The Drummer Quotes

#1. The drummer's always going to be there. They're the floor of the whole deal and everyone can stand up on you.

Ringo Starr

#2. The drummer in my first band was killed in Vietnam. He kind of signed up and joined the marines. Bart Hanes was his name. He was one of those guys that was jokin' all the time, always playin' the clown.

Bruce Springsteen

#3. I'm the drummer that kind of plays more on top of the beat.

Tony Palermo

#4. There is no music unless the drum and the drummer are one.

E. E. Cummings

#5. I hope people just enjoy the music. I'm not worried about any sort of legacy. Whether people view me more as the drummer in Wilco or as a composer who composes primarily for rhythmic reasons - it doesn't matter to me as long as they dig the music. None of that matters to me if the music is crap.

Glenn Kotche

#6. In the Foo Fighters, my main job is to be the drummer, and that's enough.

Taylor Hawkins

#7. But primarily, the drummer's supposed to sit back there and swing the band.

Buddy Rich

#8. I would like to think that the singer is the butterfly, and the drummer was just the little grub in the ground, working to become a caterpillar.

Robert Wyatt

#9. In jazz, you listen to what the bass player is doing and what the drummer is doing, what the pianist and the guitarist is doing, and then you play something that compliments that, so you are thinking simultaneously and thinking ahead.

David Amram

#10. When she told me how Phil had built a platform that hung five feet from the floor by thick chains to hold the drummer's kit, I nearly died. He'd built it because he believed that drums should be recorded from

Mick Fleetwood

#11. The drummer is stereotypically the dumb guy. Maybe that's why I always respect drummers who do more than drum.

Taylor Hawkins

#12. None of would've made it alone" John once explained, "because Paul wasn't strong enough, I didn't have enough girl-appeal, George was too quiet, and Ringo was the drummer. But we thought everyone would be able to dig at least one of us, and that's how it turned out.

Jonathan Cott

#13. She was trying to make him understand that she would never march to the beat of anyone else's drum again and he was arrogantly assuring her that she would if he were the drummer!

Sandra Marton

#14. No acting, no production, could take the place of that moment when you come out in the dark on to the stage and the drummer plays four beats on the hi-hat and then lights and music. It just takes your breath away. No words can do what music can.

Ken Stott

#15. It was that famous joke: What's the last thing the drummer said before he got kicked out of the band? 'Hey, I wrote a song.'

Dave Grohl

#16. Make the drummer sound good.

Steve Lacy

#17. As the drummer, I know that drums fully support the band. Their rhythm keeps things within the pulse and contributes to the overall energy of each performance. I am a very balanced person and I realize that through my personal level of balance, I also outwardly balance Stjepan and Luka.

Dusan Kranjc

#18. The drum is the heart of music. The saxophone can play and then rest, as can all of them except the drums; the drummer keeps going - he can't afford to stop.

Jo Jones

#19. When I first set up my big band, I only had Gilson Lavis, the drummer from Squeeze, with me. He was the core element. Whenever a group hits the big time, they always get a new drummer because they really need that. You can make do with rubbish elsewhere.

Jools Holland

#20. Hi. I'm Rachel Trachtenburg. I'm the daughter and the drummer for the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players.

Rachel Trachtenburg

#21. I want to be 'Jimmy Chamberlin, the drummer, the musician who's done many things,' not just 'that guy from the Smashing Pumpkins.'

Jimmy Chamberlin

#22. Psy Free was a trio consisting of guitar, organ and drums. I was the drummer. We did what the name suggests: psychedelic, free music.

Klaus Schulze

#23. Well, I've only managed to do the drummer and the bassist so far, but I'm thinking I could get a threesome going and knock out the others. Maybe I'll gangbang with the roadies when we stop for dinner!

Katie Ashley

#24. Keep pace with the drummer you hear, however measured or far away.

Henry David Thoreau

#25. I'd really like having a couple days of being a rock star, although I'd rather be a backup - like maybe the drummer for Muse ... It would also be fun to be gorgeous, like be Charlize Theron, just for a couple of days.

Stephenie Meyer

#26. Yngve came in and said that John Bonham, the drummer in Led Zeppelin, was on one of the songs.

