My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 117 - TOP 10 FAVORITE DRUMMERS EVER WITH MY BROTHER

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

Years after PFT Commenter joined Robbie in the Basement for a podcast on his favorite guitarists of all time, Robbie's older brother Mickey hops down to break down his favorite DRUMMERS of all time - as a drummer himself. Some would call this the most authentic episode of 'My Mom's Basement' yet. 3Chi: Use code MMB at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.com ONE on TNT 1 this Wednesday at 10pm ET/PT!You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Today, we are going to be talking about our top 10 favorite drummers. My brother is a drummer himself, been drumming for... How long would you say your drumming career was, Mike? 20 years? Yeah, sure. If you would think about when I first grabbed the sticks and sat down, you know, at that little toy kit. Sure, 20 years for sure. If you would think about when I first grabbed the sticks and sat down, you know, at that little toy kit. Sure. 20 years for sure. So you've been on the road, you've toured the country a few times, and you've got a lot of

drumming knowledge in your brain. This is pretty much the perfect spot to get it all out. We can talk about it all. Let me start by asking you this question. what makes a great drummer in your opinion? Is it the technical ability? Is it the influence? Is it knowing what to play in a song? Because we're going to go through our lists of our favorite drummers. And I want people to know, don't be hardos about this. It's not the best drummers. Danny Carey from Tool is not going to be on either of our lists. We understand that he's a great technical drummer, but what makes a great drummer in your eyes? You know, it's all those things you said. It's knowing what to play at the right time. It's having a signature sound. It's being a presence on stage sometimes. Sometimes it's two of those

things, but not the third or fourth thing. It's just all about being the right fit for a band. You know, there are a lot of guys in history that won't be considered technically great drummers, but they were just perfect for the band they were in. And it helped leave a fingerprint or a footprint in the history of music that people still listen to and sing along to and drum along to, you know, if you, if you can find a way to leave your mark to me, that's what makes a good drummer. You got to leave a mark somehow. And I'm not talking about for the masses I'm talking about for just maybe 10

kids who showed up to the local show. And one of them saw a drummer and connected to that person and felt like it may be inspired or maybe uh felt like man i saw something great tonight even if it's one kid locally can go home after a show and say man i saw something great tonight this drummer did this or sounded like that or played this you know if you can leave that mark with somebody i think that's great sometimes a thankless job especially like in in the positions like you're talking about where you're in a small place it's like if you're great sometimes nobody's going to notice and if you're horrible it's going

to be very very noticeable like if you're you could be the most amazing drummer in the world and if you're not a technical crazy person or if you're not a fast punk rock drummer sometimes people don't notice if you're not like a big musician if you're not a big fan you don't notice dan that guy's an unbelievable drummer someone that won't be on my list but i mean you you could put the counter out like it's been one minute and robby's making an oasis reference but like alan white from oasis he's never a guy that's going to appear on either of these lists he's not on my list but he's a great drummer he's a guy that you almost don't notice how great of a drummer is when you're listening to those songs, because of how simple a lot of them are. Sometimes the best guys are the guys you don't notice,

and the guy whose name you'll never know. Look at what we had on this podcast, Liberty DeVito, Billy Joel. Talk about a great drummer right there. A lot of people never knew his name, and fantastic episode. If you want to go back, me and Glennie Balls interviewed him. So let me ask you, before we get into the list of top 10 favorites, and they're not ordered, by the way, we're just going with, we're going to go through your list of favorites, really. I'm going to say if someone that you've named is on my list, because they more than likely are.

And then at the end, when I have three or four stragglers that are through my own brain, and I'm not just leeching off your taste, I'll say who they are. But before we we get to that what attracted you to the drums was it just seeing a drum kit we have had you know uncles with drum kits at at grandma's let's say if uncle then never played the drums if you never saw that drum kit I feel like you'd still be a drummer somehow one way or the other what do you think attracted you to the kid? I think about this often now, and I feel like there's two things that I always come back to. I feel like it's maybe a chicken and egg situation where I'm wondering which was first. One of my earliest memories in life as a human is sitting on the floor in a condominium in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, watching the Muppets.

It was actually a Christmas special, a Muppets family Christmas. You can watch it on YouTube. I still go back and watch it on YouTube every Christmas time. And at some point during the special, they cut to the band. And by the way, one of the coolest band names in the history of band, Dr. T and the Electric Mayhem. Get better for a rock band name. That's Jim Henson at his peak right there.

So they cut to the band and they're playing Jingle Bell Rock. And you could see in the corner this little pink ball of fuzz and chains. And just, it's mayhemhem it's electric mayhem and uh i felt very drawn to animal i was a muppet kid and for some reason it caught my eye and the reason i'm wondering if it's sort of a chicken or egg situation is because like you said we grew up with a grandma who had a big drum kit in her basement and uh uncle den would let me go back and play the drums when i was over there and dad would play too when we'd be over there for a family party or a holiday or something you know dad would go down because dad played in high school

dad was good dad showed me a few things uncle den showed me a few things so i'm what i wonder if i noticed animal because the drums of the kids subconsciously somehow yeah and if people people have asked me like why do you have animal tattooed on your arm boom there you go when you played the drums you would play with an animal stuffed animal on your kit very similar to how tommy lee of course would play with the mighty mouse stuffed animal on his kit so there you go that's my animal connection is right there. That's the story behind it. Let's go without further ado into our list because I feel like it's hard to talk about drumming without talking about the actual people that inspired you. But first, let me remind everybody about our

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order. You can get your vapes, gummies, tinctures, oils, even cookies. Now they've got it all go to three chi.com promo code M M B. Now let's get back into it. Go ahead with your first, uh, with your first pick again, these aren't ordered. So I don't know what order we're going in, but once again, please, can we reiterate that these are our personal favorites? Cause I'm already, I'm already picturing the people on twitter in all caps just like neil pert i know i have it i have like in my honorable mentions i've put notes like don't go throughout this podcast without mentioning neil pert because we may have but like we have to just shout out like listen we get it it's's personal taste. He's awesome. He's a legend. Incredible. Not my,

not my favorite, not on my top 10 favorites. Sorry. All right. So animal, the Muppets, dads and uncles who were musicians making music, you know, very musical family. Yeah. Like our uncles, like our uncle Kev is basically a music encyclopedia. He's the guy that you want to be your older brother growing up because he's got every knowledge of every rock and roll band in his brain. You could ask him anything, he knows it. And he was recording music. Like by the time I was old enough to be listening to music,

you know, everyone in the family had his cassette tape, which had four songs on it. And it would go in the cassette player in the car or in the stereo in the living room. And it was Uncle Kev's music. So I, at some point, I guess it just felt like doable. And I don't want to say expected, but something that was totally okay to do. Welcomed at least, very welcomed, I would say. Yeah. So loving rock and roll music very much because of how many members of our family were into it. And one of my early memories of rock and roll was Aerosmith.

They put out in the early 90s a record called Get a Grip. And I remember watching MTV at the time was showing music videos nonstop. It was a good time. when the M stood for music and I remember seeing the video for crying you know one thing about a lot of these guys on my lists is there is a big sound or there is a distinct sound I'm also I'm looking at this list and I'm realizing that I definitely have a type it's mostly oh yeah skinny tattooed white boys who are swinging around like those inflatable tube people outside the car dealer um so i'm gonna start off with talking about joey kramer from arrowsmith original drummer and still to this day joey kramer uh was a big influence on me very early on before i even knew that I wanted

to play the drums. I mean, we're talking about the guy who came up with the groove for Walk This Way. Also at the time, the Wayne's World movies were coming out. I remember seeing Wayne's World 2 in theaters and they could go to an Aerosmith concert and Aerosith comes up and sort of saves the day at the end of the movie by playing in stock playing stock yeah visually also arrow smith was um very early on for me sort of an indicator of what a cool rock band looks like and acts like and sounds like and uh yeah that whole record for me is still one of my favorites. Get a Grip from Aerosmith. Ton of great drum stuff. I mean, the opening track, definitely check out Eat the Rich from Aerosmith.

You know, that's a great drum track for me. So I like Aerosmith. I'm nowhere near the fan you are. Let me ask you this about Joey Kramer. They have such a long career. Does he, does his style change along the years? Or does he like, you hearey kramer groove in you know the the second wind of their career and you hear one in the first one and you're like that's

fucking joey kramer it's just so signature you know what he's got just such a solid foundation for a band like that i i don't know necessarily that his style has changed as just as much as the uh the sonics of the band has changed over the production and stuff yeah it's five decades whatever it is for them at this point you know but you can go back to the 70s and listen to a record like toys in the attic you know that's another great track actually toys in the attic yeah walk this way is on that record too. And sonically, it sounds appropriate for the time. But in the 80s, they sort of had a rebirth. And there are a lot of big MTV video hit tracks from them during that time too.

