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the worst drummer you've ever worked with?
- Thread starter crj14525
- Start date
I played with a drummer once, for a few months, who seemed to have all the time in the world. She didn't practice, but she could be wherever we needed her whenever, and she was a decent player. It turned out that she hadn't worked in a few years, was on disability, and thought the government was out to get her using sound waves.
Seriously.
Seriously.
Played with a guy back in the mid-90's who claimed he was the best jazz drummer to come out of Temple University. He would never learn the tunes and had no idea when to stop (he would literally keep playing past the end of a song). Lucky for me we finally ditched him, as I was the assigned babysitter.
1) Drummer in an original rock band, mid 80's (I played lead guitar with these guys). When he wanted to , his time could be solid, but he definitely had a VERY limited range and vocabulary on his instrument. The WORST part of that band however was the bassist, very inconsistent, to the point he one night during a gig was forgetting ENTIRE songs and sections of them, stuff we'd play numerous times live without incident otherwise.
2) In the first version of the band after that, we had a drummer/multi-instrumentalist who was on the one hand very unique and creative BUT I realized later had some issues upstairs if you know what I mean. Sometimes he'd play brilliantly, others VERY sloppy, plus in general he was very scatterbrained and indecisive about a lot of things in general, and sometimes given to some unpredictable behavior (like once slapping a female band member without any provocation at all). He was fired.
3) Thankfully brief, I was in a jazz/R&B cover band in the early 90's, our original drummer moved away, and we auditioned replacements. This one guy came in rather sure of himself, full guido look and all, but when it came to actual drumming, he lost the plot altogether. Only knew a few rock beats, and his grasp on jazz drumming was non-existent (closest he got was a stereotypical swing beat), On top of all this, he had the full tilt addict personality and it became clear he was NOT the guy we were looking for.
2) In the first version of the band after that, we had a drummer/multi-instrumentalist who was on the one hand very unique and creative BUT I realized later had some issues upstairs if you know what I mean. Sometimes he'd play brilliantly, others VERY sloppy, plus in general he was very scatterbrained and indecisive about a lot of things in general, and sometimes given to some unpredictable behavior (like once slapping a female band member without any provocation at all). He was fired.
3) Thankfully brief, I was in a jazz/R&B cover band in the early 90's, our original drummer moved away, and we auditioned replacements. This one guy came in rather sure of himself, full guido look and all, but when it came to actual drumming, he lost the plot altogether. Only knew a few rock beats, and his grasp on jazz drumming was non-existent (closest he got was a stereotypical swing beat), On top of all this, he had the full tilt addict personality and it became clear he was NOT the guy we were looking for.
My buddy and I were looking for drummers to jam with. We found this one guy, "Boomer". He was a wild card, and we'd been warned that he's "different". At the time, my buddy just bought a Gibson LP Standard, and i just purchased an EBMM Sterling, so we didn't care; we just wanted to play.
We get to the first fill and he crashes and burns. "Okay, no worries", I say, and we try again. After the third time of him completely screwing up time and the fill, he gets up from his kit, wings his sticks at the wall, and begins kicking over his entire kit.
We were in the military, in a dorm common area called a "day room". He is flipping out, and parts are going everywhere. Somehow we calm him down enough to where we were able to escape with our gear and our lives.
I have never experienced anything like that since.
We get to the first fill and he crashes and burns. "Okay, no worries", I say, and we try again. After the third time of him completely screwing up time and the fill, he gets up from his kit, wings his sticks at the wall, and begins kicking over his entire kit.
We were in the military, in a dorm common area called a "day room". He is flipping out, and parts are going everywhere. Somehow we calm him down enough to where we were able to escape with our gear and our lives.
I have never experienced anything like that since.
RedLeg
Supporting Member
"I try not to listen to the band; they really throw me off"
last big band drummer I played with.
last big band drummer I played with.
got hired for a funk gig & all the kids are columbia students & sent me the bass charts to all the tunes. i am thinking this is going to rule! well it did rule for about 1 minute until he did a fill, where that fill ended was the NEW 1. it could be on the old three or the AND of any beat, it didn't matter to him. i have never seen anything like it.
a few weeks later i run into a guitarist who tells me he started the band & then they kicked him out & then the drummer kicked out the rest of the band & it became his band. & they only play the tunes the guitarist wrote.
a few weeks later i run into a guitarist who tells me he started the band & then they kicked him out & then the drummer kicked out the rest of the band & it became his band. & they only play the tunes the guitarist wrote.
I would've told him that we still have auditions for other drummers, and they have to set up their kits. HINT HINT!!!
I would never assume I got a gig until I was informed of such. Some people are out of touch when it comes to social ques.
Two more drummer stories.
