What's It Like Drumming For Ozzy Osbourne & Whitesnake? | Tommy Aldridge

John Bonham is an incredible drummer but he's not it's not technical it's not it's not that technical if you take the drum part out it's like this you put a click on it it's all over the shop it's not about the clue it's about music [Music] [Music] all right [Music] understand [Music] is it [Music] [Music] [Music] baby [Music] [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] crazy [Music] [Music] [Music] wow uh ladies and gentlemen the legendary Tommy Aldridge Tommy welcome to drumio thanks man happy to be here that was awesome um I know many of you out there have been requesting for us to bring in Tommy for years since the early days of drumeo and uh we finally made it happen so it's an absolute honor to have Tommy here with us I'll let you grab some water and take a bit of my breath from that but uh that was a song called nowhere to run by a project you recorded with called iconic uh and we're going to be doing another tune from Iconic later on but for any of you who don't know who Tommy Aldridge is please go check out some of his work and some of the projects he's played with uh to name a few White Snake uh Ozzy Osbourne with Randy Rhodes uh Gary Moore Pat Travers Black Oak Arkansas and many many others uh Tommy is a legend in the heavy metal world uh when it comes to double bass and all the stuff you've done so it's an absolute honor to have you here likewise so we're talking about heavy metal drumming grooves fills we're going to be going over some music and uh I guess why don't we just start off by talking about some double bass playing you mentioned something really interesting uh this week where you talked about how you you took what a lot of drummers were doing on the hi-hats with the hands and you kind of transfer that over to the feet and assigned it to a different Sound Source yeah it was um it was just something I worked around with in my studio my little drunk well it was a it was the shade where we stored all the lawn gear for you know the lawn mowing stuff when I was a kid and it was just my way of finding different things to spread around the kit just looking and searching for something to play in a way that I hadn't heard it done before and I it was one of my early goals going when I go in my little drum Shack to rehearse was to go in there with maybe just a little idea something actually actually not much of anything and come out with something that I hadn't heard some someone would play before or something like record or whatever and I was quite young you know when I was doing this stuff so it was just a a way to maybe apply things rudiments and stuff or figures uh on on the kit in a way with that was a little bit less unconventional yeah do you have maybe an example of how you took kind of a basic Groove sure kind of converted that absolutely well just like uh date and actually it's a figure that Lee Curtis Lake used on uh I think it was the bucket no um not over the mountain but maybe I don't know okay I don't know was it um but he was he's playing essentially like [Music] and I just you know uh assigned the hi-hat part to the kick drums which [Music] even though it was the same figure when you put it played it that way it sounded like kind of Mondo and sounded much less disco-y then yeah that's just a 60s disco beat I'm sorry disco beat but with some hair and teeth you know just ideas like that and just different simple approaches like that and more than anything it was a way to rehearse parts to develop a little bit of fluency on the kick drums and I'd sit in there for 20 minutes 30 minutes and set you know the metronome and I click it at a Tempo and just sit there and chop at that for a long long long long time and it was really boring but what it did it allowed me a little bit of Headroom down there to where I didn't have to worry so much about that when I was doing this stuff on top yeah I love that and you've actually you've talked a lot about that this week about how you would take just one idea and you would literally just move it around the kit and explore in different ways I mean I think a lot John Bonham's calling card was his triplets you know in the double on the kick drum and again when people heard that when I heard it on Good Times bad times I said wow what the hell's going on there and it was just two notes on the kick and then I realized well it's something that had already been applied you know [Music] just reverse the same figure so he just reassigned the the one part of the figure to another an atypical drum because people weren't playing doubles on the kick drum you know it hadn't really occurred to anyone I've never heard it before that yeah and so it was when I heard John Bonham did it kind of gave me a little boost like when you're a kid and you learn to actually do something that you've been working on and you get you get some affirmation and some encouragement and it gives you the hope to go on to the next move you know a little gratification along the way for sure so it was the same I think the same principle maybe you know uh there's one there's a few parts we're going to cover and the first one is uh the over the mountain drum fill you obviously played this or the intro fill you played this live a ton and Lee played it on the uh on the studio album yes you want to maybe show everyone what that is and how you kind of turn that into your version of that yeah my Approach on that tune was uh was was just trying to make it I'm only going to say heavy because it's already heavy but Randy was always encouraging me to to make things heavier and and to really put whatever you know uh do your interpretation of it you know he was very open about that and he was really really supportive and stuff very