Excerpted from Modern Drummer Legends Vol. 5: Kenny Aronoff “Paper in Fire” John Cougar Mellencamp, The Lonesome Jubilee I always tried to come up with new innovative and creative drum parts for all of John’s songs. After the success of “Jack and Diane” John expected me to come up with cool drum parts for all his songs to ultimately get them on the radio and hopefully become #1 hits. Whenever John played the band a new song on his acoustic guitar, he would look at me and say, “What do you got Kenny?” When we started arranging “Paper in Fire” I played quarter notes with my kick drum (four on the floor,) and quarter note cross sticks on my snare drum, while I played accented eighth notes on my hi-hat. Toby played an eighth note bass part while the guitars, accordion and violin laid some simple parts on top of […]

February 2022 Issue