Like Loving an Elevator is a great example of just playing what's exactly right for the song. It's not something that people are going to walk away from saying, that was a crazy drum track, but it's so rock solid and drives it right like that. Yeah. All right. Who's next on your list? We're going to go through your list first. Okay. I guess we should see about what was going on with me after Aerosmith time, I get a toy drum kit around the time for a birthday. And I'm learning the very basics of just how to keep time. This is where your hand goes. This is what you're counting with this hand. What age are we talking? Seven, eight, nine, 10? Five. My fifth birthday. Oh my goodness, even younger. Yeah. Happy birthday from Uncle dennis here's a drum set that doesn't seem so massive and scary to you because it's small and appropriate um and i still have video

and pictures from that which is so cool i'm so glad i have that so i'm just sort of playing the one beat i know on that drum set and then i discover arrow smith i can't play any of that i'm a young child who basically can't count to four over and over again. You would have to be one of those prodigies like that little girl Dave Grohl was getting into the drum battle with. Speaking of Dave Grohl,

this is right around the same time. Nirvana is a huge household name band. And once again, due to MTV, once again, just rock solid. And once again, due to MTV, once again, just rock solid. And, you know, when you asked me before, what makes a great drummer, you know, another thing I'm thinking about now is that a great drummer is somebody who's recorded things in a band that you wouldn't change a note of. I mean,

tell me about the drum part in a nirvana song that you would do something different with i know i mean just think about like the way that nevermind record opens with the fill off smells like teen spirit and then right into my favorite nirvana song in bloom with that classic iconic feel like that's just like you you can it's the drum grooves that you can like hum or you can sing in a way like he's on my list obviously i mean by the time i'm a little bit older and have a real full-size adult drum set which was that drum set that was in grandma's house all those years became mine the nirvana nevermind record was constantly something i was trying to learn and practice along with. Because while perfect in drum parts for the songs,

also not something that was unmanageable. You know, that's important too. For a lot of kids starting out playing drums, you want to play songs. You don't want to practice your rudiments and your fundamentals. You want to sit down and you want to bash out hard rock, cool sounding shit. You want to let loose on, on this stuff. And that Nirvana record was a big part of my letting loose on stuff that I can pretty much handle technicality wise.

So I think I've played smells like teen spirit with every drummer I've ever jammed with everyone despite their talent level or whatever it's like some of them don't nail the intro as well as the others but they could all play a version of it right and you know even like you said uh teen spirit and then you've got in bloom and then it goes to uh my favorite uh come as you are and he's he's laying back and he's just posting through it amazing career with Foo Fighters at this point that I feel like it's crazy to think still about the footprint he left as the drummer for Nirvana yeah and we're still talking about him like that he played drums on

the first two Foo Fighters albums too we I just blogged uh the thing today like the story behind Everlong and you look at that as a drum track and it's like such a crazy, iconic, all-time drum track. And then you go, oh wait, it's also an all-time melody. It's also an all-time like guitar intro track, all-time song. And he played drums on the whole thing. Look at Hey Johnny Park, the way he kind of falls into that song with that fill. I love the Them Crooked Vulture stuff. You're not as big a big fan of that but his career is just like insane obviously i feel like he belongs on anyone's list how about my hero and that's like stadium rock too that's huge sounding that's loud that's yeah dave kroll is the fucking man who's your next pick

okay so at this point it's like mid 90s and i'm playing drums and i'm serious about it and i want to learn and i want to get better. And I want to consume as much as I can. And I'm not really sure what I want to play next. It's all coming at me so fast. And then I'm watching the MTV Video Music Awards in 1996. And at the end of the show, they're cut into a commercial. But they say, you know, up next to close the performance or however they said it, a performance from under the Brooklyn

Bridge by Kiss. And they show a picture of them real quick. And I have no idea what's about to happen because these monsters with their faces painted and the costumes, it was like they showed a picture and I was just like, what's the MTV Awards? They're about to turn into a monster movie or something. I was going to say, as a wrestling fan, you were probably like, are they about to wrestle or something? What the fuck is this?

Is that demolition? I never knew who Kiss was before that night, before that moment. But they cut to under the Brooklyn Bridge, and they kick into rock and roll all night. And my mind is blown. And I know immediately what I want to do with the rest of my life. Our uncles are KISS fans. Massive KISS fans. They're enlisted in the army. So after I discover that performance,

little 10-year-old me is showing up to the next family function. I'm like, do you guys know about this band called KISS? I didn't know about kiss uncle kevin's like dude here's my scrapbook full of kiss memorabilia i've been yeah vhs tapes from kiss concerts i know like they sent me even further down the rabbit hole peter chris i could compare him to ringo where a lot of people talk about technical proficiency. And he's way underrated, just like Ringo was. And he was way swinging in a way that most people realize. Peter came up with a jazz and a big band and a swing influence.

That's what he listened to. So that's the way he learned to play. And he found himself needing to just get into this rock band who was looking to be crazy and just make it no matter what at all costs. So they say, will you wear makeup? And he says, yes, I'll wear makeup. Will you wear crazy costumes? Yes, I'll wear crazy costumes. But then you wind up with this music that's hard rock music at the time, but with this drummer who's got this jazz and swing background and so many of the songs people know from Kiss, Detroit Rock City is a perfect example. I think most people who are aware of Kiss know the song Detroit Rock City. Big and in your face you know you can't ignore what

those guys did and how hard for it they were going all the time and still to this day I mean they're still going hard they're doing everything they can to say we are Kiss we are the hottest band in the world and you know that's another thing I love all the drummers on my list were a part of a band that felt like a united front when you saw them on stage I'm not saying everyone always gets along and they're best buds and they're hanging out and doing barbecues on their days off together. But all these guys I'm talking about felt like they are on stage, given it their all because it's what they love to do. You know, for me, the things I love are just flat out believable. I don't care if you're an actor or a singer or an author or a drummer.

I need to believe that you believe in what you're doing. Yeah. And wrestler. That's a good, that's a good example for that. We're wrestling as wrestling fans. Like, boom, if you have like that it factor, if you believe in yourself like that, you know, it right off the bat, you could see it. Yeah. Peter's great. Peter, you know, when they got inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Gene Simmons said, nobody swings and nobody has a feel like Peter Criss. And, you know, they did change drummers a couple of times and it completely changed the vibe of the sound of the band. Some people would argue for better or for worse. But when you change a drummer and it changes the feel,

well, that guy's obviously left some sort of... You realize, yeah, he was more impactful than you thought. And this isn't a drumming requirement, but talk about an amazing voice as well. Peter sang the band's biggest hit in Beth, one of the greatest Kiss songs of all time. He's ripping that with rock and roll, raspy Rod Stewart vocals while he's playing drums on that. Obviously, it's not a requirement. You don't have to be a great singer to be on this list.

Tricky to be playing a groove, a hard rock groove and singing the way he used to sing. Yeah. I mean, just an incredible talent. In my honorable mentions, I put both Peter Criss and Eric Carr. Rest in peace, Eric Carr, obviously the legendary, not predecessor, whatever the opposite of that word is. Peter Criss was his predecessor, but he was the fox. And oh my God, his kit was so awesome. That silver kit with all the concert toms, the long ass tube drums. Absolutely love that. All right, your next pick. I believe this will be your third pick, your fourth pick. So after I'm going to sign up for the Kiss Army and buying all their records and learning all those tunes. Great band for a beginning drummer to get into. If you're listening

to this podcast as a beginning drummer, like Kiss songs, you could probably play. Yeah. So right around the same time in 96, very popular band releases an album called Evil Empire. The next guy I want to talk about is Brad Wilk from Rage Against the Machine and also Audioslave. This is a genre that had a huge influence on me because just because of the time, you know, I was growing up in and what was popular at the time you know the nu metal or the rap rock uh what have you group of guys here I've got a couple of them and I guess I'll talk about all of them now Rage Against the Machine was and still is sort of completely unique in how special what those four guys did together comes out on record and on stage.

They're not the first guys to be mixing hip-hop and heavy metal, but I venture to say they were the best to ever do it. Yeah, the innovators of it for sure. I loved hip-hop music because it was super popular in the 90s when I was buying records and watching MTV. And looking back now, they took hip-hop beats and just played them in heavy metal songs. And if you do it right, it's some of the best groove music. People are dancing to the beats.

