy guy, that would be an understatement. Kenny Aronoff: You don’t know one-tenth of it. I’m in the middle of writing a book, mixing a record while touring with John, and I’m getting ready to do the Kennedy Center Honors. This is my sixth year doing it. I’m doing Billy Joel and Santana, which is no big deal now as the gig day approaches, but when you get there it’s the most massive pressure you can imagine. You gotta read like a motherfucker. Playing with seven artists that can...
Who The Fuck IS Brad Elvis?
You have to understand something about living in the Midwest. The Midwest is NOT the home of the “entertainment industry” It’s a place where people are used to buckling down and working for a living. Sure, there are a few “rock stars” from the Midwest, but it’s a different breed of cat. But what has the “entertainment industry” given us anyways? MTV? Auto-Tune? American Idol? Not much of anything really. If I told you that the best drummer you will ever see is a guy named Brad Elvis, you might ask about what video he’s in. No Brad Elvis is NOT that guy in that YouTube video with 25 million hits. Brad Elvis plays lead drums, like lead guitar, but without all the Eddie Van Halen theatrics. Brad is a guy you watch as he bounces a stick off the snare or floor tom, or as he balances his stick in the open palm of his hand, or on the tip of his index finger, while laying down a back beat you can’t help but swing to. He’s from the midwest. He works for a living. His job is drummer. And, unlike a lot of guys in the midwest and everywhere else in the world, he loves his job. He has mastered it. He does it so well, he can do it with one hand tied behind his back. But he never does. He shows up and gives 100% every time. Brad Elvis plays drums for The Romantics. Clem Burke of Blondie recommended Brad for the gig. The Romantics are from Detroit, which is also in the Midwest. You know The Romantics from massive hits like “Talking In Your Sleep” and the anthem “What I Like About You”. And they deserve to be called rock stars. But remember they’re from Detroit and its about working and perfecting your craft and the craft of The Romantics is rock and roll. Both parts, rock and roll. It swings. And that swing is demonstrated quite graphically by Brad Elvis. And in case playing in one great band isn’t enough, Brad plays drums and is part of the creative team behind The Handcuffs with his guitar slinging/lead singing/rock wife/better half Chloe Orwell. I saw a Handcuffs photo with Chloe wearing a “Who The Fuck Is Brad Elvis” shirt a la Keith Richards and had to steal it for the headline. For those from the Midwest proper (meaning Chicago:) Brad and his band The Elvis Brothers (a trio along with his rock brothers Rob and Graham Elvis) were staples of midwest clubs and theaters from the early 80’s through the early 90’s when they...
Thommy Price Defeats Neil Peart in Drum Battle
The headline of this article is 50% meant for effect. Thommy Price and Neil Peart have never, to my knowledge, set their drums up face-to-face and had it out. If you’re a Rush fan (and I am, being a both a drummer and a Canadian), I apologize for shocking your system with such a bold statement. But we’re going to put some things into perspective with this one. Thommy Price is as rock solid a drummer as there is. Give a listen to just a few of his drum parts from the massive catalog of hits that he’s played on – including Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” and Joan Jett hits galore – and you’ll soon realize that the Thommy Price rock groove is in our DNA. The Thommy Price groove was designed to shake asses. It doesn’t require complex time signatures and roto toms. It’s solid four-on-the-floor, tom fills, pocket, all swing. And shake asses it does. And this is the point. If the aforementioned drum battle is only played for those who can appreciate Rush, then half the population is excluded from the vote. Sorry, no girls like Rush. And, not all guys like Rush. I do, but I’m only one vote. And don’t ask me to choose. I’m trying to be an impartial referee here. And let’s add another factor to the Thommy column: he plays for Joan Jett. Now, this article is about Thommy, but let’s really put this into perspective. Joan Jett isn’t just a girl in a band. She’s definitely not just “a female musician”. Joan Jett is the SOURCE of women in rock. She is ground-zero. Joan Jett is as ROCK as Keith Richards. She IS rock. And as musicians and fans know, there is no great band without a great drummer. So if Joan Jett IS rock, then Thommy Price is the backbone of rock. Do the math. You’ll see I’m right. The Best Drummer In The World: I’ve heard that you’ve been on the road since you were 15 years old. How did your career get rolling? Tommy Price: I started on the road at 15 or 16 in cover bands on the Jersey Shore, and then once I got out of high school I actually went on the road for months at a time. As in “out of New York City.” I was in a band at 17 years old on RCA Records that was produced by Jimmy Iovine called Flame. That was my first real big thing. We did a full record for RCA, and that opened a lot of doors for me. Later on I joined Mink Deville and started going...
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