encouraging that's in that place and so I would do it in a way that was a little bit different and what Lee was playing I'll play it slow and it's just 16th note triplets with a flam beginning it [Music] what I did is I did the same thing I just went show off in the intro of over the mountain I'm sorry you know bring some bring bring a little bit of video into the program and so that's how I played it was was was splitting the two doubles and again it's exact same part it's just assigning it to a different drum and so I didn't change the part I mean you have to Faithfully reproduce the things that attract people the music you're playing if you go totally outside of of some of the parts that are there not follow the outline you're not playing the song so I tried to Faithfully reproduce you know what was already there but just approach it from from my perspective what I would have done if I'd have been on that session that's all you know and uh again Lee Curtis like played that and I never ever in any circumstance ever would take credit for someone else's drum part you know um I was upset when I found out that my name appeared on that record uh and his wasn't and Bob Davis wasn't but they were trying to get those guys off that record before it was even released but that's a whole nother story yeah were you guys did you know each other did you uh like back Lee yeah I met Lee when he was with Uriah Heap and we had met we'd crossed paths you know many times before and he's a sweetheart of a guy and you know he had a struggle with some health issues you know for a long time and later on in his life and but he was always a sweetheart you know even after the Aussie again it's like I didn't fire him you know I haven't fired any of these people I'm just like a freelance drummer looking at something something to sink my teeth in and Randy Rose I was working with Gary Moore and and and and and the offer was extended uh but and this was before when Ozzy had just had he had already been out of Black Sabbath for a while and was uh there was some talk of him trying to resurface but the talk was about the guitar player this new guitar player that was coming out of it and to Gary Moore had I think heard someone because he's assigned to the same label jet records that signed Ozzie which was uh he was owned by Don Arden as Sharon's father and Gary had heard some some of the guitar things or some of the rough demos or something somewhere along the line and he had mentioned Randy so I heard Randy's name yeah and but didn't have any idea who he was and then he came to our rehearsal and that's when I met him and he wanted to meet Garrett because he's a huge Gary Moore fan crazy I love it yeah um was when it came to you added the Twirls in the left hand was that something that you were doing already at that point in time or is that something that when you played that live you realized that you needed to bring a visual element to that part well I thought that's been something that I haven't like seriously concentrated on but when I was growing up and I learned even when I was a kid and I would play out and and it was just feeble music it was just copied cover stuff that you learned you know uh um uh when you're a kid and I learned the first thing I learned to do with a pair of sticks is to twirl them and throw them around if I could play anything on them and so because I didn't know what to do with them when I first got them you know so I figured well I'll find something to do with these guys you know I haven't a clue what else to do with them um and so I had that down before I actually playing and I didn't start integrating into my playing until one time I was at one of these silly little I don't know when I was a kid in a junior high or something we were playing at some little high school party or something and I did a twirl and everybody went oh that's crazy man and so I learned early on that it kind of it it's a video you know it's the the video aspect of our instrument so to speak and so I learned that if I I really made a fool of myself visually it would kind of enhance whatever was happening you know yeah in the audio department and so I I it moved the drums to the front of the stage for that bar for whatever it just added import to what was going on yeah because at that time too if you I mean this is before your time and probably most everyone's watching this but MTV was just coming in and all of a sudden the mid video and the music all of a sudden boom this and it changed drastically the landscape of this of the music genre that I was in yeah because it was primarily a rock show you know and most of the people it inhabited it was Aerosmith you know Guns and Roses you know Def Leppard all those different bands and so there was a um a a a a a a big shift in what uh became available to you as a musician another thing uh you played a lot of in in your years uh Rock Shuffle it's double bass drum shuffles a lot of people ask should you start with the right should you start with the left there's one tune you did with White Snake called get up um that you did one of these grooves on uh what's your approach to playing shuffles with the bass drums yeah um well would get up the body of it is is pretty straight it's just a single kick and it's just an up-tempo shelf here foreign [Music] it's more of a triplet failure [Music] and again it's just an exercise that I did is [Music] [Music] boring but it it keeps you a little bit a knowledge of going from a strike 16th to an eighth note triplet you know yeah and sixteenths on the end and I use that a lot in June [Music] please have a lot in Shuffle stuff and again it was just practicing those you know the 16th note [Music] this is all child's play in this time in but still fundamentally important for it