When you go to a concert, when you go to a club and people are dancing, it's to the beat. So it needs to be popping awesome for this type of stuff or it's just not going to have rhythm guitar going over, you know, a guitar solo section, bass and drums need to be locked in and grooving and tight. And you can listen to the guitar solo section from Bulls on Parade and your foot is still tapping and your head is still going to be bobbing. And it's because Brad Wilk is so fucking good. Yeah. You know, laying in that groove and just keeping the feet tapping and also just iconic

little riffs and parts he would come up with for stuff on that same record for a song uh called people of the sun just that little double cowbell movie that iconic everybody knows that everyone air drum along to that that was like punk does that song live and that was one of those things we were like well we need two cowbells like it's such a ridiculous thing you need for a kit but we're like we're doing it you can't do that song without two cowbells i think when you say brad wilk the first thing that sort of comes to mind it might be a weird thing to bring up are like the verses of sleep now in the fire where he's kind of it's just him and uh tim comerford it's the same thing where you're talking about it's just the the rhythm section of that band laying into that groove.

And it's such a hard thing to play on bass because it's so like, it gives you carpal tunnel going back and forth. But it's like the almost rolling ghost notes. I don't know what you would even call them. Especially, you know, in Audioslave as well. They went on to release a few records. Think about an Audioslave song like Show Me How to Live, where the intro is so heavily depending on that groove to be moving and rolling. I mean, so talented that when Black Sabbath decided to make a new record

and their original drummer didn't get the deal worked out to be a part of it, whatever happened there, the producer of the record, Rick Rubin, decided, well, I should call Brad Wilk and Brad Wilk should play drums on the producer of the record, Rick Rubin, decided, well, I should call Brad Wilk, and Brad Wilk should play drums on the new Black Sabbath record. Yeah, that's a hell of a sign-off right there. If you're being thought of to step into Black Sabbath cold for a new record, you know, you're doing okay. You're doing fine. And that's another thing that I think makes a great drummer is versatility, right? You've got a guy playing hip-hop grooves on Rage songs, and then you've got him playing kind of more rocky stuff on the Audioslave stuff,

and then he gets the call for Black Sabbath and goes and crushes that. Yeah, kudos, Brad. Kudos, Brad. Who do you got up next? Like I said, keeping within this genre, another guy who just still to this day, I'll go on YouTube, I'll go on Instagram. I just want to watch this guy play. I just want to watch this guy play. I just want to hear this guy play from Limp Bizkit, John Otto, take him to the Matthews Ridge. So talking about the same kind of stuff here, hip hop beats within heavy metal music. I mean,

go on YouTube and watch Limp Bizkit's performance at Woodstock 99. Madness. Tell me what other crowd gets moving that hard to beats like that. I mean, it's incredible. The guy is a is a groove machine. nerd talk for drummers out there. You know, I'm always fascinated with sort of custom or unique parts of a guy's setup you know for example i noticed early on john otto keeps a china symbol up high next to his crash symbols and will often hit it with a crash symbol and it gives it a little bit of a darker on the same hit like one hit like a collateral damage most rock setups you'll have two crash symbols up high and you'll hit those two crash symbols together for that you know big downbeat effect john will often hit a crash symbol along with a china symbol which completely changes the way you know that effect will come across on a

downbeat and it's just little things like that that separate these guys. And I'm sure he saw somebody else do it at some point. You know, that's everyone influencing generations after them. Everything just starts trickling down. And all these guys I'm talking about influenced me to do a hundred different things I wound up doing over the years. Tons of great stuff from john otto uh listen to a song like just like this from the significant other record which he starts off in sort of a joey kramer arrowsmith walk this way updated with more of a hip-hop feel but you could hear that influence still my generation boiler he's a groove machine um tons of energy tons of some at the stone pony right at the stone pony

and as like an intimate gig pretty much great show i'm gonna i'm gonna say the same thing about a lot of these guys i've been fortunate enough to see most of them play live and when i'm standing out there and i paid money for a ticket and i'm excited to see you because i look up to you i just want to see you up there looking up to you. I just want to see you up there looking like you're going for it and that you're having fun. And most of these guys looked like they were going for it and having fun doing it. And to me, you know, that's also a big part of what makes somebody great is you want to see them enjoying what they're doing. You want to see them having fun saying, Hey, this is fucking awesome. And i think you should try to do it too you know a guy who i don't think is going to be on your list he's not on my list is lars ulrich

from metallica and i love lars but he's not known to be the most consistent drummer live he's you know kind of got that stigma against him at this point but still to this day you see him having the time of his life up there and it makes up for it metallica fans kind of ah lars it's fucking lars you know you wouldn't want anyone else up there playing everything perfect because it's it's fucking lars lars came up with so many signature air drummable oh yeah tell me how many people don't air drum, you know, you can't not air drum along. Everything is, it's been sampled. It's, you know, the double bass groove he plays at the end of one. The tom grooves at the intro of Enter Sandman. Lars is great, man.

I would consider Lars an honorable mention for sure. Yeah, he was on my honorable mention list. Now, let me ask you this. I don't think this guy will be on your list. But as far as what you're talking about now with John Otto and the new metal sound, where would you rank someone like Joey Jordanson of Slipknot? You know what? I think the Slipknot sound didn't really rely on much hip hop influence. It was more about just in your face speed and and volume and aggression so i i didn't i

didn't really ever hear a whole lot of a groove on a slow groove type pop vibe in in the slipknot thing but in terms of proficiency and endurance i mean joey he was one of those guys you would see or i would anyway personally speaking i would, anyway, personally speaking, I would watch Joey when Slipknot first broke and thought, oh, I'll never be able to do that. So keeping with this genre and the guys in this genre that I love, the next guy I'm going to talk about is like Animal the Muppet come to life. Oh, I know. Yeah. You know what I'm going to say?

I do. Yeah. I'm talking about Morgan Rose. Go to YouTube and type in Morgan Rose Seven Dust and watch this dude just full on assault for however long you're going to decide to watch um the thing i love about morgan so much is he looks like he is having an absolute blast up there with his brothers i didn't know about the band until i saw them live wow when was that i want to say sometime around uh 2005 maybe they were that they if you don't know seven dust they were pretty big in the mid-2000s i feel like people sort of have like forgotten about them but they're a great fucking band they're one of those road warrior bands where you know obviously before 2020 when when the world

sort of turned upside down they were one of those bands that were just constantly on the road and touring and um you know I knew of them, they were on Woodstock 99 and Denial was a big rock hit, but I never quite caught on, but our buddy Russo, shout out Russo. He called me up one day and he's like, dude, Seven Dust is playing at Starland and I have to take you to see this drummer. You have to see this guy play. And I was just like, Oh shit. Russo's got somebody show me that i don't know anyone listens to jimmy smith's show by the way on sirius xm

m russo king of banter that's uh that's who we're talking about right there it's such a small world connection but people do listen to that show in my mom's basement there is a crossover i say cool man i'll go check this out i'm always down for going to a rock show. And I guess I didn't expect much going in. I just, it was a band I didn't know a whole lot about, but my buddy says the drummer's awesome and I would dig him. So cool, let's check this out. And we go.

And it was one of those nights that changed my life because I watched this cat literally turn into a Muppet right in front of my eyes. The arms never stop. Braids are swinging like crazy. He's throwing, I watched him throw a stick out into the crowd and somebody in the crowd throw a stick back to him at the same time and they both caught it. And I was like, oh, this is also a magic show. One of the things I've ever seen in my life. I want to learn how to do everything he's doing. You know, I got to a point where eventually, as started deciding I was going to try to play a

little bit like he was playing in a live scenario because I wanted to come correct. I wanted to bring the heat. Then I started noticing lots of pain in my neck and shoulders and back and hips. You're like, fuck, you pay a price to play like that. Yeah. Yeah. I asked him about it and he's just like, no, there's not much to do about it. i need a couple of surgeries that have to get put off until we take a break it's just it is what it is you get like a fighter using some icy hot and you fucking lather up and i was just like okay bummer but i guess you know holy shit because i walked away from that show seeing him play the way he played and and it affected me and i said you know this dude gave me my fucking money's worth and then some and when i go out and people see me i want to give them their money's worth and then some i want them walking away saying did you see that fucking

drummer going crazy yeah i'm up i gotta tell my friends about him so um you put your double kick to good use after that concert yeah yeah morgan is is just like a ninja you watch him twirl and bounce the sticks and the sticks which by the way this is probably interesting for like people that aren't in super into music he's got a weird stick style he plays with a double blunt end stick so like the normal drumstick you look at it's got a little tip on the end not morgan's both of his look like the bottom of a drumstick he's just it looks like fucking nightwing when he has those two police battens or whatever they call them yeah just just one more reason to know that morgan ain't fucking around he's gonna put a beat down he uses logs to play the drums yeah yeah morgan

is someone you should definitely go on YouTube and just... He's a must-see drummer. Especially like, look up the stick trick that you just talked about. That's on YouTube. You could find videos of him doing that shit live, and it's just, it'll blow your mind. I've sent him to Frankie before, and Frankie's just like, what he's doing doesn't make sense. He looks like a robot.

