Big Drum Thump

Drum and Drummer News and Photos

Category: Drummers

  • Jimmy Chalfant Collapses on Stage

    Kix drummer Jimmy Chalfant suffered a suspected heart attack on stage last night in Virginia. Although he was quickly tended to by paramedics, Jimmy was reportedly unconscious as they carried him away. No details yet about his current condition, so we’re keeping our sticks crossed for the dude. He had a previous heart attack in 2021 but didn’t give up playing and touring.

    Kix made it big in 1988, essentially at the end of the hair metal era, with the album Blow My Fuse. The main single was the incredibly popular anti-suicide ballad “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” but as far as we are concerned, the quintessential, you-must-listen-to-this-now Kix tune has always been “Cold Blood.” In the video for the song, Jimmy hammers it down with traditional grip, one of the few rock/metal drummers who have used it (Steve Smith with Journey and pre-accident Rick Allen with Def Leppard are the others). Looks like Jimmy has switched to matched since then, but he definitely gets points for old-school-cool.

    Update 11/20/22: Good news. The band released a statement to Blabbermouth about Jimmy’s condition. He’s stable, alert, and undergoing testing:

    “KIX drummer Jimmy Chalfant is awake, alert, resting comfortably and in good spirits in the hospital after collapsing towards the end of their performance at the Tally-Ho Theater in Leesburg, Virginia on night one of a two nights stint. While clearly a cardiac event, it is unknown at this time whether or not Jimmy actually suffered a heart attack. Jimmy will be undergoing a series of tests to determine exactly what in fact occurred. The second performance scheduled for this evening (Saturday Nov 19th) is understandably postponed with a makeup date pending the prognosis of Jimmy’s condition. KIX appreciates the outpouring of love and concern for Jimmy and thank everyone for their courteous understanding in the matter.”

  • Peter Erskine Is in PASIC’s Hall of Fame

    If you love jazz or fusion or movies or drumming education or just drums in general, then you love Peter Erskine, even if you don’t know it yet. He made it into PASIC’s hall of fame back in May of this year, and I’m surprised it actually took that long. Peter has pretty much been a legend since playing and recording with Weather Report in the late 1970s. He now has over 700 albums under his sticks and two grammy awards. You might not listen on the regular to total jazzbo tunes, but you’ve definitely heard Peter playing on the Austin Powers, La La Land, Logan, or House of Cards scores. The dude and his drums gets around.

    I saw him live way the hell back in 2009 at the NAMM show. He was demoing Roland’s new (at the time) V-Drums. I’m going to embed the old videos of the performance here. The vid image and sound quality is pretty atrocious, but you can still see and hear how great a live player Peter is (and also how great those early V-Drums were!).

  • Vote for Best Metal Drummer of 2022

    Midterms in the U.S. are over now, but the voting isn’t done. Don’t worry: this particular election is more fun.

    Or less awful?

    Music Radar is taking votes for its annual best-metal-drummer award. Crowning a “best” musician in any genre is always a thankless, ultimately fruitless, and sometimes downright dangerous endeavor, but none of us semi-evolved simians can resist a list for long. MR’s candidates are more hit than miss at least, a good mix of legendary and new(ish) shredders, so we tip our sticks to that.

    Did your fav player make the cut? I voted for Brann Dailor…because I’m quite old I suppose but also because he’s super amazing and I’ve lately been thinking quite a lot about Mastodon, the namesake band of a certain decentralized Twitter alternative. Voting ends on November 20, 2022.

    Candidates for Best Metal Drummer of the Year

    • Art Cruz – Lamb of God
    • Ben Gordon – Parkway Drive
    • Brann Dailor – Mastodon
    • Casey Grillo – Queensrÿche
    • Charlie Benante – Anthrax
    • Charlie Engen – Five Finger Death Punch
    • Christoph Schneider – Rammstein
    • Dan Searle – Architects
    • Daniel Erlandsson – Arch Enemy
    • Danny Carey – Tool
    • Dave Turncrantz – Russian Circles
    • Dirk Verbeuren – Megadeth
    • Eloy Casagrande – Sepultura
    • Fabio Alessandrini – Annhihilator
    • Jay Weinberg – Slipknot
    • Jon Larsen – Volbeat
    • Marco Von Allmen – Zeal & Ardor
    • Mario Duplantier
    • Matt Alston – Machine Head
    • Matt Garstka – Animals as Leaders
    • Max Portnoy – Tallah
    • Michel “Away” Langevin – Voivod
    • Mike Wengren – Disturbed
    • Nicko McBrain – Iron Maiden
    • Ray Luzier – Korn
    • Thomas Haake – Meshuggah
    • Thomas Hedlund- Cult of Luna
    • Zack Simmons – Goatwhore
    • Zyon Cavalera – Soulfly

  • Golf Is Stupid

    Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill actually digs golf for some inexplicable reason, but when he tried to play at a fancy (and yet-to-be-named) course in Australia, he was told to cover up his tattoos. The dress code for swinging clubs is apparently much more rigid than for swinging sticks.

