December 2021 – Volume 45 • Number 12

Peter Erskine Excerpted from the January 1983 issue

If Peter Erskine isn’t careful, he’s going to start giving jazz, musicians a good name. I mean, we all know about the reputation jazz players have with the general public, right? The stereotypical jazzer is perceived to be a sullen,…

December 2021 - Volume 45 • Number 12

Nick Mason

Excerpted from the November 2011 issue How do you feel about your drumming on the many classic Pink Floyd cuts? I’ve always been a bit disparaging of my own playing. I tend to listen to things and wish I’d done…

Neil Peart Elected to Hall of Fame in 1983

Excerpted from the April/May 1980 issue How did you become involved with Rush? The usual chain of circumstances and accidents. I came from a city that’s about 60 or 70 miles from Toronto. A few musicians from my area had…

12 Iconic Punk-Rock Drummers Sound Off

We spun through the MD archives to collect some brash, aggro wisdom from punk-rock, punk-pop, or post-punk drummers who have shared their musical insights in these pages. Punk isn’t always about diving blindly into intensity with limited technique, and some…

Remembering Ron Spagnardi

Quotes from the Original Fearless Leader No plan. No staff. Just a grand passion, the personal savings of Ron Spagnardi and his wife Isabel, and the sweat entity of his dad and their daughter. There was little hope that a…

Gene Krupa Elected to Hall of Fame in 1979

Excerpted from the October/November 1979 issue “I’m happy that I succeeded in doing two things: I made the drummer a high­priced guy, and I was able to draw more people to jazz.” The above quote of drum master Gene Krupa…

Buddy Rich Elected to Hall of Fame in 1980

Excerpted from the January 1977 issue When it comes to interviewing Buddy, one must learn to expect the unexpected. You can end up with a first rate story, or no story at all. He’s a very intense human being, with…

Martin Chambers

Excerpted from the July 1982 issue The single biggest influence in Martin Chambers’ onstage attitude and playing considerations was Keith Moon. “He was a very good player and a very talented free player, much like Mitch Mitchell. But the thing…

Art Blakey Excerpted from the September 1984 issue

The first rays of dusk suffuse Art Blakey’s Greenwich Village apartment with shards of amber gray light, and as the shadows dance upon his brow, Blakey’s face takes on a totemic grace. The snow-white hair fades out of the foreground…

Jon Farriss Excerpted from the October 1988 issue

Innocently and completely unexpectedly, Jon Farriss poses the question, “Are you really sure that drummers want to read about me?” It was a definite “first” within my realm of experience as a music journalist. Yet, as strange as the question…

By the Numbers MD Covers Reveal Drum-Culture Stats

Forty-five years provides a lot of perspective on the artists, styles, and techniques Modern Drummer has covered, as well as how those subjects informed the drum community from year to year. Any magazine editor will tell you that choosing cover…

Billy Cobham Excerpted from the August/September 1979 Issue

Billy Cobham is one of the strongest innovative forces on the drumming scene today. Both his technique, and drum set up are awesome. We met at Starr Recording Studios where Cobham was to record an instructional tape for the Tama…

Stewart Copeland

Excerpted from the October 1982 issue How did the Police come about? I was on tour with Curved Air. We had a night off and a local journalist took me around to see his favorite local group, which was a…

Alan White

Excerpted from the February/March 1980 issue Yes is one of the few bands who combine exploration of musical art forms with the vitality of rock music. Their arrange­ments are impeccable and their playing skills, superb. What’s more, those guys can…

Phil Collins

Excerpted from the March/April 1979 issue Phil Collins’ muscular arms are flowing as his hands snap out the illusive 6/8 beat. The music swells around and through him while his piercing eyes look inward, directing his movements. Collins is an…

Keith Moon Elected to Hall of Fame in 1982

Excerpted from the September 2003 issue In his last interview, published posthumously in October 1978, Keith told International Musician and Recording World, “You can’t work out things too much. We do certain build-ups and things, but you can run into…

45 Years of a Vibrant Community

It’s just unbelievable how quickly 45 years can go by. It was 1977, when founder Ron Spagnardi launched what the world would come to know, love, and behold as Modern Drummer magazine. Modern Drummer is much more than a magazine.…

Larry Mullen A candid interview with the drummer

Excerpted from the August 1985 issue Let me say first of all that I don’t do interviews, ever. I did them when the band started, and then 1 stopped because I didn’t enjoy them. I’ve seen issues of Modern Drummer.…

Max Roach Excerpted from the June 1982 issue

Max Roach is a vital link in the chain of drum history. He was recognized as the man who pioneered a modern drumming style for his work with bebop giants like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. In the ‘50s and…