Keith Moon

Credit: AlamyJack Whatley·February 5, 2021 5 isolated drum tracks to prove The Beatles’ Ringo Starr was a genius   Too often has The Beatles drummer, Ringo Starr been the butt of some unkind jokes. Reportedly purported by his bandmate John Lennon, the adage goes that when asked about whether Ringo …

As part of YouTube’s #StayHome campaign, the Who will launch a six-week celebration of their live performances called Join Together @ Home. The British rock band, in particular its classic lineup featuring singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon, is considered by many as …

Hey guys and girls, it’s Spider from Wank. My group has been a part of the Orange County music scene for more than twenty-two years now.

Hello Modern Drummer readers! Danny Wagner here. I play drums for the band Greta Van Fleet and am a long-time reader of the magazine. I’m honored to write an “On The Beat,” especially as such a young musician.

Hello Modern Drummer readers, I’m Brandon Crook, drummer for the Sherlocks. Our debut album Live For The Moment came out this past August and finished number six on the charts.

Tyler West What’s up, Modern Drummer readers! My name is Tyler West, but most people call me Teeter, and I’ve been the percussionist in psychedelic rock ’n’ soul band Super Doppler since tenth grade. From banging on pots and pans in the kitchen as a youngster to getting my first …

Hello fellow MD readers. My name is Heath Fields and I’m the drummer for the band Shallow Side, from Cullman, Alabama. It’s an honor to be a part of the On the Beat family!

Hey, MD! 

I’m Jared Evan and I’m a singer, songwriter, rapper, producer, and drummer. I’m twenty-six years old and have been playing the drums since I was six.

Hey MD! I’m Maxx Morando, drummer of the Regrettes. I’m eighteen years old and have been playing drums since I was eight and joined the School of Rock in Hollywood. I met some of my bandmates there, three of whom are Sage, Genessa, and Lydia of the Regrettes. My main …

The Outlaws are one of the premier bands associated with the Southern-rock movement of the ’70s, and drummer Monte Yoho was with the group—dubbed Florida’s Guitar Army—at the very beginning. Early hits like the Yoho co-write “There Goes Another Love Song,” the classic update of the famous 1948 cowboy tale …

Longtime New York City drummer Tony Leone is currently on the road with the Chris Robinson Brotherhood.

For ten years, Jared Champion’s backbeat-infused, no-frills grooves have propelled the alternative chart-crushers Cage the Elephant. The group’s current tour runs through August, with additional select dates in September and October.

Mr. Big founder and ex-Racer X guitarist Paul Gilbert is releasing his seventeenth solo album today, ‘I Can Destroy’, featuring Thomas Lang on drums. Gilbert has performed in a number of musical projects over the years with Mike Portnoy, including the drummer’s Beatles tribute group Yellow Matter Custard, which played …

Hi MD drummer dudes and girls! This is a fun time in my career. After forty-nine years in the music business and touring the world many times playing arenas, stadiums, theaters, etc., I’ve reached a point where I can sit back and review my life of drumming and music….

Hi MD drummer dudes and girls! This is a fun time in my career. After forty-nine years in the music business and touring the world many times playing arenas, stadiums, theaters, etc., I’ve reached a point where I can sit back and review my life of drumming and music….

Modern Drummer sat down with drummer Tim Wyskida, formerly of the doom/avant-garde band Khanate, to get the lowdown on his drumming, the tracking of Before Ever After, and the band’s strangely sophisticated mixture of drone, noise, funk, prog rock, dub, and a host of other genres.

Hello, music and drums have been crawling through my veins since I was five years old. I remember scavenging my house to find anything that would resonate when struck and use it to create music while driving my parents insane in the process. Some kids are forced to learn to …

Joe Vitale is currently touring with Joe Walsh as well as starring in the movie Ricki and the Flash, featuring Meryl Streep. We continue talking with Joe about a few practice tips as well as some of his influences….

