Hey, Bass, Who's Your Favorite Drummer?

In no particular order:

Neil Peart: Rush - supernatural drummer
Matt Abts: Gov’t Mule - incredible drummer with a great feel
Frank Beard: ZZ Top - great feel and creates a solid foundation for their music.
Vinnie Appice: various band. - much to this guy and quite versatile
Gil Moore: Triumph - aside from fantastic playing and great feel the man is an amazing vocalist.

There are more but those are the ones that caught my imagination. I played drums before I switched to bass at 15 and these were some of my drum heroes.

 

Zigaboo Modeliste
“Mean” Willie Green
Adam Deitch
Nikki Glaspy

 

Ringo
Charlie Watts
Al Jackson, Jr.
Bernard Purdie
Jim Gordon(so sad)
Thom Mooney...you may not have heard of him, he was the drummer in Todd Rundgren’s original band, The Nazz, but also did a number of other projects. Funny thing, I do actually know him, but never had the chance to play with him...

 

Just like the recent Favorite Bass Player Of All Time thread, I don't think I could ever narrow it down to one...and I might have trouble keeping it to 20!

In no particular order:

Narada Michael Walden
John Bonham
Bill Bruford
Simon Phillips
Gavin Harrison
Terry Bozzio
Wil Calhoun
Steve Gadd
Omar Hakim
Trilok Gurtu
Joey Baron
Mike Clarke
Stewart Copeland
Ronald Shannon Jackson
Don Brewer
Kenwood Dennard
Matt Cameron
Chris Franz
Steve Jansen
Jon Christensen

 

Phil Ehart (Kansas)
Bill Bruford (YES, King Crimson)
Carl Palmer (ELP, ASIA)

 

Without doubt, Gene Krupa!

 

One of the coolest tunes of any era, written by Louie Prima; Krupa’s on fire...

 

Charlie Watts, who always kept the Stones a little funky
Bill Berry of REM
I admire Neil Peart
I've always thought people are too hard on Larry Mullen, Jr.
I like Alex Van Halen. As a drummer. Probably not as a human.

 

Keith Moon fer sure, Charlie Watts a close, very close, second, and Buddy Rich for the "Grandad Award"!

 

David Garabaldi
Stewart Copeland
Carter Beauford

 

Who’s your grandaddy?

 

“Papa” Jo Jones is my second.

 

I think there are drummers I admire as a listener, and drummers I'd like to be in a band with.

Among the former are guys like Neal Peart, Danny Cary, Stewart Copeland, and Bill Bruford.

Among the latter would be John Bonham, Joe Morello, Bill Ward.

The drummer in my own band is great to play with. He uses a tiny 3 or 4 piece surf style kit but is always on point, always fun to play with.

 

Zigaboo

 

Josh Freese
When you can be super busy but still in a deep groove it’s truly astounding. His work on A Perfect Circles album Mer De Nomes is some of my favorite drumming on any album.

Chad Smith. RHCP. Very underrated drummer. He is built for exactly what they do. And does it amazingly.

 

Nate Smith is straight fire.

 

Billy Martin

 

Vinnie Colaiuta, Dave Weckl, Benny Greb, Arkadiy Kornev, Chad Sexton, Andols Herrick, Marc Mas Marti, and last but certainly not least Mike Portnoy... to name a few.