    Followill said the course moved from his “bucket list” to the “fuck-it list,” and then continued to have a bit of understandably snarky fun on Twitter.

  • Own Bob Bryar’s Black Parade Costume

    If you are a My Chemical Romance fanatic and always wanted to walk around in Bob Bryar’s clothes, you now got a chance. The former MCR drummer is auctioning off his original Black Parade costume on eBay. The auction ends on October 29, 2022, at 8:14 p.m. The current bid is up to a hefty $12,100…which is a whole shitload of sticks, heads, and cymbals for your kit, but if you’ve got the desire and the cash, your winning bid will ultimately go to a good cause: all proceeds will be donated to help abandoned and sheltered animals that were displaced by Hurricane Ian.

    Though Bryar might have hung up his sticks professionally in 2010, his big heart is clearly still beating strong. Good on you, man.

    [Update October 30, 2022: The winning bid was for $17,365.80. That shall acquire mucho kibble.]

    Because eBay will remove the listing once the auction has ended, we’re going to post here for posterity Bob’s original description and photos.

    hello. does anyone want this? i have no clue how much it’s worth. it’s my OG black parade costume. it was used in the photos, videos, DVD’s, and handmade by colleen atwood (look her up).

    it’s just sitting in a box doing nothing and people need help with money right now.

    there might be a few surprise dog hairs on it because i let my dog fred wear it for a minute as you can see in the picture. the fred hairs are free.

  • Tommy Lee Turned 60 This Month

    It seems absolutely gobsmacking unfathomable that Tommy Lee is 60 years old now (wait, that means I’ve been listening to Crüe tunes for….39 years?), but there is legit photographic documentation of the birthday celebration straight from Tommy’s Instagram.

    The festivities allegedly took place in Punta Mita, Mexico, but there must have been a stopover at the Fountain of Youth because Tommy does not look old enough to nearly be a pensioner.

    Need more explicit photo evidence? Then you’ll prob have to throw down the 20 bucks a month for the dude’s OnlyFans account.

  • Matt Helders Talks New Arctic Monkeys

    Sometime ago in 2006, with the prescient clarity available only to booze-fueled youth, we reviewed the debut album from the Arctic Monkeys and said, “You’re going to love it.”

    Sixteen years later, the love remains the same even if the music has changed a bit on the band’s latest disc, The Car. Helders describes how his own playing style evolved to fit the new Monkeys music:

    “[Being] the rock guy is easier. To the naked eye it probably appears less technical, but in actual fact it is more of a challenge to do what was going on on this record and more considered in a way….And it’s fun to be able to achieve it as well. I notice more of a difference when this kind of playing is good. There’s more room for improvement. The subtleties of it can be more of a big deal.”

  • Hootie Drummer Wrote a Book

    …and he’s chatting about it tonight at 7 p.m. If you are in or around Naperville, IL, click on over to Anderson’s bookshop for tickets. Each ticket purchaser apparently gets a free copy of Soni’s book, Swimming With the Blowfish: Hootie, Healing, and One Hell of Ride. Along with the more serious topics of addiction and recovery, Soni will hopefully regale with a scandalous tale or two of what it was like to bang (drums) in the biggest radio band of the ’90s.

  • Matt Sorum Recording With Kings of Chaos

    New music coming from Matt Sorum with a new version of the super group Kings of Chaos. The full album comes out in 2023, but the first single and accompanying video drop on October 28. The tune is called “Judgment Day,” and it features Sorum on drums (obviously) and lead vocals (not so obvious but awesome).

    I was just clicking through the band’s nicely done website (linked above), and holy shit, there’s some serious talent playing with Sorum: Jack Blades, John Waite, Lita Ford (yes!), Sebastian Bach, Gilby Clarke, Warren DeMartini, and Sean McNabb.

    My inner teenage metalhead is positively squealing.

    Or headbanging, I mean. Headbanging is definitely cooler.

  • Travis Barker Is Really Attracted to Kourtney Kardashian

    And we think that is totally great. It appears, however, that we might be in the minority, at least according to this Sun article that claims fans are done with the couple’s frequent PDA. The final straw was Barker’s (over?)sharing this tidbit on TikTok:

    “Fun fact, my wife and I invented edging.”

    That is a fun fact. It’s also probably a “wrong” fact (we’re pretty sure that high school in general engendered the delightful horror of edging), but we aren’t going to hold it against Travis when he has so much on his mind. And in his hands. And on his lap.