Hey drummers! I’m Geoff Daking of the Blues Magoos. I started playing in the early ’60s in Delaware. When I was in high school I came to New York City on weekends to see Monk, Cannonball, and Coltrane with those great drummers like Elvin Jones. I moved to Greenwich Village …

Hi, guys and girls! My name is Anaiah Lei, and I drum for a band called the Bots, from Los Angeles, California. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and I’ve been drumming for about eleven years. I joined the Bots not too long after it started and have …

Scheduled to coincide with the 2015 National Association of Music Merchants convention—the NAMM Show—the California Music Fest will present tribute concerts to Led Zeppelin drummer John “Bonzo??? Bonham, Ozzie Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads, and the Who’s great rhythm section, drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle.

A band’s fortieth anniversary might find the members in victory-lap, let’s-slow-it-down-a-notch mode. Not so with Blondie. To mark the big four-oh, the group is touring extensively and has released a double-disc package titled Blondie 4(0)-Ever, featuring a collection of new songs called Ghosts of Download along with the album Greatest …

My relationship with the drumkit and all it represents is different than most drummers I know. For me, there is a before, and there is an after.

Tichy/Sutton Productions will present “The Ox and the Loon: A Night of Rhythmic Lunacy??? in honor of John Entwistle and Keith Moon of the Who on Thursday, April 24, 2014 at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, California….

I’ve been drumming for the past ten years, and it has been the most rewarding thing I have done in my life….

Hello, fellow bashers, my name is Scott Reeder. (No, not that Scott Reeder—more on that later.) I’ve been playing drums for, oh let’s see, forever, or at least as long as I can remember….

Hello, fellow bashers, my name is Scott Reeder. (No, not that Scott Reeder—more on that later.) I’ve been playing drums for, oh let’s see, forever, or at least as long as I can remember….

We asked the members of the MD Education Team to share their thoughts on how they prefer to tune their drums. Here’s what they had to say….

Hi, I’m Marti Frederiksen. I’m a songwriter, producer, and singer, but most of all I consider myself a drummer….

The May 2013 issue of Modern Drummer magazine features an Update with Matchbox’s Twenty’s Paul Doucette. Here, we continue the conversation about the band’s latest album, North, and Doucette gives his impressions of each track from the record.

See what’s in the May 2013 issue of Modern Drummer magazine….

My earliest memory of wanting to play drums dates comes from when I was ten years old and riding in the back of my dad’s car.

My name is Richard Danielson, and I’m the drummer for Vintage Trouble. Our music has been described as many things. I like to call it “primitive soul.???

Look here to see the contents of the April 2013 issue of Modern Drummer magazine, featuring Tommy Igoe….

Question: What do you call a guy who hangs out with musicians? Answer: A drummer! With the prospect of being the butt of such drummer jokes, I have to ask myself the question, “Why did I choose to play drums????

An exclusive web-interview with Dave King of the Bad Plus.

I subconsciously make weird faces when I play the drums. Sometimes I stick my tongue out. Because of this, some photographers claim they’ve never gotten a good picture of me.

Hey Modern Drummer people! I’m David Halicky. Through drumming I can truly express who I am and how I’m feeling.

Hello, MD community! This is the epic tale of Ryan McNulty of the Ugly Club from New Jersey. I’ve played in so many bands and done so many random gigs that it’s hard to even recall half of them.

Our first chance to hear recent Pumpkins inductee Mike Byrne in a long-format scenario. Drummer and band seem energized by the opportunity.

My name is Luke Johnson, and I play drums in the band Lostprophets. We’re currently touring our fifth studio album, Weapons….

Check out this video of Jane’s Addiction’s Stephen Perkins conducting a Guitar Center Session. In the clip Stephen performs The Who’s “Who Are You,??? paying homage to the late, great Keith Moon.

Watch the entire performance of The Who on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour from September 16, 1967 in this amazing YouTube video gem.

I’m Tim Walsh of the Stepkids, and I’m excited to be on here and hope to add to the wealth of knowledge that is MD’s awesome thirty-five-year history…

Despite the prevalence of educational books, DVDs, and online lessons, most drumming information is still passed down the old-fashioned way: from one player to another, while shooting the breeze at the drum shop. A lot of what we hear, we take at face value, and we repeat these drumming “absolutes??? …

After changing its name from Mammoth, Van Halen strutted a glam-punk attitude when it burst onto the national scene in 1978 with its self-titled debut album. Featuring the template-smashing talent of the whammy-bar-happy, two-hand-tapping guitarist Eddie Van Halen and his percussive-dynamo brother, Alex, Van Halen the band, to many, became …

I’ve been drumming with a band for the past five months, and the bandleader recently said I wasn’t performing enough on stage. When I asked what she meant, she said my drumming was fine but I had no personality on stage…

This article originally ran in the September 2005 issue of Modern Drummer magazine.