I had one drummer who couldn't get the timing of the kick drum in the beginning of Metallica's Fade to Black. Winner!
Another drummer I worked with, who is a good drummer, refused to play 4/4. He'd rather play the melody than the rhythm. It was unique, but it lacked that "kicked in" feeling during up-tempo parts.
I had one drummer who couldn't get the timing of the kick drum in the beginning of Metallica's Fade to Black. Winner!
Another drummer I worked with, who is a good drummer, refused to play 4/4. He'd rather play the melody than the rhythm. It was unique, but it lacked that "kicked in" feeling during up-tempo parts.
Worst drummer? Back in the early 80's got a call from a drummer (well, he owned a drum set) for a 3 week gig, 5 nights a week, excellent pay. I was broke so did the gig.
He thought time was only a magazine, and sounded like a pair of tennis shoes in a dryer.
He thought time was only a magazine, and sounded like a pair of tennis shoes in a dryer.
I worked with a guy years ago, nice enough guy. He had a fairly pro kit with a good sound (ie: stayed on top of tuning them). His timing would float and he never really knew how to land a fill on time or when to come in after a rest.
However, his personal life was in shambles. He would drink those Sparks throughout rehearsals, he was always broke, he borrowed a car and needed gas money & food money. (yet always had a ton of Sparks) When the band noticed his fluctuating moods and occasional anger out bursts he admitted to a meth problem that led to him being asked to leave the band.
Since, it seems he has gotten his act together and has cleaned up. He even has a family now. More power to him and I wish him the best.
However, his personal life was in shambles. He would drink those Sparks throughout rehearsals, he was always broke, he borrowed a car and needed gas money & food money. (yet always had a ton of Sparks) When the band noticed his fluctuating moods and occasional anger out bursts he admitted to a meth problem that led to him being asked to leave the band.
Since, it seems he has gotten his act together and has cleaned up. He even has a family now. More power to him and I wish him the best.
RedLeg
Supporting Member
Ohhh ohhh,
Back in the 90's, I had this tweaker drummer that couldn't afford anything real, so he began crafting his own drum set from old just sets and plain old junk. Cracked bass drum shell with a make shife pedal, no mounting gear. Wooden "gibralter" accessory rack. 3/4 of a hi hat. random metal shards strung together for "wind chimes". Cymbals that were cracked, or "modified". A true do it your selfer. I wish I had photos. what can I say Methamphetamine is a heckuva drug! I can barely remember this guy, but he could actually play. However the set sounded horrid and was prone to falling apart. This guy was always making the stuff he wanted, and modifying the stuff he had. He truly fixed everything till it was broken.
Something funny
Back in the 90's, I had this tweaker drummer that couldn't afford anything real, so he began crafting his own drum set from old just sets and plain old junk. Cracked bass drum shell with a make shife pedal, no mounting gear. Wooden "gibralter" accessory rack. 3/4 of a hi hat. random metal shards strung together for "wind chimes". Cymbals that were cracked, or "modified". A true do it your selfer. I wish I had photos. what can I say Methamphetamine is a heckuva drug! I can barely remember this guy, but he could actually play. However the set sounded horrid and was prone to falling apart. This guy was always making the stuff he wanted, and modifying the stuff he had. He truly fixed everything till it was broken.
Something funny
Here's my response from another thread in a similar thread.
One that sticks in my mind was in 1990-1991 when the first Gulf War was happening. I was at a rehearsal for a friends music project. She wanted me to record a few bass tracks in the studio and provide bass for her live showcase.
So, I arrive at this house owned by her friends and fellow musicians. This drummer shows up. I'm told he'll be doing the showcase with us. Fine Sure no problem. However, there is something off about the guy. First, he brings in the junkiest, POS mini drum set I have ever seen in my life. Ok, not trying to pre-judge cuz I know some people can be masters on POS gear.
Then, he begins demonstrating just about every sign of a coke head including rubbing off the powder under his nose he left on when he did his line probably in his car. Ok, again. Fine. I've worked with doper musicians before. As long as they can do the work, I don't care.
He liked my bass playing. Very complimentary. Incredibly hyper guy though. His drumming....uh...not to much. Things like beat, tempo, groove pretty no existent. Again, ok let's just get through this rehearsal. On the first break he talked my ear off about a song he wrote and he was "guaranteed" it was going to get massive local (Madison, WI ) radio airplay. But he hasn't recorded it yet and wanted me to do the bass for it.
His song was titled "So Damn Insane". It was about the Gulf War. He then spent the next 20 minutes explaining to me how it was a take on "Saddam Hussein". I said earlier on I got it. Yet, spent the time either singing me his lyrics (not much melody) or repeating himself about 30 times how his song "So Damn Insane" is a take on Saddam Hussein. Usually, after stating the connection, he followed up with "you get it? you get it? You get it?"