I think so yeah it worked for me when I was coming up and and and there's some crazy unearthly Supernatural stuff going on on kick drums these days but most all of it is still a single stroke roll the very first rudiment yeah it's really tough to do multi multi-strokes on the kick drums because you're not going to get the rebound that that'll take you to the really you know the real tempos you know and when you're doing that uh just on a technical standpoint like you're are you burying the beater into the kick drum when you're doing that are you allowing the drum to or the pedal to rebound I'm not burying the beater I learned uh and this came later on when I was using when I started playing two before I started playing two bass drums I just got a crazy hair and I put my hi-hat on the right side and my left my bass drum on my left foot and just learned to play a lot of the same patterns that way just trying to no one said you should do that because I didn't have anyone guiding me you know it was just a crazy thing that I spent time in my drum room uh rehearsing on and and then when I I went to two by storms a good friend of mine we used to set our drums up in my practice room facing one another we tried off licks it was a really a really good drummer and but he lost interest and I'm saying this is when I was a kid yeah and so he lost into and left his kit at my place so I just pimped his left button and put it over here the rest is history yeah and so that's what I would do and I would practice like doing a few like [Music] foreign I'm just leading with the right foot but it's really not that the one is you're just resting on the on the one and so you don't play the note on the like one two three [Music] and so I learned not to bury the beta on the left side because I wasn't doing it on the ride and now on my reverse in my rehearsal room at home I have a double pedal on a single kick and that's become useful for me because if you keep the right foot planted or buried in the head when you play the left one yeah it's going to change and vice versa so I think it's probably a good rule of thumb because most guys are double bassing into Oblivion with a single kick in a double paddle you know so you don't have to have two bass drums and practically speaking in the studio I never use a double setup kit it's always a single because it's One mic one kick drawn both bass drums sound exactly the same yeah but it is the same and just for practical matters set up in room space and stuff in in your drum room you know yeah awesome there's a there's another field we did a full playthrough of Bark at the Moon uh and kind of a breakdown of that song earlier this week and there's one Phil that I've I've loved my whole life and I always wondered what was that fill and in those breaks embarked the moon you do that one single stroke between sometimes on the splash uh sometimes you move it around the kit Oh you mean at the end of that coming back in yeah oh right after those those hits or crashes in the middle section yeah the middle back down yeah I was just changing it around you remember when we did it the other day oh yeah I was just changing the pad a different Sound Source so like what would be do you want to just break down that maybe the most basic version of that fill and then how you move that around sure uh I don't have the table [Music] foreign [Music] cross between us and Arizona Splash same pattern but instead of staying on the snare just use half of it on the or the first three or four notes of it uh it's alternating between this so those are just alternating singles with doubles [Music] yeah was that something maybe like in the session maybe you just did it with the hands and then you realized it needed more bottom end underneath and no it's like on that case we put all that stuff together in the studio we we came up with all the parts and stuff and none of us had heard any other stuff really until we started building it in the studio yeah and so in the studio I was trying to keep it clean I mean you can't hear any of that on on that album because it's so poorly mixed I mean I don't know who mixed it but it should be put to sleep immediately but uh and and as you go out on the road it's the same reason most band's first album is their best album because they've lived with the material they've played it they've Guinea pigged it and they've found you know it's a it's a process of of elimination no pun intended you know for sure is what it is for a lot of people and so when we got out of the studio and started actually playing it because we had to learn the song when we came out of the studio yeah and actually plan it and I'm crazy about just not changing Fields but just reassigning them sometimes to a different part of the kid yeah yeah I love that uh for any of you drama students we have the full transcription of that and I believe the whole album ondromeo so you can check out exactly what Tommy played on all those fills and we also did a full playthrough of that and you can hear probably the highest quality drum version of that song because there isn't one yeah I know right I'm not going to hear it on this kit so it's uh yeah stay tuned for that there's a lot more that went on in the Rhythm Section than than you're ever going to hear on that record because you don't hear it you don't hear a lot of amazing except that Bob was playing and and that that whole session and that whole time period was very uh it it was such a dichotomy of emotions yeah because it was in the same studio and and it was the first record after the you know how do you follow those two Randy Rhodes albums you know it's it's no matter if you come out with 10 million sales you're still it's a fail yeah and the the spirit of Randy was the same Studio Ridge Farm