Luke Combs’ Drummer Jake Sommers Plays Gojira Song as He Hears It for First Time: Watch

Originally published by Consequence News

Luke Combs’ touring drummer Jake Sommers is the latest musician to take on Drumeo’s “For the First Time” challenge, being tasked with playing “Stranded” by French metal masters Gojira.

Sommers’ main gig may be country music, but he seems fairly well versed in rock music. At first, Drumeo host Brandon Toews presents songs by Korn and Porcupine Tree, but Sommers quickly recognizes each, defeating the purpose of the challenge, which is to get drummers to play along to a song they never heard before.

Then, the beginning of Gojira’s “Stranded” is played for Sommers, who responds, “I didn’t know that, whatever that was,” triggering laughter from the sound booth.

“Such a cruel game,” jokes Toews, aware of the difficulty of the song Sommers landed on.

From there, Sommers proceeds to transcribe, using actual pen and paper, the song’s complex rhythms and time signature changes (a Gojira staple). As a part of the test, the drums have been taken out of the original track, leaving Sommers to guess the parts.

After an initial run-through, where he works his way through the track, Sommers is able keep up surprisingly well in his official crack at the song, laying down a pocketed take. However, he’s left astounded after the engineers finally play him Gojira stickman Mario Duplantier’s original drum part.

“There’s so much going on,” Sommers says. “I would hate to play that every night!”

As far as the “For the First Time” series, Sommers follows in the footsteps of such drummers as Nandi Bushell, who was tasked with playing Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, who went viral for his rendition of Thirty Seconds to Mars’ “The Kill.”

Fans can catch Sommers performing during Luke Combs’ 2024 US stadium tour, which kicks off in April. Tickets are available here.

Below you can watch the full clip of Jake Sommers playing Gojira’s “Stranded.”