Top 100 The Drummer Quotes
#1. 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
#2. 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
#3. 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
#4. 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
#5. 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
#6. 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
#7. 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
#8. 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
#9. 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
#10. 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
#11. The American drummer is a one-man percussion orchestra.
Max Roach
#12. 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
#13. 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
#14. 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
#15. I'm the drummer that kind of plays more on top of the beat.
Tony Palermo
#16. I am the best rock drummer on the planet.
Ringo Starr
#17. Crazy is such a misunderstood term. I like to think that I march to the beat of my own drummer.
Eva Sloan
#18. 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
#19. 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
#20. 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
#21. There is no music unless the drum and the drummer are one.
E. E. Cummings
#22. 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
#23. 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
#24. 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
#25. 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
#26. 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
#27. 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
#28. In the Foo Fighters, my main job is to be the drummer, and that's enough.
Taylor Hawkins
#29. But primarily, the drummer's supposed to sit back there and swing the band.
Buddy Rich
#30. 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
#31. 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
#32. Pa-rump, pa-rump, pa-rump. He's the Little Drummer Boy on speed.
Alex Adams
#33. 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
#34. 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
#35. 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
#36. A lot of times nerds are really artists listening to the beat of another drummer.
Roseanne Barr
#37. 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
#38. You can make yourself the greatest singer in the world or the best drummer in the world with the aid of technology.
Dave Grohl
#39. 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
#40. I'm the greatest rock and roll drummer on the planet and you suck.
Tre Cool
#41. The dichotomy of a drummer: worshiped but forgotten.
C.M. Stunich
#42. 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
#43. The drummer is stereotypically the dumb guy. Maybe that's why I always respect drummers who do more than drum.
Taylor Hawkins
#44. 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
#45. 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
#46. 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
#47. 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
#48. 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
#49. 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
#50. Age 10. I joined the school marching band as a drummer.
Adrian Belew
#51. 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
#52. 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.
#53. 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
#54. I love the way Pharell is laying down great drum tracks. He is a great drummer.
Matt Cameron
#55. On sunny days of summer,
I am indeed the butterfly;
And like the ancient drummer,
I rhythm straight towards the sky ...
Stephan Attia
#56. 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
#58. Michael Giles the first drummer of King Crimson, never agreed to the name King Crimson. But then, if you'd knew Michael, you would know he didn't agree to the album cover either. So maybe Michael didn't agree to the point of definition with many things.
Robert Fripp
#59. 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
#60. 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
#61. I'm a pretty good drummer. I'm pretty good at guitar, bass and piano. I can play accordion; I'm not virtuoso. I've played cello before. My sister played it, and I know how to play it, but I'm not the best. Violin is kind of the same thing.
Brendon Urie
#62. The one thing I do know is that I'm the best Taylor Hawkins drummer there is, and that is all I can hope to be. And when it comes to music, musicianship and skill, there is no such thing as better or worse because so much is personal opinion, and I can see that now.
Taylor Hawkins
#63. I used to be a drummer in a band, and I really loved playing the drums, so I look forward to the right opportunity to do that at some point. Maybe even on TV. Every single live performance I'm doing on TV, I want it to be different and unique.
Zedd
#64. I can deal with your judgment, because I've always marched to the beat of my own drummer
ever since i cut my camp shirt into a halter top.
Hannah
#65. I don't have any weird night rituals. I definitely am a ritualistic person ... I like to go downstairs and remind my roommate-drummer not to practice early the next morning, so I can sleep in.
Charlie Worsham
#66. 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
#68. Hi. I'm Rachel Trachtenburg. I'm the daughter and the drummer for the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players.
Rachel Trachtenburg
#69. I used to tour with this band. I was a drummer. I would tour a bunch for about 10 months out of the year and act for about two months. I would make what I needed from acting and would stretch it out.
Michael Pena
#70. The Little Drummer Boy was playing in the background for what seemed like the third time in a row. I fought off an urge to beat that Little Drummer Boy seneless with his own drumsticks.
Dana Reinhardt
#71. 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
#72. I applied at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard after my band broke up. I really wanted to work there because it involved the love of my life, music. It was also located on the world famous Sunset Strip, a place I dreamed of going to ever since I was a teenager in the 80's to become a rock star.
K.D. Sanders
#73. 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
#74. Cheers to the albums written fortunes earned lives touched in the millions and generations defined by one lonely person placing an ad in the back of a free paper seeking a guitarist, bassist, and drummer just looking to jam.
Dallas Clayton
#75. As a drummer, you can't fake the instrument. A trumpet, you could be blowing air; a person who plays the trumpet could still say, "Oh, those aren't the right hand motions." On drums, you have to actually hit them. You can't fake it.
Miles Teller
#76. My dad was a mechanical engineer and a drummer. We had no money, but I never felt we had no money, and that's what I remember now, having my own child. I think, 'Oh so what?' Kids don't go around the house seeing what's wrong with it.
Donna Air
#77. 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
#80. 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
#81. Because Larry, by then, was a drummer, who would sort of get bored and tired, and rather stand up and blow kisses to people. So we needed the bass to sort of drive along.
Neil Innes
#82. I always resented the role of a drummer as nothing more than a subservient figure.
Max Roach
#83. Steve talked to me a lot about being abandoned and the pain that caused, he said. It made him independent. He followed the beat of a different drummer, and that came from being in a different world than he was born into.
Walter Isaacson
#85. Yngve came in and said that John Bonham, the drummer in Led Zeppelin, was on one of the songs.
Karl Ove Knausgard
#86. 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
#87. Before you can follow your own drummer, you have to hear the drummer.
Srikumar Rao
#88. The penny dropped. I sat in my room and burst into tears. Our band had barely begun, and already our drummer and bass player were a couple of drug fiends!
Tom Fletcher
#89. I can only get my drummer in the winter; he plays with Grand Funk all summer.
Bob Seger
#90. Maybe I didn't march to the same drummer as most people, but I could do things on my own and do them well. That was what I'd learned, little by little, in the year I turned sixteen. I was complete by myself.
Diane Schwemm
#91. 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
#92. You might be the "little drummer boy," worried that what you have to say isn't worthy. Everyone has something to contribute, especially if you remember to be the real you and not a copy of others you feel are successful.
Chris Brogan
#93. 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
#94. 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
#95. 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
#96. The Trevanian Buff is a strange and wonderful creature: an outsider, a natural elitist, not so much a cynic as an idealist mugged by reality, not just one of those who march to a different drummer, but the solo drummer in a parade of one.
Trevanian
#97. 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
#98. First time that I cried at a work of art was at a drum solo that I saw. A drummer named Winard Harper, part of the Billy Taylor Trio, gave back in - I would have been in high school - 2005 or something.
Damien Chazelle
#99. 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
#100. You can lead an uncommonly fine life. But it takes determination. You have to march to the beat of different drummer. You have to decide.
Frederick Lenz
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