Drummer Quotes

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

On sunny days of summer,
I am indeed the butterfly;
And like the ancient drummer,
I rhythm straight towards the sky ... ~ Stephan Attia

I'm a rock-and-roll drummer, so my job is to create chaos. ~ Greg Saunier

When I asked Vera why Michael was so obstinate, she told me that some asshole had recently broken Eliza's heart. A drummer, no less. Hell, even I know girls should stay away from the goddamn drummers. ~ Tiffanie DeBartolo

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

Dylan: Who's Jett?
Morgan: Senior, drummer from Stealth Shrine, sometimes they have lunch time concerts.
Dylan: You mean Gary? When did he start going by Jett?
Alaia: Idk but who wants to be a kick-ass rocker drummer named Gary? Jett suits him better anyway. Much hotter. ~ H.R. Willaston

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

That was the thing about Joy Division: writing the songs was dead easy because the group was really balanced; we had a great guitarist, a great drummer, a great bass player, a great singer. ~ Peter Hook

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

If you go to Japan, they're still buying vinyl, and they want the education. They know who's playing on what tracks from the '60s and the '70s - who the guitar player is, who the drummer is, who the producer was, what studio it was recorded in. That's how I grew up listening to music. We bought albums. We read the liner notes. It was important to know the whole history behind it. ~ Lenny Kravitz

Thank God that I had the ability to understand that I had a different beat and that I was a drummer. ~ James Brown

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

More than any other drummer, Ringo Starr changed my life. The impact and memory of that band on Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 will never leave me. I can still see Ringo in the back moving that beat with his whole body, his right hand swinging off his sock cymbal while his left hand pounds the snare. He was fantastic, but I think what got to me the most was his smile. I knew he was having the time of his life. ~ Max Weinberg

I was interested in music and making movies about musicians, but my own experiences, and doing what it felt like for me to be a drummer? Nah, I wasn't interested in that. ~ Damien Chazelle

And, well of course, Count Basie, and I think all of the black bands of the late thirties and early forties, bands with real players. They had an influence on everybody, not just drummers. ~ Buddy Rich

When The Murderdolls started it was a really cool thing, especially for me because I had never done anything on that scale before. Even for our drummer and bass player it was their first really big band. ~ Wednesday 13

A lot of times nerds are really artists listening to the beat of another drummer. ~ Roseanne Barr

Talking of his relationship with Jarrett, DeJohnette says, "I love him because, as a pianist and drummer myself, I can identify with him … the concept of what to ignore, what to leave in, what to leave out… we intuitively understand that … that's why when we play together… we never know what's going to happen, but we always get something happening that turns us on. ~ Ian Carr

That night, the sky poured out such torrents that the city was a drum set, every surface a source of rhythms, pavements and windows and canvas awnings, street signs and parked cars, Dumpsters throbbing like tom-toms, garbage-can lids swishing as the wind swirled bursts of rain in imitation of a drummer brush-stroking the batter head of a snare. ~ Dean Koontz

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

If a man does not march in step to his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. ~ Henry David Thoreau

A drummer is usually like the backbone. ~ Brody Armstrong

The public wants a great product, but they also want more layers of value. So it's lifestyle, it's takeaway, it's entertainment. It's all of those things and social media facilitates a big chunk of that, because they want to touch and feel you, they want to talk to someone about it, they want to join a community of other people who dance to the beat of a different drummer. ~ RuPaul

Somewhere there is a drummer calling to you too, and playing your special beat. ~ Pooja Ruprell

In general, we like to play as a band - guitar, piano, and voice. We also tour with a bass player, a drummer, and somebody who plays keyboard and guitar. We try to play all of our parts and flesh it out to get a lush sound, while also keeping the energy of a three-piece punk act. We want to be the best of all possible worlds. ~ Andrew Dost

When I was a kid, I felt like I could do anything and play anything. I just felt super-confident. And then, once I started to play music professionally, maybe it's from being from a small town, but you grow up and then you're suddenly a big fish in a small pond, and I realized that there were a billion other drummers out there that could play as good as you or better, and everybody wants that job. ~ Patty Schemel

I actually wanted to be a drummer, but I didn't have any drums. ~ Stevie Ray Vaughan

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

Age 10. I joined the school marching band as a drummer. ~ Adrian Belew

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

I'm not a singer who plays a bit of drums. I'm a drummer that sings a bit. ~ Phil Collins

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

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

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

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

A tap dancer is really a frustrated drummer. ~ Eleanor Powell

I was a drummer and I played the guitar. ~ Jam Master Jay

With all due respect to the world's great drummers - it ain't brain surgery. ~ Micky Dolenz

I march to a different drummer, whose location, identity, and musical training haven't yet been established. ~ Ashleigh Brilliant

Pharrell Williams: '[Tommy Lee] is a great drummer with a lot of style. He keeps his chops up in terms of technique and his style in drumming; his chops are very sharp. Also, 'Pour Some sugar on Me' can be played in the middle of any hip-hop party. I love that.'