Marky Ramone held the drum chair with legendary punk pioneers the Ramones longer than anyone else. But there’s much more to his story…

Mike Watt is a flesh-and-blood superhero to anyone who’s followed the do-it-yourself alternative music scene over the past twenty-five years. This interview originally ran in the December 2006 issue of Modern Drummer magazine.

Hüsker Dü’s drummer/singer created a template—and quickly broke it—for a generation of alternative rockers.

J.P. “Thunderbolt??? Patterson: Punk Rock Renaissance Man With The Dictators and Richard Lloyd

MD Pro Panelist Daniel Glass on the magic of Deep Purple’s Ian Paice.

Jimmy Chamberlin playing the track “Not From Here,??? from Drum Channel’s Gannin Arnold Project DVD.

Chamberlin is focusing on a new band, Skysaw, with whom he gets to revisit drumming concepts he’s long been interested in—but in a distinctly new format. In the November 2011 issue of Modern Drummer magazine, we honor Jimmy’s career accomplishments in the second installment of our Influences feature series. Here …

I’m Nick Brennan from the Static Jacks and I’m twenty-one years old. I feel honored to be sharing my drumming experience with you! I started playing the drums in third grade at Wilson Elementary, when the music teacher asked me if I had any musical talent. I told him I …

By injecting powerhouse drumming into a pop song context, the Knack’s late, great skinsman helped kick start a playing style that still rules today.

Kenney Jones’ timless drumming approach can be heard on classic albums by the Small Faces, Rod Stewart, and the Who. In 2005 Modern Drummer spoke to the drummer about many of his greatest performances.

’Tis the season for Chad Smith followers, with new Chili Peppers and Chickenfoot music blowing up all over the place. MD and the Bombastic One recently grabbed some grub and talked about some of his favorite classic-rock albums.

This is not a drum blog posting in that you’re not going to find me charting out grooves or getting heavy into sticking technique or how we got the…

Shawn “Clown??? Crahan is best known as one of the percussionists in the metal-megalith that is Slipknot. But Crahan carries a rich drumming background into his new project, the Black Dots of Death.

More with the world-renowned right-hand man to rock’s singer-songwriter royalty, who is featured in the Different View column of this month’s issue of MD.

Read an excerpt from Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley’s brand-new book, Best Seat in the House: Drumming in the ’70s With Marriott, Frampton and Humble Pie.

Greetings, fellow Modern Drummer fanatics! My name is Jason McDonald, and I’m from Sydney, Australia. It’s an honor to be invited to blog here on MD’s website, especially when you consider that over the years I have managed to collect…

Hello, Modern Drummer readers. Marty Beller, drummer for They Might Be Giants, here. In 2000, I got a call from TMBG bassist Danny Weinkauf. We had met through guitarist Dan Miller, who I had toured with in my band Meow. He said they needed a drummer for a show on …

My name is Joao Lencastre and I was born in Lisbon, Portugal. I started to play the drums at the age of thirteen. Since I started playing I’ve been collaborating with many different groups in all styles of music, including metal, reggae, Afrobeat, electronic, big band, alternative rock, and all …

Welcome once again to the MD Readers Poll, where the greatest drummers on the planet are honored by the most educated drum fans around. Let’s get right to it: the envelope, please….

Few players have come close to the level of unpredictability and invention that Keith Moon exhibited between 1964 and 1978, when he manned the drumset behind the grandest, loudest band of rock’s golden age, the Who….

The Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver founder on the great drummers he’s worked with—including Isaac Carpenter, who tears up The Taking, the third album by Duff’s band Loaded.