And dare I say, the musicality suffers in a live scenario when you're doing all that stuff. You're going to bounce a stick up off a drum and try to catch it again. And you're not going to catch it. And it's going to bounce off the wrong cymbal at the wrong time in the song. Or your hi-hats are going to drop out completely. Or you're going to miss a snare beat. But you know what, man? There's something to be said for a guy who just looks like he is having

an absolute blast like a showman like we we uh we encourage great front men all the time when you look at like a front man in the band going crazy and sometimes that affects their voice sometimes they're not going to hold the note out as long and they're going to give it to the crowd or something but i think a drummer or a guitarist is the same way. When you look at Ace Frehley and his fucking sparks going off or Slash tilting his guitar to the side when he hits a solo, everyone needs it. You combine all that into forces, and that's what makes these great bands that we're talking about.

And Morgan, like Peter Criss, also singing back up the whole night and singing really hard scream screamo type vocal stuff while playing the drums it takes endurance that takes yeah you're breathing cardio yeah you know super hard to do but he does it as good as anyone i've ever seen up next who do you got all right so late 90s i've discovered kiss i know that rock and roll is awesome because Aerosmith saved the day at the end of Wayne's World 2. Hip hop is awesome. And a bunch of guys showed me that you can play hip hop beats in rock music. And I think being a drummer is awesome. I'm telling people about it and I'm watching MTV still. And one day I turn on MTV and a music video called What's My Age Again

comes on. Close your eyes and just listen to the parts that are being played. And this was another guy who I would listen to the parts and listen to the records and say, oh, I'll never be able to do that. It was so intimidating. Just the sheer tempo of a lot of this blink 182 stuff that i started uh loving was intimidating it took endurance it took hitting a practice pad with a metronome really cooking for a while till you felt that burn in your wrists and still it was discouraging because you're like my fucking wrists are burning like whiplash blood Yeah. Blood all over your drums. There's a popping and shit. But you're like, well, he must have went through this. Wouldn't be where he is. So I guess I have to go through this. You know, I remember putting band-aids all over my fingers because I wanted

to play Blink-182 tempo type, you know, type tunes. One of my favorite conversations you and I had about Travis was talking about anthem part two who played like this before obviously you've got punk stuff punk stuff existed before fast stuff but when you listen to the way he uses the cymbals and there's that guy i wish i knew his name he's like the dude drummer on youtube we've watched some of his videos he's like hey dudes his name's like harry something yeah yeah talented dude he's done a video about like travis's style where it kind of breaks it down for someone like me a non-drummer who he shows he uses the symbols almost as instruments and he's constantly hitting something in that carter beaufort way in that like oh my god this is a beautiful performance you listen to those isolated

tracks then you listen to the fills you listen to the iconic fills first date it's hard to find a drum fill more iconic at the opening of the song he was one of those that would have to be a top five if not top three guy and i feel like a lot of the you know i don't know about specific people as influence but uh i'm almost certain he was a marching band guy in high school and um you know for anyone who's ever seen, you know, the movie Drumline, for example, there's no messing around in marching band in Drumline, your shit needs to be tight. I never spent any time in a Drumline or a marching band or anything like that. But from people who I know who did, you are practicing all the time. Your shit needs to be tight and your rudiments need

to be worked on constantly. And one of the things that really brought me along and made me a better player was realizing that I needed to have the discipline to come home from school and hit my practice pad and work on my rudiments, even though that wasn't a fun thing to do. I wanted to go to the drums and be a Muppet and have fun and, you know, put a bandana around my head because that looked cool, but I'm alone in my bedroom. Nobody's seeing the bed. I need to hit this practice pad for an hour. And there was a, there was a period there for, you know, a year or two where I would come home from school and I would sit down with my metronome and my practice pad and my sticks and just go and go and go and go until my wrist burned. And then I would reward myself with acting like a Muppet. You know, it's so funny to hear that same story from like every great musician. And still, it's just like I can't get it through my head when I play bass. I'm just like, I don't

want to do scales, man. I don't want to do notes. I don't do all that. It's so fun. It's a fucking no fun, but you hear it from everyone. It's like, it clicks for everyone at some point. And they're like, you know what? I think if I practice, I'm going to get better. And it actually works for everyone as well. Nobody's practiced. Nobody's put in a thousand hours on the drums and gotten worse. And then eventually Travis starts integrating himself into the hip hop world. I remember seeing the music video for Bad Boys for Life from P. Diddy. And there's Travis in the back of the room playing drums along with the track. And I was just like, I love Puff Daddy.

I love Travis Parker. And they're together. And everything seems right with the world right now. This is what I want to be. I wanted to be a guy who could be in a rock band and have fun playing in a rock band. And I wanted to be a guy who could also sit behind a hip hop star and play those beats because I love those type of beats, as I just talked about for a while with those other guys. And here he was bringing both worlds together again. And then I start seeing him on YouTube doing live club shows with DJ AM, which is something I never even thought most people never thought to do. But once

he put that out there, I realized, oh, this is something I could totally do because this is how I practiced for so many hours. I put the headphones on and just play along with the stuff I love. He's doing that for a living, right? We're paying him lots of money to play along with stuff he loves. And it sounded awesome too. Like you throw a kit behind just literally a DJ at a club and it is a game changer, someone like travis obviously right so i mean it pushed me to realize that if i went after it really hard it would open up certain doors i didn't know were even available to me you know i eventually wound up having a lot of shows with djs and it was that was yeah you probably did would you you might have done as much shows with djs as you did

with bands almost. I did. Yeah, because I wound up getting asked back to some clubs somewhat often. And also, I loved the unpredictability of what I was doing with the DJs because it was apparent to me that Travis and DJ AM were working out their set. And they sort of knew what each other was going to do by the time they hit the stage. I was walking into a lot of clubs where I didn't even know who the DJ was going to be that night. All I had was a feed from the board into my ears. A lot of the good DJs realized what I was doing with them and they would give me a little scratch warning that

something was about to change and we'd look at each other and we'd make eye contact. And he would shoot me that look like, hey, I'm about to change up. I'm going into something else. And I would give him the nod like, I'm with you. I feel it. And it was sort of a jazz type of vibe in terms of- I was going to say, yeah. Each of us-

Improv in a way. Just feeling it. And it was also an endurance thing, which came from practicing for hours in my room, just on a practice pad. Eventually, 10 years later, I'm in a dance club and I've been playing hip hop and dance and techno music for going on 30 minutes straight. And I got to keep going for a little while before I take a break. You know, it's funny how you collect all these influences and you take from

them the things you do and how sometimes for sure in my case, they wind up coming to fruition later on in terms of, oh, you know, it's a good thing. I caught the what's my age again video at that time that I did and follow that path all the way down to having bloody blisters in this nice nightclub in Hoboken, New Jersey. He's one of the first guys, Travis, that you introduced me to. Absolutely. There's Blink on the first burned CDs you've made me. He's a guy that's sitting here at 22 years old.

Every time he drops a new song with somebody, I'm going to listen to it because I want to hear what he's doing. He's still doing shit that's blowing my mind, still doing shit that's new. He's incredibly influential in the hip hop into pop punk game right now with Machine Gun Kelly and Trippie Redd. And he's got all of these artists like almost under his label now. So I don't think the footprint that Travis left on music will be even visible for a while. And Travis is a guy whose resilience and perseverance is like unmatched. I mean, there's videos of him playing on like popular late night shows with a broken arm. Yeah. And you can't, you can't really tell that he's playing with one arm unless you're looking

at him. He breaks his arm and doesn't say oh fuck i can't do conan tonight he goes all right so i'm playing all my left arm parts with my left foot tonight then i gotta call him out though you saying this i gotta call him out bro i've had tickets to see blink four times i've never seen blink one of which because travis got tonsillitis and had to pull out a bamboozle. Bro, you didn't need the fucking tonsils to play drums. Come on. I just want to see Blink, man. I just want to see Blink. So yeah, and obviously, everything he's doing, like you said, he's even still today in pop culture. You know, the amount of records I have that I eventually found out Travis played on. Yeah.

Like Pink released a record. I think it's called Try This. I love Pink because she's a badass singer. And I love that record. And I'm like, wow, the drums on this record are fucking great. Who played drums on this record? And I flipped through the book and the liner notes and I'm like, oh, Travis Barker played on it. Of course the drums are badass. You know, Travis is one of those guys who if P puff daddy needs a rock star drummer in his video he calls travis barker of course machine gun kelly needs a rock star drummer on his record in his video 20 years later he calls travis barker i mean there's just there's something to be said for the staying power of presence and his and his playing and he's awesome thank god he

survived that plane crash that's some of the craziest shit that ever went down. He told that full story on Joe Rogan. Check that out. That's a trip. Yeah. I want to thank One Championship, the home of martial arts, for sponsoring the podcast. They're coming to primetime in the U.S. next week.