his Vibe was still in there and it was bittersweet it was great to be in that room where that where he did that stuff but it was also a bummer because it wasn't fair you know yeah it really took my hat off to Jake it was some big shoes you know and a lot of pressure on him so yeah uh we're going to talk a little bit more about Randy Rhodes later on I want to get some more some more stories from you but we're going to transition into a white snake tune Called Here I Go Again the 19 well I guess this is a live version that you did oh yeah I think this is from the live DVD uh maybe it's in London um I can't remember the name of the theater but uh David probably screams it out somewhere yeah on the album and uh can you tell us just a little bit about this song I believe it's one of the biggest white snake Tunes it is here I go again and uh I own the 87 record Angeli donbar plays on that in that on that session and very few people know that here I go again was on a previous there's been several uh interpretations of this song because it was written with Barney Marsden and David Coverdale Bernie margin was one of the early guitar players with White Snake a real sweetheart of a guy great guitar player and it's been interpreted by several different incarnations uh or musicians within the White Snake uh narrative so to speak and uh I don't remember who played on the first version of it was three or four albums before the 87 most people in America never ever even heard it but true White Snake fans knew about the earlier version of here I go again um and but again Ansley played on the on the studio version and this is kind of my take of the same thing and it's it's such an awesome tune because when you're playing when we would we played it it's it's the biggest team that white snakes ever had and it was in the top five you know globally for weeks months months and when you play a song like that you just you just start it off and people love you yeah you can do no wrong you know and the parts are just built in it's not one of those Tunes where you go to the bridge section of the course section the parts are just so built in it's very dramistic and it's a ballad but it has real it's got some real Thunder going on in places the bridge section is crazy cool you know the solo section yeah uh yeah I think I think Adrian played on the uh the album version I love what you said uh you said the song plays itself it plays itself I love that so this is uh Here I Go Again by Whitesnake [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] searching foreign [Music] you walking [Music] on my mind [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] coming [Music] over [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] oh again [Applause] [Music] say what happened [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Here I Go Again [Music] [Applause] I don't really know what to say that's a ballad exactly yeah there's a that's a little bit different from the from the studio version that's for sure in the studio no yeah Tommy could you save that for your solo record I think I want that on the record so there's a whole bunch of stuff in there like um you're doing obviously the showman Showmanship stuff where you're bringing the snare hand up and the stick dropping part did you get that that recovery was incredible that's an A plus man and then in the verses or I guess the choruses where you just have that driving snare drum going on all four beats yeah that was it well that was on the original too yeah and and even though um there have been some different interpretations of it that's the tune that really set you know DC on his real you know global domination course and it's interesting that it's only in the differences the way it was treated the way it was approached it was other people's interpretation of it and then it so it's meaningful yeah I love that so when when it came to the white snake shows you would obviously you would try to remain true to the original song but you would always change up those parts to add some energy for the live show I assume you changed things slightly on most of the tunes or were there any that you just learned what was on the record uh well I always try to start a good way to answer that was David a couple of albums ago he wanted to revisit his sum of his time with deep purple yeah you know not totally revamp all the songs Faithfully be faithful to them and to be honest I never really listened much to Deep Purple after Ian Gillen left you know that was the era of Deep Purple that I knew so I wasn't I mean apart from Burn you'd have to be you know in your grave not exactly with Barnes and that was David's first you know first record with them and um so I wasn't familiar with anything subsequent to that yeah and so these are it was music new to me when DC funny we were originally going to go in and do the album that followed that but he kind of inserted this in there so we had worked all this other material and he said uh Thomas uh I'm thinking about revisiting you know this that and the other and I said oh okay and I said well David I don't have much of a handle on any of that he said perfect do your thing yeah do your thing and so I just Loosely I listened enough to get the arrangements and stuff and Ian Pace he plays on it and um some incredible stuff on it but I didn't it wasn't in my collection or in my you know in my sphere of listening so I approached it exactly how he encouraged me to do it you know and we tried to win the songs when you hear the music and What attracted to people to whatever tune on the album that attracted that were attracted to the the particular tune we would make sure that those elements are in it otherwise if you know you're if you get a chocolate cake and it's all vanilla