An educated, entertaining, essential addition to every drummer’s library—and to the history of modern drumming—The Drummer: Classic Rock Collector’s Edition magazine builds on content from Modern Drummer’s Top-selling The Drummer book with expanded coverage of drumming royalty from the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll.

by Michael Parillo n the cover story of the September issue of MD, out now, Phish drummer Jon Fishman holds court on topics ranging from the breakup and reunion of his band to how milking a cow can help you maintain your drumming chops. In this online exclusive interview, he …

When it comes to punk bands, the Damned may be the most influential of them all, and their original drummer Rat Scabies among the most stylishly destructive sticksmen ever. Formed in 1976 in the U.K., the Damned is credited as the first punk band to release a single (“New Rose”) …

Hey everyone in Modern Drummer land! My name is Jason Hartless, and I come from The Motor City. I am fifteen years old and have been a drummer for all of my life. I have been fortunate enough to, by the age of fourteen, have already toured or performed with …

Hello, humans. My name is Jonathan Syverson, and I’ve never actually written any sort of blog. But as anyone who knows me would tell you, I absolutely LOVE talking about myself, and since Modern Drummer was kind enough to come asking, it would be my pleasure to oblige. Back in …

On Tour And On Stage: 9 Lives (+9, +9 More). MD’s editors just can’t keep a list of their favorite albums short–even in service of a can’t-resist pun. Twenty-seven live albums you gotta have.

I just released my second solo record, The LP Is Dead, on No Fun Records. Thunderboss: Thunderbolt Patterson With Ross The Boss came out in 2006…

In celebration of the great, sometimes groundbreaking drumming performances of TV’s golden age, we present to you highlights along the illustrious Drumming On TV timeline…

What’s up, everyone! My name is Gary Foster and I play drums and percussion with the Sunstreak…

Being the only girl in the band is really intimidating but has its advantages….

Shout Out Out Out Out has just finished the second leg of our release tour for Reintegration Time in Canada and the U.S. Time to reintegrate to regular life again!

Talking with Perkins, you get the vibe that the L.A.–based rocker’s life is way more than hitting the skins for the duration of a show or recording session….

To go with August’s Motown feature, we offer this reprint of a 1999 MD story that examines the way Uriel Jones, Benny Benjamin, and Pistol Allen got those hit-making drum tones.

Greetings! The first time I sat in front of drums was the day of my thirteenth birthday, when my brother came home at night and surprised me with a fourth-hand drumkit. It was an old black Pearl Forum Series. On this I learned to play, and every day I spent …

Greetings! The first time I sat in front of drums was the day of my thirteenth birthday, when my brother came home at night and surprised me with a fourth-hand drumkit. It was an old black Pearl Forum Series. On this I learned to play, and every day I spent …

Mitch Mitchell was not alone in blending jazz and rock drumming styles, but he may have pushed the combo further than anyone who came before him. Here a number of noted drummers provide further insight into Mitch’s influence….

Seeing as he’s from Las Vegas, the home of twenty-four-hour gambling, retina-freezing neon, and spontaneous wedding ceremonies, The Killers’ Ronnie Vannucci has a penchant for doing things–to quote a famous Vegas crooner–his way…

The March issue of MD (out now) features Billy Ward’s fascinating conversation with Simon Phillips, Doane Perry, Marco Minnemann, Thomas Lang, and Jerry Marotta about the grooves that inspired them to play drums early on, and that continue to today. It seemed to make perfect sense for MD’s editors to …

Konnichiwa, everybody! My name is Nanami (a.k.a. NaNa)! I’m from Kagoshima, Japan. I’ve moved to America to take over the US music scene! Ha ha ha! Just kidding! Well—maybe it’s true!? I think US music scene is boring! Everything is about $. Anyway, I moved to LA when I was …

Konnichiwa, everybody! My name is Nanami (a.k.a. NaNa)! I’m from Kagoshima, Japan. I’ve moved to America to take over the US music scene! Ha ha ha! Just kidding! Well—maybe it’s true!? I think US music scene is boring! Everything is about $. Anyway, I moved to LA when I was …

My name is Oli Hecks, from England, currently living in Los Angeles…

My name is Oli Hecks, from England, currently living in Los Angeles…

My name is Richard Hoak, and I’ve been playing drums since 1992. Currently I’m playing with Total F**king Destruction and with Brutal Truth.