It is the biggest month in the company's history, with four weeks of blockbuster events in April, immediately following AEW Dynamite every Wednesday night. We're going to get one on TNT. 10 p.m. Eastern Pacific time, nonstop martial arts action in mixed martial arts, Muay Thai, and kickboxing. It's all in a cage.

It's all a mixed martial arts spectacle like you've never seen before. We kick things off, like I said, next week with one on TNT1. After winning the grueling flyweight world pre, 12-time UFC world champion Demetrius Mighty Mouse Johnson seeks to cement his legacy as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. In order to achieve GOAT status, DJ will have to dethrone six-time one-flyweight world champion

Andradeo Marais, who promises to be the first man to finish Mighty Mouse. Plus, you've got four-time UFC and Bellator world champion Eddie the Underground King Alvarez. He's looking to get back on track. Prove he belongs among the elite in this promotion after a bit of a challenging start. I can't wait. Remember, One on TNT One airs Wednesday night, April 7th on TNT after AEW. It's going to be at 10 p.m. Catch the lead card starting at 8 30 p.m. on Bleacher Report. And remember, the best fights are on Wednesday nights. Who do you got up next? We just talked about one of my biggest influences. We might as well hop over to the biggest influence. I was waiting to get to him.

If you're a longtime basement dweller, you've heard us geek out already. Even if you're like a recent basement dweller, you've watched Robbie interview him. The man, the myth, the legend, Tommy Lee going all the way back to grandma's basement. Like we said, our uncles were into music at a time where Motley Crue was just about as hot as it comes. And when I got real serious about playing drums, they started turning me on to some music I should check out and some drummers I should start checking out and some tunes I should start trying to learn. It wasn't until I saw the Motley Crue behind the music that I realized how crazy some of this stuff really was, you know, because it's a visual thing

as much as it's something that's going into your ears with Tommy. Talk about a song like Livewire, which he records when I think he is 17. So in your face, perfect. At 17 years old, parts that guys are still influenced by and inspired by and emulating and just flat out stealing from, you know, symbol grabbing work. You know, this is, you know symbol grabbing work you know this is you know sorry if you're not a drummer and you're listening to right now it's it's drummer nerd talk but like symbol grabbing work cowbell work double kick drum work still to this day live wire comes on and you just want to turn that shit up in this oh dude 17 or 18 and laying those parts down it's impressive all sort of visual thing again uh another guy who was a marching band guy in high school

so a lot of that is rudiments and a lot of that is stick tricks you're twirling your sticks you're bouncing your sticks off your drum sometimes you're crossing your arms over each other um you know he took it 10 steps further and decided he needed to be upside down spinning in a steel cage while he was playing yeah and you know again thank you for saying how can people be walking away feeling like they're got their money's worth how can people be walking away and waking up the next morning saying, I can't fucking believe what I saw last night. It was like a magic show, porno, and the most awesome heavy metal, loud rock and roll music I've ever heard. Those guys, another perfect example of four guys, always felt like a united front on stage. They were in it to do, you know, they might've had a fight five minutes

before they stepped out on stage. But once they hit that stage, you understood that they were here to kick your fucking head in for two hours. It's drum solo time, but no, you're not going to want to miss this. You're not going to go take a piss from my drum solo. You're not going to go buy a pretzel because I'm going to be fucking hanging upside down and spinning and going crazy. There's a great video. It's from their Dr. Feelgood tour. For his solo, he was flying out over the crowd, playing an electronic kit. You could find a bunch of footage of this on YouTube, I'm sure.

He's playing along with his favorite rock and roll songs. Again, something all drummers love to do when they're learning, even so many years into playing, when they're not learning. It's just what we like to sit down, put the headphones on, play along with what we love. He decided, I'm going to bring that to an arena every night and say, this is what I love. And then he's playing along with Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith and Cheap Trick and Sweet and ACDC. And he's got everybody in the palm of their hand. And all he's really doing is playing along to what he loves. But you know, like I've been saying,

he's showing us that he's having a great time. You know, you're not going to have a great time watching somebody who's like, looks like they're basically checking their watch and can't wait to be done with this fucking job. You don't want to ever look at somebody on a rock and roll stage and think that they're at a job. You want to look at them and say, that dude's having the best time of his life because he's doing the greatest thing there is to do. And Tommy always, always, always looks like

he's having the time of his life whenever he's doing anything. And even later on into Tommy's career, he would have that hip-hop influence he is kind of everything that you love about drums coming together in a way everything that you've been describing so far like it can be applied to tommy he knew his moments went to sit in the back of a groove got the crazy fills that we talk about mc94 all the time i talked about it with tommy like the fill that opens that record is just so in your face. Oh my

God, loud craziness. And then you've got the theatrics, like you said, go to the Carnival of Sins tour, him having the kick drum that looks so big that you could barely see him behind the kit. He is the epitome of everything you've been saying. It's hard to say anything about Tommy that we didn't like last time that you didn't just there. He's the fucking man. He's Tommy fucking Lee. We're still talking about him to this day. You know, I'm doing interviews with him on Barstool sports and people were like, holy shit.

It's fucking Tommy Lee. Young blood, young blood just did a live stream concert and he needed an all-star rock and roll band to close his show out. So who does he call to play drums? He calls Tommy Lee. Yeah. Machine gun Kelly calls Travisvis barker there are

certain guys who have staying power and it's it's impressive in 2021 to have staying power coming from the rock and roll world the hair metal almost world yeah yeah we're young up-and-comers are like i gotta have tommy lee with me on this last one. And your mother doesn't know who Vince Neal is probably. That's not a household name, but Tommy Lee, the drummer, not the front man, the drummer was able to make himself pretty much a household name. It's crazy. I had an opportunity to spend a couple of minutes with him on two separate occasions. And same thing as when you interviewed him, you can feel his excitement just vibrating when you're with him. Cause he's excited to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about. You know,

we talking about music for a minute and playing drums. I, you know, I, I got a chance to actually thank him and say, Hey man, I, you know, learning your songs is really a big part of what made me a good drummer. And I want to say thank you for all that you've recorded and put out there and i could see you know he felt like whoa this is a crazy moment i i'm just a guy who loves to do this and this dude's telling me he spent time trying to learn my tunes you could tell he ain't like jaded to it even when i was talking to him

about the motley albums it felt like he thought it was so cool that like a young kid was listening to motley yeah i mean they they've got staying power he's got staying power they're they're a big uh footprint and he's a big footprint you know we're talking about hard rock and heavy metal drummers in history that name is going to come up a lot tommy yeah talked about. Check him off your list and check him off mine as well. He was on there. So we just talked about Motley. We should probably talk about Guns N' Roses at this point, another band that's got staying power. Although I don't know if I'm going to talk about the guy people think I'm going to talk about. I was wondering, yeah. So one of my favorite drummers is Matt Sorum, who played on the Use Your Illusion albums and also the Spaghetti Incident in Guns N' Roses and also went on to form Velvet Revolver with some other Guns N' Roses members.

I've always loved Matt because Matt was the first guy I saw as the drummer for Guns N' Roses. By the time I'm discovering that band and getting into them, they're broken up. So what I did was went to a video store and bought the VHS tapes of the 1992 Tokyo Dome concert from the Use Your Illusion Tour. Another guy who, again, like like i keep saying i have a type another crazy looking white boy who's just flailing and going nuts and it's just hair and it's you know full-on assault on the kid i like a guy who looks like he doesn't care what's going

to be broken at the end of the show and matt was that kind of guy Matt was ferocious to watch. Listen to songs like You Could Be Mine. Got like machine gun accuracy tempo type stuff. And a lot of people prefer Steven, which is totally cool because Steven was an important part of why that band broke out and broke through in a big way. Steven has a real punk vibe. Then, you know, Appetite for Destruction sounds so great because those five personalities and those five styles coming together. I wouldn't want to hear Matt Sorum play on Appetite for Destruction. I wouldn't want to hear Steven Adler play on Use Your Illusions, though. Yeah, I see what you're saying. It became about big sounding arena rock at that point. You know, Axl has always been so Elton John and Queen influenced, where a lot of the guys

are Rolling Stones and Aerosmith influenced. You know, it's all about that blend of what's coming together. Matt comes and delivers that big arena rock, rock solid vibe. You know, even the fills on November Rain, you know, a lot of people like shrug their shoulders and roll their eyes at how many times the same sounding fill gets played in songs like November Rain. It turns out Matt was instructed to come up with musical drum fill parts that were memorable like that.