then you say where's my chocolate cake exactly you can't take too much license yeah and so when the the guy that's that's driving the whole thing encourages you to to do you whatever it is that you would do if you were in that session that's precisely what he asked me to do yeah and so it sure yeah and so it was um interesting the way that I approach things because I didn't even listen to a lot of the stuff I got David David's guy to make some roughs without any drums and yeah we just clicked and tried to approach it that way and uh I did listen I did listen just to be mindful yeah and Ian price please how do you how do you you can't copy and paste and I've never been a monkey see monkey do kind of guy ever you know it's much so Tom sometimes to my demise you know I'm not the best copy drummer in the world but um he played some awesome stuff on it and I just tried again tried to insert just more than anything not not modernize it because that would be disrespectful to say that but to using today's technology making you know just stressing it up a little making it a little bit more um aesthetically pleasing you know and and stuff from a Sonic perspective yeah what I love is you've been doing this for so long you've played with so many projects that you're at the point where people want Tommy Aldridge on the music they don't want uh you to try to be someone else so you've developed your sound and your style that that's what people are coming to you for and I think that's a really cool uh thing for a drummer attack to have after playing for so many years well I'm just thankful for so many people that have such uh crappy tasting drunk well I wouldn't say that I mean that's very flattering I mean I don't know I don't believe that to be the case but uh everyone that I've worked with Randy was always saying make it make it heavier you know you couldn't make it heavy enough for Randy and Gary Moore make it heavy man make it we need heavy you know and David Coverdale if I say what you will about him he all he knows how to bring folks in that he likes what they do and give you gives you free reign and when David comes to you with a musical idea it's usually a pretty solid idea and so I always encourage him give me some give me some ideas and rather than somebody standing over you you know kind of brow beating you to play this or play that you know because I know some dear friends that have guys involved in the band the front guys that really impose a lot of different things when someone comes to you in the in in the tune they want to have a Charlie Watts kind of vibe and they give you a pair of Charlie watch sticks to play the track the song what do I do with these the guy when someone hears this he'll he'll thank me for bringing it but that's not what you do you know if you don't yeah it's uh it's really brings the best out of people David Coverdale knows how to do that yeah yeah um I wanted to ask you just a bit more about playing with Randy you talked a little bit about that and just from what I've heard from this week with you being here at the studio it seems like you guys had a real bond that it seems like you haven't had with a lot of musicians um over the years so what was that like being so close with Randy in the studio touring with him like what was he like he was an incredible guy and all the things that I feel and say about Randy I felt in that moment at that time not subsequent to his passing because a lot of times when people pass they become you know put on the pedal lines pedestal and and you know become iconic Legends and so forth and and sometimes it's and do do in most part because they're just not around anymore I had these same uh you know same feelings and opinions of Randy Rhodes when I was with him and and when he was here uh incredible dude man not just musically obviously his the music that he's composed only on those two albums has impacted I mean what John Bonham the the effect that John Bonham he he changed the uh you know the complexion of rock drumming yeah he did yeah in a universal level I think Randy Rhodes did it on the guitar in two albums and he didn't have to pass away you know in a tragic plane crash to do that he was just getting started the only thing that exceeded his unparalleled facility on the instrument that I've and I've been around some pretty Heavy Hitters throughout my career the the who the guitar players that I've worked with I look at the list and I say how did this ever happen who how when did they hit these their Collective heads hard enough to have me playing drums with them you know but the only thing that surpassed his unparalleled uh ability on the instrument and his compositional he was so full of so much information it was just coming out I can't let anybody what you say or what you read or hear on a podcast that's Randy Rhodes Music that you're hearing on those two albums there's a lot of other people contributing to it but the backbone of what's going on there the brain in the heart of what's going on there is Randall Rhodes yeah uh I know I was I I saw it firsthand and the only thing that exceeded all these amazing attributes that he had was his sweetness sweet guy yeah I love that and I I know you you can read so much online and in the books and stuff but no one can speak to that like you can yeah because you were there and being in the company of someone like that it raises your level of play you know it kind of grabs you by the Scruff your neck and like and they just involuntarily uh uh unconsciously pull you up to their level and it's the truth you know because uh radio sarso will talk to you about a lot of those things too he and Randy were extremely close and because of the intensity that was going on and there was so much drama around you know who and stuff we