More Life Changing Music

More "albums" that influenced my love of music and playing the drums.




Metallica - .....And Justice For All - My friend Chris Friedof (Facebook friend) turned me on to this album in 1988 and I hated it at first. I thought, "What kind of shit is this?" I had never heard anything like it before. We used to drive up to Ft. Lauderdale in my blue '79 Camaro Berlinetta to see some friends he knew up there and he would constantly put in this album on my car stereo and eventually it grew on me and I LOVE it!! Little side note, which I thought was kind of weird in a weird way, today, 2013, I work WITH LIBERTY tax......AND JUSTICE FOR ALL :) O.K., you can call me crazy now.



Queensrÿche - Operation:Mindcrime - I remember..now....I saw the video on MTV for "Eyes Of A Stranger" and thought it was cool, so what did I do? I bought the album, of course, and it kicks serious ass. It's one of those albums you just press play and go on the journey, like a rock opera that tells a story. Chris, Cory Helms (Facebook friend) and I went up to Ft. Lauderdale to see Metallica (The Justice Tour) with Queensryche opening, At this point, all we knew about Queensryche was the song, "Eyes Of A Stranger". When I saw Scott Rockenfields' drum kit, it blew my mind!!! He had chains holding his cymbals for cymbal stands and they rocked!! After the show, we saw Geoff Tate, the lead singer of Queensryche getting on his tour bus. We stood outside yelling "WE JUST WANT AN AUTOGRAPH!! COME ON!!! WE'RE YOUR BIGGEST FANS!!! So low and behold, Geoff Tate comes out and signs autographs for us. He turns to me and looks at my Metallica shirt and says sarcastically with a smirk, "Nice shirt".I was like, "Uh, thanks,.. I think?". I knew he was thinking if you were such big fans why wasn't I or anybody wearing a Queensryche shirt instead of a Metallica shirt. Well my rebuttal, after the encounter is, if it wasn't for Metallica, I would have never seen you. I came to see Metallica and you happen to be playing before them. The whole point of an unknown band opening for a popular band. It worked!! I bought Operation:Mindcrime and you can bet that the small time it took Mr.Tate to sign his name didn't hurt either. I think he was the first celebrity I met and got an autograph from except for Ernest Borgnine who I met at dinner at what is now Hawk's Cay on Duck Key and I didn't even know who he was, my step father recognized him and had me go over to Mr. Borgnines' table and ask for an autograph!!! I take that back, the very FIRST celebrity I ever met, and I have met A Lot of them since, was Slim Whitman at Eckerd drugs in Marathon, believe it or not.



Black Crowes - amorica - I discovered this album when I worked at Peaches Records & Tapes on Sunrise Blvd. in Ft. Lauderdale. I had a co-worker who LOVED this album and played it constantly in the store as we worked and it grew on me. I love it as I love ALL of the Black Crowes albums. Tied with this album though is "Southern Harmony and Musical Companion". You know what, just get "Sho' Nuff" the box set and you'll be southern fried satisfied, it'll cure what ails ya!!



Journey - Departure - I know, "Escape" is the classic, great album. I LOVE it too. But as far as "roots" go, this album shaped me as a drummer starting out. I remember listening to this album on my Walkman cassette player, yes it was the 80's, and I would set up 5 gallon plastic buckets behind the American Legion in Marathon, turn the tape player on and play to the music, using tree limbs as drumsticks. This was one of the first tapes that I can remember doing this with.

My favorite song, "Homemade Love". Another interesting fact, at least I think so, I went to school and was friends with Shamala, Steve Perrys' daughter, the lead singer of Journey, at Marathon High School. I didn't know it at the time of playing to Departure but found out later when I broke my leg and she visited me in the hospital and told me who her father was. I didn't believe her at the time but looking back, she did look like a female Steve Perry with a perm. 30 years later, I would meet her father while working at Tower records on Sunset Blvd. More on that later, when I write my memoir book which, at the current rate I am going, should be done by the year 3000.



Led Zeppelin - Box Set - There's no way in hell I can narrow down one classic Zeppelin album. John Bonham is my all-time idol. A drumming madman that hit the drums like he meant it. He played and made a different beat, it wasn't just 4/4. It was syncopated. To do what he did with just one right foot is amazing alone!! I heard a story how he try to mimic, if you will, what the drummer of Vanilla Fudge, Carmine Appice, I believe, was doing. Mr. Bonham was trying with ONE foot all the while Carmine was using TWO feet with a double pedal kick. Mr. John Henry Bonham achieved with ONE foot what Carmine had accomplished with TWO feet. No easy FEAT!!! Sorry, I had to. R.I.P. Mr. Bonham, I can't wait to meet you in Heaven. Hell, you're the only one in the band I haven't met. Until then, I will hit the drums as hard as I can. Thank you for the lesson, I owe you!!





Motley Crue - Theatre Of Pain - This one is close to my heart for a number of reasons. One, this is the first real concert I attended up at the Hollywood Sportatorium in Hollywood, FLORIDA, during the Theatre Of Pain Tour with the band, Autograph opening up and I really believe that the hand at the end of the Original (Not the Black and White video) "Home Sweet Home" video is mine!!! Not that it really matters, but when I was at the show, that is what my seating view was and I was constantly throwing my arms up in the air with the "rock n roll" horns. But I've heard that they didn't shoot any footage from the South Florida show. But I still think differently. Not that I'm going to get a royalty check or anything, I just think it's kind of cool. I mean, what video is your hand in. I know my hand like the back of my hand. (O.K. that was bad). I had the CD cover signed by Tommy Lee, another drumming idol of mine, and Nikki Sixx when I worked at Tower records in Hollywood, CALIFORNIA some 25 years later that I have since lost in my travels. I think "Shout At The Devil" was my first experience and album of the Crue and of course, I love that album as well. A little tidbit in connection with "Shout", at the Theatre Of Pain show, they ran out of Theatre Of Pain T-shirts and I had to settle for a Shout at the Devil Tour jersey with Allister fiend on the front. While I am on the subject of shirts, an amazing thing happen to me when I was walking to work at Tower records one day while wearing a Motley Crue "Too Fast For Love" shirt. A silver Porsche pulled up next to me and the passenger said, "That band SUCKS!!! I turned and said, "I know, I can't stand this band, they get on my FUCKIN' NERVES!!!! The car driver and passenger drove away laughing. They made a U-turn coming back towards me. The driver was smiling and held his arm out the window with the "rock n' roll" devil horns formed on his hand. The driver was Nikki Sixx. (Bass player/Songwriter for Motley Crue for those of you dumb assess that don't know.) The passenger was Tracii Guns. It was during the time they were playing together with Brides Of Destruction and they did an in-store signing @ Tower about a month after my encounter. The next Motley show I saw was the Girls, Girls, Girls Tour at the Hollywood Snortatorium with Guns N' Roses opening up. Those 2 hour drives each way up to Miami and back to Marathon were not an easy hop, skip and a jump to go see a show but well worth it and we had a hell of a great time. I miss those days!!!