Everyone can air drum along to the first drum fill on November Rain. It's memorable. It's also, you know, part of what makes a great drummer. If you can come up with something that people will remember and air drum along to forever, how are you going to knock something like that? Phil Collins in the air tonight. That's not hard to play. You have to play it perfect and you have to do it just as it's done on record because

it's iconic in its signature. Yeah. But also, Matt matt i feel like spreads his wings a little bit further when velvet revolver comes around listen to the first velvet revolver album i feel like you really get a feel for matt stretching out playing stuff that's not so uh song oriented as much as it's in your face and aggressive. You know, luckily enough, Chester Bennington was fronting that night. Yeah. So lucky to see him sing and just a fun, a fun show and a fun night. So much fun.

Even like Matt Sorum started singing Motorhead at one point behind the kit, he was singing Ace of Spades and watching that, like a driving Ace of Spades song, him singing like Lemmy. He was, you know, a good friend of Lemmy. So he told the story of that beforehand. Spent time in Motorhead. Oh, wow. Really?

Yep. Wow. Didn't know that. You know, Matt comes from the cult and Guns toured with the cult and needed a new drummer and said, you know, let's call him Matt. So Matt goes from the cult to Guns N' Roses. He's in velvet revolver after that he spends time in motorhead i mean what a career dude's got an unbelievable

resume and it's because he's a phenomenal drummer i mean so many signature parts and so many signature songs even though he sort of gets looked at as the replacement i don't think it's always fair to talk about it's tough yeah kudos. There's always that stigma when you have an iconic band, like the original lineup was the best, but every now and then you're going to find someone like Matt Sorum who actually adds his own thing. It's not someone coming in pretending to be Steven Adler. Yeah.

Well, we're at the end of my 10 guys here. Is this your 10th? Is this your 10th and final? We didn't have as much crossover as I thought. Last, but certainly not least we have to talk about bonzo the greatest rock drummer of all time and i have to say that because if i didn't his ghost might be in my house and punch me and kick you in the balls or something apparently not a dude to trifle with and that is a big part of why i think i like him

so much as well you know yeah i'm not advocating for physical violence ever against anyone for any reason but you know there's something about a fucking english bloke who might just sock you rock and roll you know in the 70s yeah it's it's uh we could listen. We could have spent this whole podcast talking about why John Bonham is great. Um, his trickle down effect probably goes to every single person on your list. Everyone. Absolutely. I recently heard an interview with Tommy Lee where he said,

John Bonham is my hero. He was the best there ever was. You know, I've seen so many videos of Travis Barker playing in clubs with DJ Am and Mix Master Mike, where he's playing along with Led Zeppelin tunes. All of these guys, Dave Grohl, I mentioned him. He's got a John Bonham tattoo on his arm. Yeah. This is the guy who sets the bar for what a rock drummer should be, should sound like, should look like. I mean, think about the first thing we ever hear from led zeppelin on led zeppelin one it's good times bad times nobody ever will be john bonham i don't know if he ever played that live that was one of those that they stayed

away for for so long and then they you know opened with it at celebration day and jason bonham went and crushed it and if you don't know jason bonham john's son is as good a drummer as him technically. When you look at the technical proficiency, obviously he didn't come up with all of the iconic parts, so you can't put him on the same level. But man, he is just a monster behind the kit. If anyone wants to see what a rock and roll drummer looks like, like if aliens landed on Earth and knocked on my front door right now and said, you have to show us what a rock and roll drummer looks like.

We have to go back to our planet and explain to our people. I would show them the drum solo from Royal Albert Hall. Still, when I watch it to this day, I'm like, oh, my God, dude, your hands. I'm like, my hands are starting to hurt watching you. But he just looks like he's having a good old time. Yeah, what he was supposed to be doing. Yeah, he's he's that when you watch soul, the new Disney movie when he gets lost in the music, like Bonzo is just from the second he stepped on stage lost in the music and versatile because we've got hard rock grooves like good

times bad times. But then you know, we can talk about grooves like Good Times, Bad Times. But then, you know, we can talk about grooves like Fool in the Rain. I've watched YouTube videos on the subject, and I've read about the subject, about what made John Bonham so great. And it's hard to explain, but I've seen a YouTube video that tries to explain how his drumming style is sort of a laid-back in the pocket feel. In terms of keeping time there are guys who keep perfect time but their feel is laid back on the you know the kick and the snare sort of coming in on the back end of what would still be considered in time. John Bonham was a perfect example of coming in on the back end of what would still be considered in time uh john bottom

was a perfect example of laying back in the groove a guy like i guess you would say i feel like someone like taylor hawkins from food fighters is a guy who's more on the front end and pushing the groove in in a great way yes what that music calls for and just a different spectrum yeah there are guys who are like dead smack in the middle like a bullseye like a metronome every time like like a guy like clem burke from blondie you know that music is very dance uh oriented and it's got to feel that way and clem burke is a guy who like just nails in the middle of the beat but you know something about leaning back is a very i feel like it's a very british guy thing and i feel like it's something you just can't teach i've

tried to learn it because why not try to learn how to play like john bonham yeah i've been instructed i've you know heard from guys i've been to bands with can you do something more like bonham which is such an absurd and insulting thing and it would be like showing up to a therapist and and saying like hey man i need help can you can you treat me like someone like sigmund freud would treat me it's not gonna work out that way no can't actually but yeah he had a real open pocket which gave the you know, a real good breathy feel on so many tracks. I mean, I could just go on forever. A lot of open space and vibe and dynamics.

That was the other thing, too, about Bonham was so great is he understood how to use dynamics in the songs and what, you know, dynamics needed to be for certain songs. It wasn't just hard hitting bashing going crazy all the time you know songs like uh dazed and confused yeah really plays with dynamics always even in live situations he knew just how to hit these drums to get just the perfect volume and tone out of them i mean i could go on forever. Bonzo is the goat. All right. We didn't have as much crossover as I thought we would. I honestly thought like, there's a few people on my list that I was like, maybe he's going to have them on yours. As of right now, the only people that you had on your list that I had on my list were Dave Grohl,

John Bonham, Tommy Lee, and Travis Barker. So I still have six drummers on my list that I could go through. And I won't go as in depth as you because I don't have the knowledge in my brain about drumming. But they're all drummers you're familiar with. They're all drummers that you pretty much put me on to. So you could help me out the first of which you brought up before, but he's got to be on my list. I think it's disrespected constantly. You know, people always bring up the he wasn't even the best drummer in the Beatles that is a quote that never happened nobody in the Beatles ever said that that's just a like Luke I am your father misheard thing it's such a shame that Ringo Starr has to hear that all the time and just be like John never fucking said that and he was my friend so I wish you'd stop disrespecting me but guy that's perfect for the grooves the guy that has that signature style where he's a righty

who leads with his left hand so it changed the way that all his fills the grooves, the guy that has that signature style where he's a righty who leads with his left hand. So it changed the way that all his fills sounded. It changed the way all his drums sounded. And a guy who, if you want to do the trickle-down effect like John Bonham, has impacted so many drummers. There's a great video from when Ringo went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alone where they just kind of set up a Ringo kit. They had a bunch of drummers come in and they said, like give us a Ringo swing and they all knew what to play immediately. And then they said, play us your favorite Ringo thing or talk about Ringo.

And every drummer has something they love about this guy. So Ringo star, he's just gotta be on my list for the pure respect there. Shout out Ringo, peace and love. You know, I was in a recording session once and I went in to the booth, sat down on the drums and I did one pass at the song and

everyone seemed happy with it. And I thought, oh, this is great. I've got a one take and I'm done and I'm out of here. Love to do that. Love making everybody happy in a recording studio. And I came back out and my producer said, Mickey, do me a favor and go back in. And on the last go around on the riff, give me a Ringo. And he says, you know what I mean, right? And I said, yeah, do me a favor and go back in. And on the last go around on the riff, give me a Ringo. And he says, you know what I mean, right? And I said, yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I went back in there and I played a fill just like Ringo would have played. When a producer says to a drummer, do me a favor, go back in there and give me a Ringo on that last bar. When your name is being used as the description of what you should do what else can we oh it's like

given a luthas press it's like yeah i know luthas duh yeah um perfect for for the song just always perfect for the song and i spent a lot of time learning a lot of beatles drum songs for a lot of shows i had to play and a lot of it way more intricate and complicated than I even ever knew. Yeah. I was so impressed and so glad I had an opportunity to spend so much time having to learn them for shows because it gave me so much appreciation for what he was creating. You know, the, these guys we're talking about, they're like every one of us really they're human

beings who have something they're trying to accomplish you know and they might be a little bit scared shitless about having to try to do it sometimes they're pulling things out of thin air and off the top of their head because it's what they feel yeah you know a lot of guys cross their arms and say you know that's not so fucking good it's like all right but you know he went and did it a song like in my life one of the best beatle songs ever i think and you look at ringo's drums on that and they're so subtle but so iconic i don't think it's just because the beatles are as iconic as they are no it's it's i keep coming you know i'll come back to this question what would you change yeah tell me