Karl Ove Knausgard

#27. I think it's very cool for the drummer to be set free from having to worry about holding down the beat every once in a while, though it's a little constricting.

James Hetfield

#28. Before you can follow your own drummer, you have to hear the drummer.

Srikumar Rao

#29. I decided to build a studio in my house. We built it in my basement kitchen. I had the drummer up by the fish tank. I was in the toilet singing. The bass player was out by the shelves in the living room, and the guitarist was on the couch by the telly.

Eddi Reader

#30. I can tell you who I'd like to work with as far as rock legends. Definitely Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters. Of course Linkin Park. Actually, I already worked with Travis Barker on a couple of things. Gotta let the drummer get some. Possibly Paramore, Hayley Williams.

B.o.B

#31. Yes, I always say that we're a National League band. What I mean is, if you play an instrument, you have to sing. So I always call our drummer up. Even the drummer has to take a turn on the microphone.

Emmylou Harris

#32. It was probably when I met Jeff Hamilton, the drummer I've been working with for the last 20 years. He's the one who brought Ray Brown to hear me sing at a restaurant in my hometown.

Diana Krall

#33. A person can allow a tyrannical world to bully them. One can kowtow to the demands of petty tormentors; blithely accept being the drummer boy for other people's private parade. Alternatively, a person can seek to obtain autonomy over their life.

Kilroy J. Oldster

#34. Gene Simmons after three months in the Gobi Desert? The Hunchback of Notre Dame following corrective surgery? An escaped Muppet? The drummer from Ratt?

Greg Sestero

#35. Even when I go do comedy stuff live, I can still feel the drummer in me about to go onstage.

Fred Armisen

#36. If you call someone up on a mistake - if the drummer's put an extra beat in a bar or something - you have a lot more authority if you can show them how to do it right.

Steve Winwood

#37. She had to get used to her new name, The Drummer. Twelfth, and last in line, but on a good note, she had the most money, and more importantly, she was alive.

Dayna S. Rubin

#38. I started an all-girl punk band when I was 14, and I was the drummer, not the singer.

Bjork

#39. The Weezer 'Blue' Album is a classic. I think My Morning Jacket's 'Circuital' is a great album to have. Any Led Zeppelin album. Pink Floyd 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' or 'Animals.' I always catch myself at concerts being like, 'Oh, I just stared at the drummer for 15 straight minutes.' I study them.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse

#40. I was a groupie for a year and followed a band. I dated the drummer of the band.

Malin Akerman

#41. Ten silver saxes, a bass with a bow, the drummer relaxes in between shows with his cinnamon girl.

Neil Young

#42. I think the drummer should sit back there and play some drums, and never mind about the tunes. Just get up there and wail behind whoever is sitting up there playing the solo. And this is what is lacking, definitely lacking in music today.

Buddy Rich

#43. My friend Fred Coury, the drummer in '80s rock band Cinderella, told me that in the rock world, you're either still there, or you're struggling to get back to where you were.

Steve Valentine

#44. I warm naturally to the drummer whose ideas and approach are strong, even if he doesn't quite have the ability to carry them out.

Bill Bruford

#45. Ronnie Spector's hair was taller and meaner and scarier than all four Shangri-La's combined, plus the drummer from the Honeycombs. You just know her rat-tail comb was a switchblade.

Rob Sheffield

#46. Jon Deitemyer is the drummer everyone wants right now.

Patricia Barber

#47. The greatest contribution jazz has made in music has been to replace the role of the conductor with a member of the ensemble who, instead of waving his arms to keep time and convey mood, is an active member of the musical statement. That person is the drummer.

Elvin Jones

#48. But blasting the drummer into the river, though it would have been easy at this range, was not a good way to be inconspicuous.

Neal Stephenson

#49. I was the drummer in a band called Hemsworth for a brief stint, too - it was not very great. I didn't even write the songs, but the band was named after me.

Ryan Hemsworth

#50. When I produce a record, I roll up my sleeves; I'm not one of those passive guys. I really get in there and make sure every note is measured. I tell the bass player, 'You have to play it like this,' or I tell the drummer, 'It's got to be like this.'