Man, that's awesome that Pharrell paid respect. I've always loved his shit, ever since 'When Doves Cry'. Oh, wait, my bad. Pharrell is that producer guy from Atlanta who dates Janet Jackson. The little guy, right? Discovered Kris Kross. Nice. Thanks, bro. ~ Tommy Lee

It's much easier to have a diversified career as an electronic musician than it is as a drummer. Nothing against drummers. If you're a drummer, you just wait around for people to ask you to play drums. But if you have your own studio and can make music, you have the ability to approach music a lot differently. ~ Moby

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

You're singing a song about making love to your drummer, well gay guitar pickers don't turn me on. ~ Hank Williams, Jr.

Matrick plied his knives like a parade drummer, his rhythm so fast his enemies didn't know he'd murdered them until their god asked them if they took milk in their tea ~ Nicholas Eames

That's the way I came up, writing and recording at home. I developed by playing everything myself. I was a drummer first and that's my favorite instrument to play. Once I get the drums done, everything else comes real quick. Also, we track in my friends' garage, which is really small ... there's not really room to record live with a band. ~ Pete Yorn

I can't play anywhere near like I used to, and I was a hot drummer. It doesn't bother me, because frankly, if you get to that point where you can't hold a drumstick properly, there are many other things in life which are far more important, like cutting a loaf of bread or a piece of cheese. ~ Phil Collins

It's the honesty you apply to your playing that makes music enjoyable. The style of the music has little to do with it. It's only honesty makes it beautiful. ~ Elvin Jones

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

There's quite an overlap between musicians - especially drummers - who have an affection and a proclivity towards comedy and comedians who fantasize about being in a band. And a lot of comics play instruments. ~ David Cross

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

I'd just play 'til my hands fell off. My parents would yell at me to stop because they couldn't stand the noise any more! I was terrible! It must have been hard for them to listen to me as a beginning drummer. ~ Randy Castillo

People like Art Blakey and Buddy Rich, you look at them playing music, and it's just like looking at a heavy metal drummer. I mean, they're playing with the same amount of ferocity. It's not to say all jazz is like that. ~ Damien Chazelle

I can only get my drummer in the winter; he plays with Grand Funk all summer. ~ Bob Seger

I started as a drummer, so I sort of took on singing duties by default. I had sung backgrounds and some lead vocals from behind the drums in different bands that I'd been in, and I'd gotten great responses for the songs I would sing. I really started pursuing the possibility of being a lead singer based on the fact that I was working a full-time restaurant job and then playing gigs at night, hauling drums around. One day, it just dawned on me that, 'Hey, I could be in a band and be the singer, and it would be a lot easier!' ~ Chris Cornell

It takes a pretty good drummer to be better than no drummer at all. ~ Chet Baker

But Apple really beats to a different drummer. I used to say that Apple should be the Sony of this business, but in reality, I think Apple should be the Apple of this business. ~ Steve Jobs

I was playing in bands and doing gigs from the age of 14 on. I stopped at the age of 28. Technology replaced me. As soon as I saw what computers can do, I didn't think there would be a point for a live drummer. ~ Mitchell Joachim

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

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

I want to keep pushing the limits for drummers and expressing myself. ~ Travis Barker

Only a drummer-boy in a ballad or a story could have been so in the thick of the fight. She was taken into the confidence of passions on which she fixed just the stare she might have had for images bounding across the wall in the slide of a magic-lantern. Her little world was phantasmagoric - strange shadows dancing on a sheet. It was as if the whole performance had been given for her - a mite of a half-scared infant in a great dim theatre. She was in short introduced to life with a liberality in which the selfishness of others found its account, and there was nothing to avert the sacrifice but the modesty of her youth. ~ Henry James

My earliest musical memory was getting to watch my dad play drums in a local band. He's a banker by trade, but a drummer at heart. I remember seeing the guitar player do the solo from "Werewolves of London" with his teeth, and that was the moment that had me hooked. ~ Charlie Worsham