about the thing about beatles drumming that you would change yeah you want to say john bottom's a better drummer than rango star that's fine but you wouldn't want john bottom to be the drummer of the beatles of course not all right next on my list this is a guy that i thought you might have had on your list it's one of my favorite drummers of all time from one of my favorite bands of all time i may put them top five and that is trey cool comes around at the same time as travis almost i think green day was a little before them a little before travis at least in blink but doesn't really have that much of a similar style for when you look at green day and blink are compared very often because they're kind of punk bands that were in that same era but what is the difference between

trey cool and travis barker like as a drummer what would you say that the the differences you kind of punk bands that were in that same era. But what is the difference between Trey Cool and Travis Barker? Like as a drummer, what would you say that the differences you could pick apart in those two are? The distinction I think that's important to make is I feel like Trey Cool is a guy that Travis Barker would cite as an inspiration. Yeah. Trey Cool paves the way for a Travis Barker. The thing I've always loved about Trey Cool, drummer nerd talk here, but because of the tempo of a lot of Green Day music,

especially in the early days, you wind up playing a lot of drum fills really fast. And a lot of what we would say around the kit fills start on the snare and go all the way around the toms and, you know, finish off with a crash. It's very fast. And the tricky thing about doing that in a live situation is that when you increase speed, you usually lose volume because it's hard to hit drums really fast like in a roll and keep the power i always loved how trey cool and we've seen him live we've seen him together yeah one of the best concerts i ever went to 21st century breakdown tour when trey does a fill i always love that his fills are really fast but they never lose power or volume.

Yeah, that's a good point. That's something that I wouldn't pick up until you point out. I've seen a lot of drummers in punk and pop punk type situations where they got to go around the whole kit really fast with a fill, and they have the speed and they're playing in time, but the whole sound of the drums drops out because they had to do something that's easy to do fast but not so easy to do fast and loud at the same time trey is a guy at this point i mean how long

has green day been doing it another like 30 years and where trey has been doing it as fast and as loud the entire time and it's at this point watch him play, he looks so casual about it almost. It looks like it's not even an issue for him. You know, he's smiling, he's nodding along, he's flipping the sticks still, he's having fun up there. But, like, it doesn't look like he's ever straining. When I watch, like, Taylor Hawkins play the drums, that guy looks like he's in pain.

Trey Cooley's just fucking having a good time, playing as fast as he can be. You watch, we just brought up the Ringo going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When he needed a backing band for that, he chose Green Day and he had Trey behind the kit. Be my Ringo. When Ringo is saying, be my Ringo, that's a good sign off. It's a good compliment, man. And you know, just like Travis, when you're the only groove in a three-piece band, there's a lot of space that needs to be secured and filled properly.

And if you're going to do something in a three-piece, it better fill the right space. It better sound like it's got all bases covered, you know. Yeah. Travis did that well. Trey always did that well. It never feels like something's missing you know a lot of times in a three-piece it seems like man it'd be great if we had a little bit more sound or a little bit more layer but if you've got trey cool on drums you're all good you don't need to fill any space

he's got it covered my next guy's another 90s drummer i'm a big red hot chili peppers fan and when i went to see them for the first time you got got me tickets to see them. I went with Glennie Balls, legendary. He fell asleep. He woke up for the encore. It was awesome. I really thought as a bass player, Flea is about to blow my dick off. We were on like Flea's side of the stage and everything. We were just, oh my God, losing our minds. And I left that concert going. Chad Smith was one of the best drummers I have ever seen live. I wasn't leaving the concert talking about Flea and Flea was on his game that night. It was just Chad Smith was one of the best drummers I have ever seen live. I wasn't leaving the concert talking about Flea, and Flea was on his game that night. It was just Chad Smith blew me away.

And ever since that concert, I've listened to all Red Hot Chili Peppers music with a little bit more of a keen ear to the drums. Chad Smith got the call to play on Ozzy's album, and he fucking crushed that too. Ozzy put out an album last year in 2020, and it was phenomenal. An iconic drummer.

He's got the Will Ferrell stuff now that I'm sure, you know, the non-Chad Smith fans know him from like the Jimmy Fallon stuff. But just one of these guys that really blew me away live. And ever since I've listened to his drums and been like, he's a guy that knows what to play in the song. I'm glad you're talking about the guys who just missed the cut on my list. Man, I was making my list thinking, man, how am I not going to get to talk about Chad Smith? I hope Robbie says I love Chad Smith.

Oh, yeah. He is a sponsored artist by Vader Drumsticks. A lot of well-known and popular and successful drummers get sponsorships from different gear companies. And for Vader Drum drumsticks i've noticed a lot of the guys get to name their stick and i have a pair of signature chad smith sticks and he named his stick the funk blaster which i think is just a perfect description of what he is and what he is a funk blast badass it sounds like he's got like it's his weapons or something you know his resume and his discography kind of just speaks for itself you go listen to chili peppers music

and there's no way you're gonna get too far without tapping your foot or bobbing your head and you know yeah for drummers it it ultimately really comes down to something that simple. If people are tapping their foot and bobbing their head and tapping on their laps and getting yelled at by Catholic school teachers at Paramus Catholic high school, can't stop the desk. You know, the amount of times I heard Mr. Fox, will you please stop smacking your desk? And and you know there was a good chance at one point it was because there was a chad smith groove in my head yeah religion class yeah god sorry jesus the way that give it away starts just like that firecracker of a snare just even something

as simple as that like to think oh let's say we got this great song give it away and it doesn't have that drum part at the beginning it's still a phenomenal song but to have the mind to think oh this is the way we're kicking this song off and then when you hear that now that's the glass shattering on stone cold steam that's oh give it away is about to come on and the crowd will pop for that so chad smith man, can't say enough great things about Chad Smith. And always looks like he's having an absolute blast. Another one of those guys, smiling, yeah. To this, you know. Him and Flea, like, looking at each other the whole time,

doing that improv shit. All right, my next pick is a guy that I also thought would be on your list. This is a guy that you turned me on to completely. I really wasn't too keen on this guy until you told me one night our mom used to work at the eyes on center when that existed you were like hey man do you want to just go to a concert tonight i said sure don't even care who's playing he said it's fucking dave matthews and i was like oh shit so we got a suite there was like an empty suite there my mom was like the sweet person i think i could say that because one she doesn't work there

anymore too it doesn't even exist anymore humble breadred gotta drop a humblebred she put us in a suite and the two of us in this empty suite watched dave matthews tear the fucking house down and the whole time you know you're pointing out listen to carter on this song listen to carter play this phil coming up and i just went down the rabbit hole ever since been a dave matthews fan you and i will send each other videos every now and then randomly oh my god listen to this Carter Phil and I've sent so much of a shit to Frankie at this point I would say if Frankie Borelli was making his list of favorite drummers it would go Dave Grohl Carter Beauford and I don't even know if anyone else is on the list probably the most technically proficient guy that I've mentioned in terms of I don't know if anyone could play everything that Carter can

play, but man, I feel like if you're a Dave fan right now, and there probably are some Dave fans listening to this that were going, they better fucking mention Carter. They better fucking mention Carter. We mentioned them for you. The only reason I didn't mention Carter, and I came up with 10 names, and I would say that Carter definitely would be 11 on the list. The only reason I haven't talked about him yet was because he didn't really have the impact on my personal style and influence that the other 10 guys did. But Carter is one of those guys you watch and think, oh, I'll never be able to fucking do that. And it's not in the fast way that you watch Travis think oh i'll never be able to fucking do that and his it's not and it's not in the fast way that you watch travis do it it's it's in like an artful way it's a performance it's this it's hard to describe but it's fucking perfect he's two guys in one you know dave

matthewsbent doesn't have a percussionist because they have carter beaufort being a drummer and a percussionist at the same time. Yeah. And a lot of that has to do with the way he sets his drums up. You know, a lot of guys you'll notice if you've seen music videos and concerts, a lot of guys are playing with their right hand crossed over the top of their left hand. Carter keeps his left hand up high and his right hand free to go around and hit and touch anything he needs to because he fills a lot of space and it's strange you wouldn't think that he would need to fill space because the

Dave Matthews band is like 25 guys on yeah filling as much space as possible and yet at the same time they're all just weaving in and out of what's appropriate for them to do at the moment. And then they hit these crescendos of everyone just pedal to the metal at the same time, the restrictor plate is off, and we're going to blow the roof off the arena. That shit is so awesome. And then they can bring it down to a whisper. And you know, part of what makes a great drummer, like we talked about is knowing what to do and when to do it. And like we talked about John Bonham bringing it down when it needed to be brought down. Carter is the master. I mean, I've watched Carter in a live scenario, hit drums so soft and so perfectly that he could bring an arena full of 20,000 people down to a whisper because they just want to hear what's going on. And he's brought it down and it's like a little bit of a teasing situation

going on. And anytime one guy can hold 20,000 people in the palm of his hands with what he's doing with two wooden sticks. I feel like a bunch of guys I mentioned had the ability to do that. A bunch of guys you've mentioned now and will mention have the ability to do that. When you've got that many people so tuned in and so on the edge of their seat and wanting to know what's going to be next and how you're going to continue to do what you're doing. It's the human connection. It's why we spend money on concert tickets. I remember going to that Dave show and it was

the only time I've ever seen Dave Matthews band still to this day and being so blown away that they were fading out of songs live and Carter was fading out. And it sounds like you're listening to the CD and they're fading out, but it's not the sound guy turning everyone down. They're slowly just fading out. All right, I've got two more picks on my list. And I would say out of my top 10, these are the most Robbie Fox picks. If you have influenced my entire list so far, which you very much have, these are all people you put me onto. These are kind of the ones where I started growing up.