  • Help Abaddon Double Kick Cancer

    Abaddon used to beat the hell out of the skins for Venom, and now he’s looking to beat the shit out of lymphoma. He was diagnosed in July of this year. The docs so far have him on six rounds of chemo and eventually a bout of radiation. In Abaddon’s own words:

    “None of this will break me. Fuck cancer.”

    Indeed. Head on over to his GoFundMe if you’d like to donate.

    [via Metal Injection]

  • Mike Portnoy Plays Live With John Petrucci

    …for the first time in 12 years. The pair reunited to perform in support of Petrucci’s latest solo release, Terminal Velocity. Bassist Dave LaRue completes the trio. Portnoy and LaRue also recorded the album.

    Holy damn, I cannot believe it has been twelve years (years!) since Portnoy left Dream Theater. We mere mortals are all old and even legit geriatric now, but Portnoy and Petrucci seem to defy time, at least as evidenced by the performance footage a fan posted from the gig in Rhode Island. The fan-captured audio kind of blows (as cell-phone audio is wont to do), but it’s obvious the dudes are still totally inspiring shred monsters. Check ’em out.

  • Let There Be Drums! Documentary

    Let There Be Drums! is a new drumming documentary that will be released on October 28. The title feels like part command, part exaltation, and part biblical oratory—all of which are appropriate considering that Taylor Hawkins gives one of his last known interviews in the film. In short, it’s looking like a must-see.

    The documentary also features Jason Bonham, Ringo Starr, Stewart Copeland, Chad Smith, Stephen Perkins, Adrian Young, and Tré Cool. And that is very cool indeed.

    If you are feeling brave, you can catch the film in select theaters (I’m still a Covid coward, so no goddamn way), and it will also be available on Apple TV and Amazon Prime. I’m not sure, though, if it can be rented or if it is purchase-only at this time. Snag an actual physical DVD, you luddite, on November 1.

    Check out the trailer below.

  • This Guy Took Ronnie Vannucci’s Throne

    …But only for one song.

    Apparently the Killers have a tradition of inviting a drummer-fan to play a tune with them each show. During the band’s Detroit gig last week, Scott Hickok got the lead singer’s attention by holding up a two-paneled sign that said “Drummer” on one side and “Strong Right Foot” on the other. And the rest is history for Hickok:

    “Around 11 songs into the set, the house lights came on, and Brandon Flowers saw my sign and we locked eyes for a second….It gets a little fuzzy, but the next thing I know I’m high-fiving people on my way to the front of the room, climbing over the barrier with help from security staff and am escorted to side stage for an introduction to Brandon….I was told I nailed it. I caught all the intricacies of the live version of the song [“For Reasons Unknown”]. I’m very pleased with how I played. It was an amazing time, a dream-come-true, a pure bucket-list moment.”

    Scott Hickok on stage with Brandon Flowers

  • So Much Ringo News

    Everyone’s favorite Beatle is 82 years old now, but he still ends up in the news more often than most other famous drummers.

    First up is that he tested positive for Covid a little over a week ago and had to cancel a couple handfuls of tour dates in Canada and the U.S. That he’s still even touring and performing at a high level is pretty goddamn amazing, so he’s prob got the right mega-genes to beat coronavirus (along with being vaccinated of course…surely he is). So we ain’t worried.

    Which is good, because he announced yesterday on Instagram that he is now Covid free and back on the road. Dig the negative test as a necklace.

    [Update 10/14/22: Yikes, Ringo tested positive again for Covid. All remaining stops on his North American tour have been canceled.]

    His first show back is in Seattle. Apparently to mark his arrival, the Seattle Times published an article last week that asked if Ringo is the most underrated drummer ever. Some Seattle-based drummers offered their thoughts, including Heart skinsman Ben Smith:

    “I remember the moment I first heard Ringo play, and how it gave me chills listening….His parts are so well-composed. Ringo set a standard that we all grew from. Texture, groove and attitude are the high points of a great drummer, and he hits all the marks.”

    We hear the “underrated” and indeed “overrated” discussion quite often about 2-and-4 drummers who are intimately associated with one band: Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, Peter Criss, etc. They aren’t virtuoso instrumentalists like Vinnie Colaiuta (shit, who is really?), so it’s easy to underappreciate or overestimate them depending on what kind of mood your music ears are in.

    The thing is, though, music isn’t sports: we don’t need to pick winners and losers here, rank the highest and the lowest in an artificial hierarchy. Instead, music is like a great party with a bloody big dinner table—plenty of room and seats for all kinds of players. Ringo was perfect for the Beatles, and the band would have been far less great without him. Neil Peart was perfect for Rush, and the band would have been absolutely unimaginable without him. Our party would have super sucked if neither dude took a seat.

    Now we can all move on and go practice.

    Dominating headlines like it’s 1965