David Foster

#51. Has there ever been an Inquisitor who didn't die a horrible death?" Simon wondered out loud. " It's like being the drummer in Spinal Tap.

Cassandra Clare

#52. There is no roles. No one is keeping any roles. The drummer is also answering everybody and everything. So it is a constant conversation and communication between musicians on an extremely high level with extremely valuable material, motifs, and melodies.

Miroslav Vitous

#53. That's what the drummer is supposed to do. Keep the time. If you can do something else besides that, fine. But the time is essential and non-negotiable.

Elvin Jones

#54. Generally, I end up being the one thrown against the wall, because Zach is the drummer. He's stronger than me.

Isaac Hanson

#55. I was working at this club in downtown L.A. from four to eight at night, just Eddie Rubin, the drummer, and I.

Johnny Rivers

#56. I think every band is a little cautious when the drummer starts to write tunes.

Matt Cameron

#57. You know what, the drummer is my manager. He's busy. And I'm busy. I don't need the dough, though. But having said that, there's a limit to how much bad music I wanna play. I did it when I was young, and some of the music was OK, but it wasn't great.

Aimee Mann

#58. Traditionally speaking, the three biggest twats in any band are the singer, the keyboardist and the drummer. I don't need to say anything else.

Noel Gallagher

#59. My youngest son, who is now the drummer in my band, lives in Brooklyn. My oldest son is about to move out to California, and my daughters are both out of town.

Herbie Mann

#60. I've always been the DJ or the bass player or the drummer, somebody in the background. I don't think anybody who knows me personally would say that I'm particularly shy or introverted, but I'm definitely not like Mr. Attention.

Mayer Hawthorne

#61. The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.

Chet Baker

#62. I knew when I got to play with Al Jackson I would be a better bass player because he was the best drummer in the world. I worshipped him.

Donald Dunn

#63. I have it on good report that not only does Ambrose have a tiny, tiny penis, but he can only become aroused when in the presence of a dead dog, a painting of the Duke of Gibea, and a shirtless galley drummer.

Patrick Rothfuss

#64. When I lost the use of my hi-hat and bass drum legs, I became basically a singer. I was a drummer who did a bit of singing, and then I became a singer who did a bit of percussion.

Robert Wyatt

#65. You must walk to the beat of a different drummer. The same beat that the wealthy hear. If the beat sounds normal, evacuate the dance floor immediately! The goal is to not be normal, because as my radio listeners know, normal is broke.

Dave Ramsey

#66. Drummers haven't managed to develop their individuality quite as well as guitarists have. We can be so focused on the nuts and bolts that we overlook the importance of individuality - the broader picture, if you will.

Bill Bruford

#67. Playing drums feels like coming home for me. Even during the White Stripes I thought: 'I'll do this for now, but I'm really a drummer.' That's what I'll put on my passport application.

Jack White

#68. Buddy Rich was one of the most incredible technicians in the world, on this planet, but the only people he could really impress, who knew what he was doing was another musician or another drummer.

Dick Dale

#69. I have to give my family credit for putting up with the racket, because as some of you may know, its not the easiest thing in the world to live with a kid who's trying to become a rock and roll drummer.

Max Weinberg

#70. The American drummer is a one-man percussion orchestra.

Max Roach

#71. I wanted to be a musician, either a guitarist or a drummer. I guess my dreams were in the entertainment industry, and I landed somewhere along there.

Israel Broussard

#72. The sound he'd taken for an engine hum? The rowers chanting while a drummer kept the beat. "Row, row, row the boat, toward the Darkling Sea. And there we'll find some fucking fish, and have a killing spree." Each time they sang a verse, they cheered. A berserker army on its way to glory.

Eve Langlais

#73. I started out as a drummer, and now play with a back-to-basics rock band called the 'Luddites.' I'm happiest when I'm behind the kit.

Rick Astley

#74. I am the best rock drummer on the planet.

Ringo Starr

#75. Crazy is such a misunderstood term. I like to think that I march to the beat of my own drummer.

Eva Sloan

#76. I remember the first time somebody played me Janis Joplin. My friend Donna put on Janis Joplin, and she said, 'You're like her.' At the time, I wasn't even a singer; I was a drummer. I just wanted to play the drums.