kind of really clung together it was it was really a really tight unit not we hung out together you know we didn't just play on stage together and it was uh the really the high water mark for me in a lot of regards and I've had I've been blessed with an incredibly long career you know yeah and would you say you mentioned Randy would always want it heavier and would he encourage you as a drummer to get outside the box and and try different things I think you mentioned he would sometimes sing like drum riffs to you it was incredible he would sing a drone part to you he would sing it to me as an idea would jam it at sound checks and stuff he would sing a drum part to me and I would just teasingly say well how's it Go Randy and he would sing it back to me and it would be exactly the same thing because there was another member of the group who would say I have an idea of her song and he would sing it to you and Randy would say could you sing it one more time and he goes and it would be something completely different so if you can guess who so it was uh it was an interesting contrast you know I love that that person showed her name when that remained yeah for Tommy's safety and everyone else yeah uh let's switch gears for a second I just want to talk about your drum kit because it has a look to it and you've been playing this kind of setup for quite a while so maybe talk about why your symbols are flat and why you ended up with this type of setup um there's no uh I mean somebody like Tommy Eagle will look at this and he say I go in here look at this you say dude you need professional help because it defies all the ergonomics of what you should have you should I shouldn't have all this stuff especially at this my incredible age you know I shouldn't be quite amazing how you can reach up here so easily um I I when I when I was first started actually I used a single rack for a long long time and I'm uh on the next well the two of the unfortunately got canceled because David got sick because I wasn't able to use that kit but uh I I stayed pretty close to the same Basics I mean I'm changing symbols and weights and things like that you know but but the basic setup it's silly the reason I have level symbols when I was growing up I used Rogers drums and at the time they had the swivelmatic stuff in the symbol the tilter was a separate part yeah and you could buy the stand and if you bought the tilter it was extra it was another 38 or something like that extra and I said hmm I wanted a mother stand and so I'd buy another stand and that same mindset kept going until I had several symbols because I need I just wanted more places to go out of boredom and by the time I got all the stands that I wanted I had played with them level for so long when I bought a couple of the tilters I just left them straight you know and so it's not wasn't planned uh people I get criticized for sitting so low literally criticized for sitting so low I I don't post my anything that I do I don't think I'm worthy I'm posting anything in on social media online anything out there someone else has done it so I didn't post pictures of me from the back the show's my low side thrown high I would like to wear a size eight and a half shoe but I wear a nine and a half it works I'm sorry I'm wearing I have I can't wear an eight yeah you can punish me for wearing a nine and a half preferences preference yeah and so Jeff Recaro played out even lower than this Nico mcbray sits even lower than this so I don't that's first time I've ever been criticized for the my my Throne height come on snap out of it all these sideliners need to find something else to get bummed out about we'll play some drums yeah go play some drums instead of chopping everybody else out man come on um and it just uh that's how my symbols got the way they hit and and my kit I've always sat low because I grew up sitting on a couple of uh playing on a couple of milk cases oh really yeah and they were this High 24 and a half inches um and it wasn't planned it just happened you know yeah and uh I have as many symbols as I do just so the different sounds that I could get on Adam and uh I just I enjoy having somewhere else to go like in there's a tune a White Snake Turn crying in the rain in the guitar solo section when it just so happens that the drum part goes double time there and it's like Hog Heaven and to be able to go all these different places at that Tempo within a Groove is nice you know it's a lot of fun it's somewhere else to go and it adds also again back to the visual thing the video age you know this is a video you know the reason you guys are successful is because of video yeah and the amazing drummers that you're having here I'm thinking what the hell am I doing here I've never been so into it the other thing I was going to ask too you do a lot with I mean in the solos over the years you use your hands a lot was that inspired by a particular drummer uh or is that something that you just decided to do uh in your solos the drummer that became famous doing that the first time to become famous doing that was John Bonham I mean on a really big level and he's the one that that everyone goes to oh guys playing with his hands it was incredible apart from everything else that John Bonham is the first person that I ever heard play drums with their hands was a drummer called Frosty and he was with my Lou Michaels who it was a two-piece fan big huge B3 with base pedals and he played the bass notes with his feet and and and frosty was this huge drummer with with platinum blonde hair looked like a big surfer dude and he played a solo with his hands I saw that when I was a kid so that was this was free of Zeppelin so yeah that was the first person I'd ever heard when I started doing it when I was a little kid in my