Did I mention this went on for 20 minutes????
Anyway, my friend who invited me was apologizing and called the rehearsal because this drummer was so high he couldn't focus on getting back to the drums only about me playing on his hit song, which by the way didn't have any chords, structure, etc as of yet.
I bailed and said I'll do the studio work but I'm not going on stage with coke boy. She understood. We later did the showcase with a pro drummer and it was a blast.
Funny, I never did hear his "hit song" on the radio.
A drummer I worked with people would commonly refer to him as "Five-o". I thought it was in reference to his name... Boy was I wrong. To this day, he is the reason I do not like roto toms. :scowl:
My favorite memory of this time/tempo disaster was on a weekend gig. Opening night, he breaks the kick drum head in mid set and decides to duct tape it to get through the night. Fair enough. Next night, we (the band) show up to find he has not changed the head and expects to use it that night. Wrong! He ended up changing it, but it still sounded like crap. I believe that was our last performance at that club. Go figure.
My favorite memory of this time/tempo disaster was on a weekend gig. Opening night, he breaks the kick drum head in mid set and decides to duct tape it to get through the night. Fair enough. Next night, we (the band) show up to find he has not changed the head and expects to use it that night. Wrong! He ended up changing it, but it still sounded like crap. I believe that was our last performance at that club. Go figure.
scottbass
Bass lines like a big, funky giant
Worst PERSON who played drums that I worked with:
About 5 years ago I was in a classic rock/biker bar band. Some Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Aerosmith along with a bunch of standard Stones, 3 Dog Night, Gin Blossoms, and the standard Steppenwolf biker dance tunes.
We burned through drummers almost like Spinal Tap. The two guitarist/singers and I went through 9 "regular" drummers - not counting one-time fill-ins - in the 6-1/2 years I played with them. Two of the drummers actually died.
Most of the drummers had the usual consistency issues to some extent, some worse than others. Finally we found a really solid drummer #8. He had rock-solid consistency, he was a heavy hitter but not overbearing, he had better-than-good fills, knew when and when not to throw them in, etc. He looked EXACTLY like Curly from the 3 Stooges. REALLY! But he was so much better than our previous seven drummers!
The first gig he played with us was a standard bar gig: 3 hours of music over a 4 hour period. Because he was the spittin' image of Curly, he was kinda out of shape. Near the end of the last set every muscle in his body cramped up. He quit playing in the middle of a song and began walking around in circles doing "Oooh! Ouch! Ouch-ouch-ouch!" noises in an almost-perfect Curly imitation!!! We just kept playing. We had to play the last 3 songs without any drums whatsoever!
Needless to say, this prompted a band meeting. He promised to start working out so he would be able to play entire gigs. We said "OK" and gave him another chance about a month later.
We were playing at the typical biker bar. We had been playing this type of venue for years and years, so we knew how to get through an evening without provoking trouble. (HINT: Bikers are basically some of the nicest people you will ever meet. However, many of them need to project some type of image. If you respect that, everything will be fine.)
Curly showed up wearing knee-high, lace up, heavy leather pole climber boots. We never asked why, but I suspect he thought that would help him avoid calf cramps. I would think that would really affect his ability to play the kick and high hat, but he seemed to be getting along just fine. Toward the end of the evening, two guys started going at it on the dance floor. By "going at it" I mean combat, not same-sex love! The combat, however, was more like consensual wrestling. They were not throwing punches at each other, just grabbing and leveraging and trying to throw each other down. And they were both grinning - no obvious signs of anger or malice. OK - fine. Like I said, we had been playing biker bars for a long time and knew to just keep playing. We also moved out into the crowd a little bit so we could more easily deflect a careening wrestler before he crashed into the amps or drums. The bar had a manager and two bouncers, and they were more or less just positioning themselves to keep the combatants confined to one corner near the back of the dance floor.
Like I said, this was a biker bar and this type of activity was not that out of the ordinary.
Well, Curly couldn't deal with this. He quit playing in the middle of a song, grabbed a mic, and started screaming at the wrestler dudes. He was screaming hysterically for them to quit it, that they were showing no respect for the band. He called them all the worst mother-^*#)@* names he could think of. All the time this was going on, we just kept playing - without drums, of course. The three of us were trying to get Curly to just sit down and shut up. Finally, after about 5 minutes of his tirade, the wrestling dudes both stopped and started laughing hysterically at Curly! The bar manager and two bouncers also started laughing at him. We played one last song - without drums - and then shut it down for the night. As soon as we killed the PA, we fired Curly on the spot. We were expecting him to start going off on us, and to pack up his stuff as fast as possible and storm out.
WRONG!