I started learning my own people. The first of which is Zach Farrow of Paramore. I've talked extensively about my love of Hayley Williams. I think she's got the greatest voice in the world. And Zach Farrow behind the kit, especially for a lot of their earlier stuff, Riot, Brand New Eyes. Those were the albums that he was on the kit for. Just unbelievable.

You listen to the opening song off of Brand New Eyes. He hits those almost like the beginning of Anthem Part II, hit for just unbelievable you listen to the the opening song off of brand new eyes will hit the he hits those almost like the uh beginning of anthem part two like the gunshot style snare shots all the time crazy fills driving driving beats all the time one of my guys and then another one that's versatile you listen to paramore's last album after laughter it's very new wave blondie influenced and zach's doing really cool shit on the drums. He's still playing cool fills that are not the late 2000s pop punk that got him known for. He's even got a band now that he's the front man of Half Noise.

And it's the same kind of vibe. It's that new wave sound. I went back and forth between should I put Zach Farr or should I put LP3 from Yellow Card on my list? And I wound up going with Zach because i feel like lp3 is so comparable to travis barker it's almost like a brett versus sean thing there zach has more of his own style again zach like peter crisp for kiss like ringo for the beatles like so many of the other guys we've talked about what would you change about any of the drumming on a Paramore record? The answer is you shouldn't, there's nothing to change. It's perfect.

Everything is right where it should be and right up in your face. And you know, I love that we're able to talk about a guy like Zach, who was probably influenced by Travis Barker, who was probably influenced by Trey cool, probably influenced by Tommy Lee, who was definitely influenced by Trey Cool, probably influenced by Tommy Lee, who was definitely influenced by John Bonham. You know, you can trace these things all the way back. And it's because we have to get inspired at some point.

What I love is the people that, like Zach, like all of these people, like it was one of my favorite things about interviewing Youngblood is the people that like really, really have a respect for the people that influence them and the people that wear it on their sleeve and they're like fuck yeah travis parker taught me everything i know i went to the fucking school of travis parker and to round out my list i have a guy who went to the school of travis parker listen i couldn't do a favorite drummer's pod without mentioning my guy, Ryan Dawson of All

Time Low. When you listen to All Time Low, you listen to that and you go, man, this guy grew up loving Travis Barker. Shows in his music, he's got his own style at this point, especially I listen to Wake Up Sunshine and I'm like, God, Ryan has just like established his own pop punk sound, his own. It's pop punk punk but it's also almost like a 90s rock influence when need be will break out the old punk sticks and go fastball to the wall you know craziness um and you listen to i feel like this is another important thing you listen to all time low's live records and i feel like they're much better than the studio albums i'm a guy who a lot of my favorite bands i I almost prefer the live versions of their songs.

It's probably growing up on Kiss and having the live versions being better than the studio albums or something. But that adds to it as well. When you listen to an all-time low show, who's bringing the energy from behind the kit? It's Ryan. I was lucky enough to get dragged along to maybe about half a dozen all-time low shows in my life.

But just like when Russo took me to C7 Dust, I remember the first time I dozen all-time low shows in my life. But just like when Russo took me to see Seven Dust, I remember the first time I saw all-time low because I was so blown away by Ryan. Obviously, like you said, the Travis influence is there, but there is also his own personality in there and his energy in there. Damned If I Do Ya is a good one where you could hear like his,

that's very much a Ryan sounding song song you watch him and you believe him and you know he believes in what he's doing and you know that this is the best hour of his day yeah you can't wait for the next night when he gets to do it for another hour or two and like you said with the live stuff one of my favorite things always as a drummer has been practicing along with live albums you know there's something very fun about pretending you're that guy and you've got a sold out arena or stadium in front of you and one of the albums thanks to you that i've practiced along to in its entirety is all time lows straight to DVD. Yes. So many great fun licks and parts and grooves.

And it's an endurance thing. You know, part of, part of what I came to know that I had to do as a drummer was make sure my endurance was going to be there. And you're playing along with things like all time low straight to DVD. That that's a cardio workout. Oh, yeah. You've got to appreciate what a guy like Ryan does for his craft.

I'm sure – I don't know if he runs or if he hits the treadmill or if he hits the gym. He works out like a motherfucker. He loves posting thirst traps on Instagram. I mean, I hope that's working out for him. You've got to be dedicated to what you know is going to keep you at the top of your game in a live situation. Because there's nothing worse as a performer of any kind than walking off stage and feeling like you didn't give them your best. Yeah.

You've got to get out there. It's the one hour a day. Or maybe if you're not a professional or a touring musician it might be the one hour of your month yeah get out there and show people what you got you want it to be top notch you want to give them a show you know like i said i've i've got a type and it might have something to do with you know seeing animal on the muppets when i was like three years old playing a christmas song which is hysterical i'll post like a video of you playing on twitter or something

but you you did become that type you were just the self-fulfilling prophecy you became that lanky white boy with tattoos arms flailing like you got makeup on on the kid all that shit it's hysterical people have told me you know in bands i've been, hey, man, you're not going to be able to play that way forever. And I was just saying, nah, I'm fine. Everything's going to be good. And, you know, it caught up with me eventually. It's been a few years since you played the drums because you couldn't play that way forever. I rode this bitch till the wheels fell off.

And I'm proud of everything I did. Bro, it's like the oasis documentary when liam's like we were a fucking ferrari we drove that thing till we spun out but it was a ferrari yeah man i you know i wanted people just walking away saying holy shit look what mickey fox did tonight you know and to this day still you know people are kind enough sometimes to send me a message on instagram or something saying man i remember I remember that one night, or I saw you play with that DJ. And I'm just like, okay, there's that one dude, like I said, when we started talking, someone remembers. Someone had a good night and was impressed or inspired or just had a good time because I tried to exemplify a dude who was grateful to be there and having the best

time of his life because this you know some of the best times of my life were the nights where i was behind the kit and there was a at the fucking sold out roxy opening up for buck cherry or something i mean you had some crazy nights you you lived the fucking rock star life for a while you know one of my i talk about it all the time still one of my favorite gigs to do was just driving him over cousin mark's college and sitting the kid up in the middle of his disgusting frat house he's in east stroudsburg yeah just you know i've got the drums in the dining room in the middle of a kegger and there was you know 100 college kids just having a good time and dancing because my,

my drums were, you know, going along with the DJ and, uh, people just had a good time and I was a part of it. That's, that's really all I think these guys we've talked about brought was this is a good time can go on forever about technical proficiency. Again, apologies to Neilil pert yes mary um to frankie barelli keith moon we didn't mention keith moon he's one that like you can't do the drummer podcast without at least mentioning his name by the end of it listen everybody's got their favorites but yeah go easy on us on twitter after this podcast drops we don't want to hear

how could you leave this guy off well it was quite simple because he wasn't on our top 10, but let us know who was on yours. If we left someone off that you're like, this guy's great, let us know. We fucking love drumming. We'll watch the drumming videos, tweet them. I want to take this opportunity to apologize to our next door neighbors, Danny and Kyle. Also on the other side uh our neighbors Pete and Dorothy yep just endless fucking hours listening to me bash like a fucking muppet but that's what that's what I like to do man you would play the drum so much that mom like still mentions sometimes that like as a child I would be able to just nap through it I got used to it all right this has been a blast thank you again for for listening mike thanks for joining the show we'll have to get you back on soon we're gonna do a batman 89

commentary soon um we're gonna get clam in for it batman 89 is like my brother's favorite movie you talk about batman 89 that's like how he talks about tommy lee so we're gonna do batman 89 commentary hopefully next month i think next month i said was jack nicholson birthday. And I think that would be a cool thing to do for it. So make sure you subscribe. Make sure you go to 3G.com. Use promo code MMB for 5% off your complete order. And subscribe to the YouTube while we're at it. The YouTube has new content all the time.

And we'll talk to you guys next week. See ya.