rehearsal room because my father was didn't even know that I was a drummer until uh my Aussie days really a professional drummer because he didn't support it and he thought you're either of uh you have some deviant sexual problems and draw and you're a drug addict or a combination of both if you're in the music business yeah and so my mom was somewhat supportive so I hid it from my father for literally decades and so I would practice when my dad was home and put towels in the in the in the uh the shed in the back and I mentioned earlier put towels of the thank you mess around like that because I wasn't through playing for the day yeah I didn't set a timer for my rehearsal time I just go in my my little drum room and just play for hours and my mom would come and grab me and say it's time to have lunch and then boom I'm back yeah and so when dad was in I would still sneak out you know go not sneak but I'd go out doing German on put blankets over them or towels [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] very subtle stuff you know so when you were doing this live in a big arena or something like that did you ever especially with the symbols did you ever like cut your hands ever oh I'm sure I'm sure you did but you have to be careful these things are shiny and they sound awesome but they're sharp as hell on the edges boy yeah and yeah I've cut myself if I don't pay really close attention it's you have to pay attention when you start hitting really sharp stuff with your hands obviously I mean it goes It goes without saying but yeah I've cut myself I haven't I mean I keep waiting for all the you know arthritis and all the things that a lot of drummers that don't do all this silly stuff that start are starting to have you know and thank the good Lord I don't have any issues I have a lot of calluses more than my Gardener has yeah and it was just something it was never ever implant a plant I planned on to to use it in in a room with humans yeah it was a rehearsal thing that I just I'm in the studio [Music] [Music] thank you and again it was just fun and so later on when I was maybe in my mid teens we put a little band together it was like a Santana speed Freak band yeah well I mentioned it to you earlier and the bass player would double on congas and the congas were right here and so he would join me in the solo and I started just reaching them play the congas in a bit in the bar in the where we were playing they would go ballistic the crowd would not saying oh that works whatever works yeah you learn it from playing and people young German say what should I do playing in front of many people as you can as soon as you can because it's different than rehearsing yeah you find the stuff that works I'm not so presumptuous to think that all these people that think that I know what I'm actually doing uh it's I know that it's because like in that section I get together with the sound guy can you bring my kick drums down a couple of DBS maybe boost the top open up the gates on the toms so that things are open more so it compensates because there's no way because I'm playing almost and I try to back off on the level on my kick drums dynamically and still be articulate it's not easy to do you know so I work with the sound guy so that we can get the most impact so my my hands and stuff just doesn't disappear under underneath the bass drums you know because it wouldn't the mix wouldn't you know translate yeah and I'm not so presumptuous to think that people out there that when you if you have to do a meet and greet you meet a young up and coming kid that's you know like a 10 year old kid and he thinks man I thought you would be bigger because you want to be bigger than life kiss this whole claim to fame is they're bigger than life you know and when you find a little bit of get a little input from people that have been in the audience and you say oh it's actually working you play to the people back in the nosebleed section indeed overly demonstrative and I do these silly things just trying to connect to them and give them something in the cheap seats you know yeah and it works I love that and I think that's something a lot of people forget they they're quick to judge Showmanship and everything that isn't actually playing the drums but that that's such a thoughtful approach when you're thinking about the person who paid money to be at that concert well there's also a lot of motivation uh when I was growing up I wanted to play drums was that Joe Morello playing Jones the First music that really captivated me was take five by the Brubeck Quartet and I kill myself as a kid trying to figure out all those five at five four you know and then all of a sudden the Beatles come out uh are are available in people and and my buddy says why don't you learn some Beetle songs and I said okay I'll check it out and I learned the whole album in an afternoon you know so but it's you have to you have to I've learned and played the music that's emotionally accommodated me I'm not a session cat I don't have anywhere there that kind of vocabulary to be the first to say I never aspired to be that so I try to encourage young and up and coming guys if you want to be a journeyman drummer and you really want to work every day day in and day out learn all the stuff that other people want you to learn and I've only learned the stuff that I wanted to learn and there's tons of holes in my playing thankfully I was in an era coming up where it was a lot less dense there are a lot fewer drummers there were fewer people going for the you know going for the gold I mean it's really full of really amazing drummers out there right now and because you guys very well educated and motivated you know I mean what you guys have done is been responsible for literally raising