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Web Exclusive Interview
The Return Of Double Drumming’s Greatest Hits

by Adam Budofsky

In the February 2007 issue of Modern Drummer, we ran a feature called “Double Drumming’s 25 Greatest Hits.” At the time we asked MD readers to submit their own favorite double-drum performances, which we’d post online at a later date. Well, the time has arrived, double-drum fans—the floor is yours!

We begin our piece with an email from Les Dudek, the famed guitarist who many classic-rock fans will recognize as Dickey Betts’ lead foil on

“We were in the middle of recording my Say No More LP,” Les continues, when my producer, Bruce Botnick, asked me if I would like to go to a concert with him at the Santa Monica Civic Center to see Tony Williams Life Time and Chick Corea. Of course I said, Hell yeah! It was a great concert, and about midway through, Bruce asked me if I would like to use any of these guys on my recording session the next day. I said yes, but I needed to get home and write something worthy enough for them to play. So I stayed up all night and wrote ‘Zorro Rides Again.’

“As I was writing the song I thought, This would be a great one to have two drummers on. So the next morning I called Jeff Porcaro to ask him if he would like to do a session with two drummers. Jeff asked, ‘Who’s the other drummer?’ and I said, ‘Tony Williams.’ Jeff replied, ‘Let me cancel all my sessions. Where are we recording, and what time do you want me there?’

“We rounded out the lineup with Pops Popwell from The Jazz Crusaders on bass guitar and David Sancious, from Tony’s band, on B-3 organ. We recorded in Studio A at Capital Records in LA.

“By chance,” Les continues, “there was someone there with a camera, and he got up on a tall ladder looking down on us and shot a very cool photo of us all recording ‘Zorro Rides Again.’ I gave an 8x10 copy of it to Jeff, and I know he had it hanging on his wall till the day he died. Jeff was very proud of that photo, and so am I. I also have a poster-size copy framed and hanging on my wall as we speak. That was a very magical session, one that I’ll never forget.

“I had a few more double-drummer sessions on my records. One particularly memorable one is from my Ghost Town Parade LP, on a tune titled “Friend Of Mine.” We had Jeff Porcaro and Jim Keltner on drums. We also had Carmine Appice and Gary Mallaber on another tune.

“Of course, my first double drummer recording experience was with Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny Johanson on two Allman Brothers tunes, ‘Ramblin Man’ and ‘Jessica.’”

Thanks for those double-drummer memories, Les. Now let’s get to some great double-double suggestions from our readers.


“The Todd Rundgren album Initiation has three songs that feature three separate sets of two drummers. Todd is actually a pretty good drummer himself, so he knew what he was doing. “The Death Of Rock And Roll” features John Wilcox and Kevin Ellman, both of whom went on to play in different versions of Todd’s Utopia band. This tune is a nice example of two drummers playing off each other; interestingly, it’s very much a “pocket” song, though both players did some pretty interesting and stranger parts on Utopia albums.