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Tommy Aldridge
(July 2005 Issue)
Double Bass Lives On Fifty-year-old drum
great Tommy Aldridge first came to prominence with '70s Southern-rock
hooligans
Black Oak Arkansas, although you wouldn't know that by
visiting his current Web site (www.tommyaldridge.com).
B.O.A. is only grudgingly referred to as
"that band" in Aldridge's
online biography. "I had some real problems with that bunch when I
left," notes Aldridge from his
home in Santa Barbara, California. "They
tied me up in court for over a year, and caused me all kinds of
problems. So I figured
I'd give them as little exposure as possible."
While Aldridge's musical career was made to suffer early on
from an
unnamed manager's "Napoleon complex," things have certainly been all
positive from there. While backing some
of the biggest names in
guitar-rock from the '70s to today - including Pat Travers, Ozzy
Osbourne, Whitesnake, and
latter-day Thin Lizzy'tommy has carved out a
name for himself as a player to watch, partially due to his mastery of
the
double bass drum setup.
Although he had to undergo surgery for a torn rotator cuff six months
ago, right after touring
with Thin Lizzy, Aldridge claims that he's
back in fighting shape as far as performing goes. "I'm up to full
velocity
and torque now," he reports. "But it was a real exercise in
patience for me, because I'd been workin' solid for about
two and a
half years without a break, and all of a sudden I went from playin'
five or six nights a week and bicycling three
hundred fifty miles a
week to doin' zero. So that part of it was a lot more challenging than
the
pain."
Steve
Newton
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