the bar the resource that you guys provide and I'm not just you know patting you on the back it's the truth for a young drummer when I was a kid if I could have seen something broken down and slowed down because I don't care how observant you are even as a really gifted drummer somebody can play something so fast is you can't tell what's going on until they slow it down in many cases you know because I've been there and done that you know yeah so it's uh that it depends on what your dreamy is I never dreamed to be a session guy I admire some of my favorite drummers are saying hey it kills me to see somebody going to a Scott session running down the street or a Latin session and and and own it you know to some degree yeah uh could you imagine Buddy Rich playing a John Bonham Groove exactly it ain't gonna happen dude and Buddy Rich is the cat but he's not going to play a John Bonham Groove I'm sorry he never did no one ever asked him to because he'd have shot him and that's no disrespect to Buddy Rich he knew he was a big band cat that was his thing that's what he does yeah no that's that's some great advice especially for all the younger drummers out there and I I even remember like growing up I was a big white snake the 87 record big fan of that and also Bark at the Moon and I remember I would listen to it I'd go on YouTube and try to find ways to learn it but there's there was nothing so that's why to me this is such a special way of doing things because we can almost the things that I was looking for as a kid you're here teaching those parts and giving drummers a chance to actually see what was actually played in those sessions and talk about it so for me this is It's really special but uh that's great great advice for all the drummers out there it's really important especially young drummers coming up that they don't that they don't lose hope if they can't play a blast beat at 300 BPM I mean that's Supernatural activity you know I agree you don't have to play a blast speed at 50 at 300 BPM to be excessive this is the only job I've ever had and I'm the biggest doofus on the in the universe this is the only job that I've ever had I've never worked at anything else yeah I mean I've worked hard at everything else but it's always been an avocation and not my vocation and this was the most fun that I had when I was a kid and I still love playing drums as much as I ever have it's just that the other 22 hours of the day get a little bit more complex and some of the stuff that comes along with it you know and what I aspired to be when I was a kid and growing up I just tried to tailor and you try to maximize your strengths and minimize my weaknesses but it's important young drama is coming up you don't have to play at 300 BPM to be really successful and and make John Bonham is an incredible drummer but he's not it's not technical it's not it's not that technical it's what they did collectively whereas all the tech what the technical part comes in because it's again that's Supernatural stuff yeah it's iconic and it's genius and they did it collectively as a unit what what plant is doing with his phrasing against the Rhythm Section stuff it's just mind-boggling if you take the drum part out it's like this you put a click on it it's all over the shop yeah it's not about the click you know yeah it's about music awesome Tommy thank you so much the hours flown by wow it's been an hour it's been an hour thanks for putting up with me and thank you guys so much for for having me up here again uh walking down the hallway coming into the studio because I've watched some of uh some of you guys stuff that you put out and it's a little intimidating coming here I mean these guys make you feel so comfortable and then you realize everybody in here could be a professional drummer that just happened to have a high resolution camera in there yes the cameras are the scariest part well Tommy like I said it's long overdue and it's an absolute honor to have you here and it's uh just been such a great week and I can't wait for all of you out there to see all the amazing stuff that we filmed with Tommy and I guess before we play the last track do you have any final parting words or final advice for all the drummers out there watching uh have fun have fun and when you have fun doing something you want to do it all the time all the time all the time because that's pretty much what it takes you know have fun doing it and be nice to your fellow drummer share licks with them um all the guitar players are going like this one we got to see this you know until I get it on the record you know but yeah so I think the fraternity of drummers is pretty cool that way I'm certainly I'm so proud to have spent my you know my days here on this planet playing these things it's a it's an awesome gig uh believe me take it up it's a lot of fun man awesome thanks Tommy so this last track Tommy's gonna play is called Enough of Your Love by the band iconic and uh yeah thanks so much for watching and we'll see you all later thanks guys [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right now [Music] [Music] watch me [Music] too much [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Drumeo

Views: 837,163

Keywords: drum lessons, tommy aldridge, tommy aldridge interview, tommy aldridge whitesnake, ozzy osbourne, metal drumming, tommy aldridge drum solo, tommy aldridge crazy train, tommy aldridge drumeo, tommy aldridge bark at the moon, tommy aldridge crying in the rain, tommy aldridge over the mountain, tommy aldridge still of the night, tommy aldridge ozzy osbourne, tommy aldridge 2023, tommy aldridge here i go again, drumeo live, drum fills, drumeo live performance

Id: eSV4I_ah94o

Length: 58min 48sec (3528 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 14 2023