Drum Customers & Drum Tech...
I admit it!! I am hopelessly addicted to all things percussive.
If there is a drum in the room, it seeks me out and pulls me
in with its tractor beam. I love the look, sound and feel of
a drumkit. It is a beautiful sculpture that emits a seductive
sound…its siren’s call. I half-jokingly refer to
myself as a “recovering drummer”.
For me , there is
nothing more alluring than a drumkit that has been creatively
set up and personalized. Combining my two passions, drums and art, could only
lead to one thing…custom painted drums. Because I could not afford or
find drums to match my orange sparkle kit I wrapped them in chrome contact
paper. I was soon painting my band name or relative artwork on my front kick
drum head.(click here for the Evolution of a Drummer gallery ).
The first actual
drum shell I painted was my Yamaha Recording Custom kit, a multi-color textural
swirl . That drum kit was seen by the drum tech for Guns-N-Roses at the time
and before I knew it I was painting two kits for Steven Adler of G-N-R at
the height of their Appetite for Destruction tour. I have since
been asked to create custom drumkits for some of the biggest
names in the music business, from Aerosmith to ZZ Top.
I was playing
with X O X, a fairly popular band here in Houston when Frank
Beard of ZZ Top came to see the band. He liked my drums and
asked if I could paint a kit for him. That chance meeting has
turned into a 17+ year friendship over which I have created 13
custom drumkits and traveled the world with ZZ Top as Frank’s
drum tech.
In October of 2002, while on tour in Europe, Frank
had an emergency appendectomy and I was asked to fill the
drum spot. So with very little sleep and no rehearsal I played
3 sold out shows starting in Paris. In a career spanning 30+years,
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees ZZ Top have never performed
without those three original guys, until then . Mucho thanks
to Billy, Dusty and Frank for trusting me up there behind the
kit. It was an honor and I had a blast!
I also have the pleasure
of being Alex Van Halen’s drum tech. I painted
some drums and drum heads for him starting back in 1991 and was asked
to tech for him in 1998. Alex’ s drumming talent and his
creative drumkits inspired me to do what I do…so to help
create a drumkit for him and to sit behind him every night is
indeed a dream come true. |