I play bass. I play a bit of guitar. I've never been to a lesson, so my theory of music is non-existent in any instrument, but we always had guitars around. My dad taught me to play drums for 'Love Actually,' and I still play drums now. But I'm not a 'drummer.' I'm not a 'guitarist.' I'm trying to be a bassist. ~ Thomas Sangster

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

You can make yourself the greatest singer in the world or the best drummer in the world with the aid of technology. ~ Dave Grohl

I always wondered what your type was, but I never imagined it would be a hard-core rocker!"
Here we go. I had been hoping he'd be too sleepy for this conversation.
"He's not my type. If I had a type it would be...nice. Not some hotheaded, egocentric male slut."
"Did you just call him a male slut?" Jay laughed. "Dang, that's, like, the worst language I've ever heard you use."
I glowered at him, feeling ashamed, and he laughed even harder.
"Oh, hey, I've got a joke for you. What do you call someone who hangs out with musicians?"
He raised his eyebrows and I shrugged. "I don't know. What?"
"A drummer!" I shook my head while he cracked up at his joke for another minute before hounding me again about Kaidan. "All right, so you talked about my CDs, you had some cultural confusion with some of his lingo, then you talked about hot dogs? That can't be everything. You looked seriously intense."
"That's because he was intense, even though we weren't really talking about anything. He made me nervous."
"You thought he was hot, didn't you?"
I stared out my window at the passing trees and houses. We were almost to school.
"I knew it!" He smacked the steering wheel, loving every second of my discomfort. "This is so weird. Anna Whitt has a crush."
"Fine, yes. He was hot. But it doesn't matter, because there's something about him I don't like. I can't explain it. He's...scary."
"He's not the boy next door, if that's what you mean ~ Wendy Higgins

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

Jon Deitemyer is the drummer everyone wants right now. ~ Patricia Barber

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

Being a drummer, I'm always like, 'Oh, that's got a funky beat. That's cool,' and I like to dance. ~ Tommy Lee

I got a drum set at the age of four. I wasn't playing that well, just kind of banging around. I just wanted to play drums and my dad got me a set. I played for several years, but I wasn't meant to be a drummer, I guess. I can play drums on my own things - obviously on some of my own records I play drums. But I didn't start playing guitar until I was 11. ~ Shuggie Otis

I'll be right here. Good luck, or break a leg, or something."
As Jay and Gregory turned and headed into the crowd, my traitorous eyes returned to the corner and found another pair or eyes staring darkly back.
I dropped my gaze for three full seconds, and then lifted my eyes again, hesitant. The drummer was still staring at me, oblivious to the three girls trying to win back his attention. He put up one finger at the girls and said something that looked like, "Excuse me."
Oh, my goodness. Was he...? Oh, no. Yes, he was walking this way.
My nerves shot into high alert. I looked around, but nobody else was near. When I looked back up, there he was, standing right in front of me. Good gracious, he was sexy-a word that had not existed in my personal vocabulary until that moment. This guy was sexy like it was his job or something.
He looked straight into my eyes, which threw me off guard, because nobody ever looked me in the eye like that. Maybe Patti and Jay, but they didn't hold my stare like he was doing now. He didn't look away, and I found that I couldn't take my gaze off those blue eyes.
"Who are you?" he asked in a blunt, almost confrontational way.
I blinked. It was the strangest greeting I'd ever received.
"I'm...Anna."
"Right. Anna. How very nice." I tried to focus on his words and not his luxuriously accented voice, which made everything sound lovely. He leaned in closer. "But who are you?"
What did that mean? Did I need ~ Wendy Higgins

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

We got hungry around three in the morning, and ordered a ton of pizza from an all-night pizza place. Afterward, Blake talked a guy into letting him borrow his skateboard, and he once again entertained all of us. If it had wheels, Blake could work it.
"Is he your boyfriend?" a girl behind me asked.
I turned to the group of girls watching Blake. They were all coifed and beautiful in their bikinis, not having gone in the water. My wet hair was pulled back in a ponytail by this point and I was wrapped in a towel. "No, he's my boyfriend's best friend. We're watching his place while he's . . . out of town."
A pang of fear jabbed me when I thought about Kai.
"What's your name?" asked a brunette with glossy lips.
"Anna." I smiled.
"Hey. I'm Jenny," she said. "This is Daniela and Tara."
"Hey," I said to them.
"So, your boyfriend lives here?" asked the blonde, Daniela. She had a cool accent - something European.
"Yes," I answered, pointing up to his apartment.
The girls all shared looks, raising their sculpted eyebrows.
"Wait," said Jenny. "Is he that guy in the band?"
The third girl, named Tara, gasped. "The drummer?" When I nodded, they shared awed looks.
"Oh my gawd, don't get mad at me for saying this," said Jenny, "but he's a total piece of eye candy." Her friends all laughed.
"Yum drum," whispered Tara, and Daniela playfully shoved her.
Jenny got serious. "But don't worry. He, like, never comes out or talk ~ Wendy Higgins