Sophie B. Hawkins

#77. I have so much pride and love for the songs of The Smiths. However, I must ask you, if you come across any Smiths CDs, don't buy them, because all the money goes to that wretched drummer.

Steven Morrissey

#78. I like to be one of those drummers who actually add to the music, not one of those guys who sit in a room 24/7 trying to outwit or outplay another drummer.

Dave Lombardo

#79. Sed's heart sank to his toes. Too late for that. He was already on the boat. Was Jessica planning to kill him and then dump his body overboard before sailing off into the sunset with his drummer and bassist?

Olivia Cunning

#80. I was a Green Day guy because the first DVD I bought was Green Day's 'Bullet In A Bible,' the live album. That really empowered me to be not just a drummer but a performer. It's a really crucial part of why I wanted to be in a band.

Ashton Irwin

#81. I first went on the road with the Rolling Stones in the year of our Lord, 1969. But my grandfather gave me away to a drummer when I was 15 years old.

Bobby Keys

#82. There is no way I would play guitar like a tour de force like I did in Led Zeppelin. John Bonham, phenomenal drummer, young man with his technique, but do you think he would ever have the opportunity to play like that in another band? Of course he hadn't.

Jimmy Page

#83. I started The Runaways with Sandy West. We shared the dream of girls playing rock and roll. Sandy was an exuberant and powerful drummer. So underrated, she was the caliber of John Bonham. I am overcome from the loss of my friend. I always told her, we changed the world.

Joan Jett

#84. Pa-rump, pa-rump, pa-rump. He's the Little Drummer Boy on speed.

Alex Adams

#85. Love at first sight. I don't believe in that shit. Weird, huh? Yeah, but the Little Drummer Boy has been fucked over too many times before. The fairytale only lasts so long as reality doesn't come stomping through to smash it.

C.M. Stunich

#86. The electric guitar meant that you could have a band with a drummer and a couple of guitars. And that put a lot of horn players out of work.

Keith Richards

#87. They're simply following what was laid down in front and they play the same thing. So, there's no great challenge In being a classical drummer.

Buddy Rich

#88. A lot of times nerds are really artists listening to the beat of another drummer.

Roseanne Barr

#89. Marvin Gaye was a killer drummer. I think he just played during the soundchecks and he'd have another guy sing his parts while he played the drums. He just wanted to play the drums and have some fun.

Dr. John

#90. You can make yourself the greatest singer in the world or the best drummer in the world with the aid of technology.

Dave Grohl

#91. I'm the greatest rock and roll drummer on the planet and you suck.

Tre Cool

#92. The dichotomy of a drummer: worshiped but forgotten.

C.M. Stunich

#93. I met the guys through a friend of a friend, and their former drummer had quit. I wasn't too familiar with the Chili Peppers before that, so I joined at the end of 88' and we finished recording Mother's Milk at the end of 89', next thing I know I'm in Spin with a sock.

Chad Smith

#94. None other than Malcolm Ericson, drummer for worldwide renowned rock group Stage Dive, had somehow shacked up with my sister. My quiet, calm, color-within-the-lines-or-else sister.

Kylie Scott

#95. I played cover gigs and traveled the country in my mom's old car, and my drummer and I set up a fake email and sent it out to agents. We pretended to be our own agent.

Rachel Platten

#96. Out of class, Elxa Dal was charming, soft-spoken, and even a little ridiculous when the mood was on him. But when he taught, his personality strode back and forth between mad prophet and galley-slave drummer.

Patrick Rothfuss

#97. Age 10. I joined the school marching band as a drummer.

Adrian Belew

#98. I'm a drummer. I've been playing since I was three. I was in college bands when I was in elementary school: you'd see all these older kids and then this little kid behind the drums creating this big sound.

AraabMuzik

#99. I don't like driving through the rain. Your tour is only going to go as good as your bus driver, kinda like your band is only going to be as good as your drummer.

Piggy D.

#100. I definitely move to the beat of my own drummer and man, he's not playing something anyone has heard before. It's pretty cool, though. Pretty cool.

Q-Tip