My name is Richard Hoak, and I’ve been playing drums since 1992. Currently I’m playing with Total F**king Destruction and with Brutal Truth.

All drummers should add seeing The Walkmen’s Matt Barrick playing “The Rat??? live to their “bucket lists.”

I, as you can read above, am Donnie Yale. I play drums in the NC band The Sammies. (NC is better b/c we are on top for all of you reading this in SC). Our sophomore album, Sandwich, is set for release on September 23….

We’ve been road warriors the past few months, playing shows in anticipation of our debut album coming out this summer. It's been a great run so far, and I would never in my wildest dreams have thought that I could make a living playing drums. Not that I am yet….

This coming July 22, my band, Blacklist Union, are set to release our new album, Breakin Bread With The Devil, produced by Chris Johnson (Evanescence, Josh Todd) and Anthony Valli of Crazy Town.

The hum of bells in a monastery; the human heartbeat. The cosmic vibration of aum. Rhythm is what creates our existence, and what keeps it interesting….

There have always been certain British rock bands who’ve been treated like deities at home, but who failed to translate to the American market….

Hi. Steve Mehlman reporting from Cleveland. I’ve been playing drums for a long time….

Nada Surf is one of the smartest, freshest-sounding rock bands of the past ten/fifteen years. And like they say, behind every brilliant band is an equally crafty drummer. Kit man Ira Elliot is as sharp as they get.

It can be a difficult task putting together a top-ten list, as most musicians have extraordinarily large record collections. But I feel that every musician has a top-ten list, and it can define who you are as a musician….

As with most people around my age, my heroes were Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa (who both seemed to turn up regularly on variety television shows), Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, Mitch Mitchell…

Mike Portnoy may very well be the hardest-working drummer in the business. His recent three-DVD set, In Constant Motion, speaks for itself. The undisputed king of progressive metal never sleeps!

Time. Feel. Groove. Pulse. For many, these are illusive concepts with multiple meanings. Does a heavy metal drummer “feel??? the pulse in the same way as a pop drummer?…

As the forty-year-old son of Ringo Starr, most would think that Zak Starkey had been handed stardom on a silver platter. He plays drums with two of the most popular bands in the world, names the late, great Keith Moon as one of his best childhood friends, and is so …

With several projects going at the moment–including two bands, a performance DVD, and several clinic appearances–it’s clear that no one is more committed to drumming than Stephen Perkins….

The very beautiful and talented singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb talks drums on MD Online….

Not many people get to do exactly what they love and get paid for it – much less with two of the biggest artists in the world. Mickey Curry toured and recorded with Hall & Oates at the peak of their career, laying down a solid backbeat with perfect feel …

Power-pop trio Fastball – bassist/singer Tony Scalzo, guitarist/singer Miles Zuniga, and drummer Joey Shuffield – are clearly excited to have contributed their version of “The Real Me” to the new Who tribute, Substitute, The Songs Of The Who….

Drummer Kevin Frank, singer Walt Lafty, bassist Brian Weaver, and guitarists Nick Perri and Mark Melchiorre of Silvertide created quite a buzz in their hometown of Philadelphia. In fact, the band was so hot, it led to an all-out label bidding war that veteran music mogul Clive Davis won. That’s …

I saw the California-based pop band Rooney perform live before I was familiar with their music. Besides featuring some very powerful, tasteful drumming, I found them to be extremely melodic, with hooks that stuck in my head for days after the show….

With this week’s news of the passing of singer/songwriter/guitarist Lou Reed, millions of fans are grieving, while millions more people are learning for the first time how gargantuan an influence the New York musician and his ’60s band the Velvet Underground have had on rock music….

The band Jet has released what many consider to be one of the best rock records of the year, Get Born, which features the hit single (and Apple iPod anthem) “Are You Gonna Be My Girl.” MD Online recently had the opportunity to speak with drummer Chris Cester on one …

One of the marks of greatness in a musician is that you can recognize him after the first couple of notes.

The scene: a cold night in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at North On Sixth, a multi-level hole in the wall jook joint where the bathroom graffiti is more political than obscene. Attracting a crowd of Manhattan intellectuals and Brooklyn deadheads, North On Sixth is tonight showcasing Ben Perowsky’s Moodswing Orchestra. A collection …