Every man must walk to the beat of his own drummer. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Every drummer that had a name, had a name because of his individual playing. He didn't sound like anybody else, So everybody that I ever listened to, in some form, influenced my taste. ~ Buddy Rich

Writing songs is an essential part of my life: my mother teaches piano, and I have inherited my grandparents' passion for music, especially from my grandfather Tommy, who was a great drummer. It's no coincidence that I play the drums best, but I am also good with the guitar and the piano. ~ Caleb Landry Jones

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

No husband of mine will say, "I could have been a drummer, but I had to think about the wife and kids. You know how it is." Nobody supports me at the expense of his own adventure. ~ Maxine Hong Kingston

Mainly I was able to perform with music - I played the French horn, I would sing, and I was a drummer in the pipe band. So I think it was a way to show off. ~ Ewan McGregor

The great challenge which faces us is to assure that, in our society of big-ness, we do not strangle the voice of creativity, that the rules of the game do not come to overshadow its purpose, that the grand orchestration of society leaves ample room for the man who marches to the music of another drummer. ~ Hubert H. Humphrey

Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson have rejoined and gone off again and rejoined, but I've been there the whole time, and even though Alan White is the 'new' drummer, he has been there since 1972, so he also deserves the credit for being around for 20 years. ~ Chris Squire

I saw a drummer play once when I was a kid and I thought, that's really cool. You know, you're moving. You're using your arms and fingers. So I tried it and I loved it. ~ Bill Kreutzmann

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

Well, everybody's a drummer, I'll tell you that right now. Everybody knows what's right rhythmically for a song, so there were always suggestions flying my way. ~ Sam Fogarino

I love more percussions more than anything. I always wanted to be a drummer. ~ Pharoah Sanders

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

We changed the name from Sex Gang Children to Culture Club because Jon Moss, our drummer, went to L.A. on holiday and took some demo tapes with him. -Everyone loved the music but nobody liked the name. I -remember getting a postcard from Jon from L.A. saying, "I don't think America's ready for the Sex Gang Children." ~ Boy George

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

When I was thirteen I only wanted to be a drummer. ~ Ringo Starr

I try to keep my ear to the streets without sacrificing who I am as an artist. If a song needs a drum machine I'll use a drum machine. If it needs a drummer, I'll use a real drummer. ~ Teena Marie

I've always liked to be the kind of drummer and musician who likes to go outside of what's expected of me. ~ Matt Cameron

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

I play weird. I'm always just behind. We [drummers] only have so much room. We're not guitarists. ~ Ringo Starr

I noticed several things about the drummer all at once. He was focused on the task at hand, keeping perfect rhythm. Instead of a swirl of transparent colors around his torso, there was a small, concentrated starburst of bright red at his sternum. But otherwise his aura was blank. Huh. That was strange. But before I could contemplate it too much, my eyes landed on his face.
Wowza.
He was smokin' hot. As in H-O-T-T hot. I'd never understood until that moment why girls insisted on adding an extra T. This guy was extra-T worthy.
I examined the drummer, determined to find a flaw.
Brown hair. An interesting haircut: short around the sides and back, but longer on top, hanging loose and angling across his forehead. His eyes were narrow and his eyebrows were a bit thick and ... Oh, who was I kidding? I could pick him apart, but even the shifty slant of his eyes made him more alluring to me. ~ Wendy Higgins

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

us not forget Charlie Watts punching Mick Jagger after Jagger called him "my drummer." "You're my singer," Watts snarled, before adjusting his cuffs, and walking away. ~ Caitlin Moran

I pretty much isolated myself away from drums. I stopped looking at Modern Drummer, I stopped looking at websites. ~ Eric Hernandez

Lars [Ulrich] of Metallica is one of the worst drummers I've ever heard, but they hide it because they spend millions recording. ~ Slim Moon

If you hear a different drummer, don't march - dance! ~ Carolyn V. Hamilton