He stood there and cried and begged us to give him one more chance! Not just a little crying - a full fledged wail-and-blubber-and-plead-and-beg for another 5 minutes. He tried to tell us sob stories (literally!) about how messed-up his childhood was and how he didn't have any luck with the ladies and everything else that he thought went into his bad behavior.
And it wasn't like losing this gig would have hurt too much financially - he was probably only looking at making $200 or $300 a month from playing with us.
It took me about 20 minutes to tear down and load out my gear, and when I left he was still crying and begging to the two guitarists.
And no, we didn't break down and give him another chance!
About 5 years ago I was in a classic rock/biker bar band. Some Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Aerosmith along with a bunch of standard Stones, 3 Dog Night, Gin Blossoms, and the standard Steppenwolf biker dance tunes.
We burned through drummers almost like Spinal Tap. The two guitarist/singers and I went through 9 "regular" drummers - not counting one-time fill-ins - in the 6-1/2 years I played with them. Two of the drummers actually died.
Most of the drummers had the usual consistency issues to some extent, some worse than others. Finally we found a really solid drummer #8. He had rock-solid consistency, he was a heavy hitter but not overbearing, he had better-than-good fills, knew when and when not to throw them in, etc. He looked EXACTLY like Curly from the 3 Stooges. REALLY! But he was so much better than our previous seven drummers!
The first gig he played with us was a standard bar gig: 3 hours of music over a 4 hour period. Because he was the spittin' image of Curly, he was kinda out of shape. Near the end of the last set every muscle in his body cramped up. He quit playing in the middle of a song and began walking around in circles doing "Oooh! Ouch! Ouch-ouch-ouch!" noises in an almost-perfect Curly imitation!!! We just kept playing. We had to play the last 3 songs without any drums whatsoever!
Needless to say, this prompted a band meeting. He promised to start working out so he would be able to play entire gigs. We said "OK" and gave him another chance about a month later.
We were playing at the typical biker bar. We had been playing this type of venue for years and years, so we knew how to get through an evening without provoking trouble. (HINT: Bikers are basically some of the nicest people you will ever meet. However, many of them need to project some type of image. If you respect that, everything will be fine.)
Curly showed up wearing knee-high, lace up, heavy leather pole climber boots. We never asked why, but I suspect he thought that would help him avoid calf cramps. I would think that would really affect his ability to play the kick and high hat, but he seemed to be getting along just fine. Toward the end of the evening, two guys started going at it on the dance floor. By "going at it" I mean combat, not same-sex love! The combat, however, was more like consensual wrestling. They were not throwing punches at each other, just grabbing and leveraging and trying to throw each other down. And they were both grinning - no obvious signs of anger or malice. OK - fine. Like I said, we had been playing biker bars for a long time and knew to just keep playing. We also moved out into the crowd a little bit so we could more easily deflect a careening wrestler before he crashed into the amps or drums. The bar had a manager and two bouncers, and they were more or less just positioning themselves to keep the combatants confined to one corner near the back of the dance floor.
Like I said, this was a biker bar and this type of activity was not that out of the ordinary.
Well, Curly couldn't deal with this. He quit playing in the middle of a song, grabbed a mic, and started screaming at the wrestler dudes. He was screaming hysterically for them to quit it, that they were showing no respect for the band. He called them all the worst mother-^*#)@* names he could think of. All the time this was going on, we just kept playing - without drums, of course. The three of us were trying to get Curly to just sit down and shut up. Finally, after about 5 minutes of his tirade, the wrestling dudes both stopped and started laughing hysterically at Curly! The bar manager and two bouncers also started laughing at him. We played one last song - without drums - and then shut it down for the night. As soon as we killed the PA, we fired Curly on the spot. We were expecting him to start going off on us, and to pack up his stuff as fast as possible and storm out.
WRONG!
He stood there and cried and begged us to give him one more chance! Not just a little crying - a full fledged wail-and-blubber-and-plead-and-beg for another 5 minutes. He tried to tell us sob stories (literally!) about how messed-up his childhood was and how he didn't have any luck with the ladies and everything else that he thought went into his bad behavior.
And it wasn't like losing this gig would have hurt too much financially - he was probably only looking at making $200 or $300 a month from playing with us.
It took me about 20 minutes to tear down and load out my gear, and when I left he was still crying and begging to the two guitarists.
And no, we didn't break down and give him another chance!
Exploiter8
Demons run when a good man goes to war
That reminded me of my current drummer that I've been jammin' with for over thirty years. Whenever he counts off a song to start it, he uses the same tempo, NOT the tempo of the song, if you catch my drift!
X8
I got a drummer who is in his forties who does this, so - good luck with that !
Yep, the texting drummer I played with was in his mid 30's.
...texting while drumming ...why i oughta...
