Mitch Mitchell was a successful child star on BBC before he ever became a drummer, then he changed gears to become a drummer full time and had a gold record with Jimi Hendrix by the time he was 20. This is an amazingly in-depth look at the life of one of the most swinging rock drummers that ever sat behind the kit. My guest is Major Kevin John Simon who is the founder of the very successful Mitch Mitchell Fan Club. He is an absolute expert on Mitch, his kits, and every important milestone of his prolific career,

Bryson Nelson has created a shop that not only is a mecca for vintage drum lovers, but also a place where drummers of all levels can come and enjoy the community that is very unique to our drum world. He shares the story of how he started his shop and the joys and pressures that comes along with starting a brand from scratch, Bryson has a very young family and has been dealing with health issues that has been pulling him away from his shop recently, while simultaneously he is expanding into a much bigger shop in East Nashville - enjoy this episode!

Bob is a world class collector who has been a drummer in bands such as the Kinks. The Daybreakers, Argent and worked as a session/live drummer with musicians like Roger Daltrey and Don McLean. When he wasn't on stage, Bob was visiting mom and pop music stores across the world trying to find rare and unique drums and take them back home to the UK. Bob shares his "Desert Island Drums" that are his absolute favorites and most important to him in his extensive career. This episode is chocked full of rare and unique information from a living legend.

Jeff is a great drum builder in Portland, Oregon who has a deep understanding of bearing edges and drum building in general. He spends majority of this episode discussing everything you need to know to understand how edges work, but we also talk about wood plys and other great information throughout.

Ron Weinstein had a 40 year relationship with Louie Bellson and was the inventor of the iconic Tuxedo Bags. He shares the story of how he created the bags which revolutionized drum cases in the 1980's, and how his friend Louie Bellson rocketed his brand forward by attaching Louies celebrity to the brand . The best part is that Louie didn't ask for a dime and Ron tells many great stories that paint picture of how much of a gentleman the drumming legend really was. This is real drumming history that is not widely known, enjoy this great drum history!

Jeff Stern owns and operates Stern Tanning Co. which acquired the United Rawhide Company of Chicago in 2001 - the former largest manufacturer or drumheads in the world before mylar became king. United Rawhide was the primary drumhead provider for Slingerland, Gretsch, Rogers, and Ludwig. Jeff teaches us the start to finish process of how a tannery works and creates high quality drumheads, plus lots of great information about how, when, and why you would want to use a calf or goat skin drumhead.

Kurt is a drumming entertainment lawyer who breaks down the age old question - can you copyright a drumbeat? We discuss famous songs like "We Will Rock You", "Billy Jean", When The Levee Breaks", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", and many more. Kurt also tells us how song credits work and how we can protect ourselves and get what we deserve as drummers plus tons of other great information. Kurt is the drummer for the very successful rock group, One Bad Son, and has some serious real world experience with his own band and many of his high level clients.

Tommy has been the owner of Fibes Drums since 1994, and he is the perfect person to tell us about the history of this iconic brand that dates back to 1965. They are very sought after and beloved drums that are the gem of many collections and we learn about the different eras and owners of the brand. They pushed forward both the technology of Fiberglass drums and Acrylic drums which helped shape the sound of drummers of the 60's, 70,s 80's through to today.

War drums, Primate communication, Indigenous peoples' sacred instruments, and hippie drum circles! Kristen tells us why we are hard wired to love the drums the way we do through her in-depth scientific research that begins 7000 years ago with the earliest drum and ends up today with blistering heavy metal drummers using the primal rhythms to make us feel the fear that our early ancestors felt. This is a really unique episode with a great perspective from a non-drummer who can help shed some knowledge on why we love this great instrument!

Mike Edison joins us to discuss when the stars align and Charlie finds The Stones, Bonzo joins Zeppelin, Ringo meets the Beatles, and Keith explodes into The Who. We talk all about what makes these (plus many another) drummer's the absolute perfect choice for each of the iconic rock groups and play a game where we switch drummers into different bands. Mike also discusses his great book, "Sympathy for the Drummer - Why Charlie Watt's Matters" which is now available on paperback, and he tells us about the phone call he had with Charlie himself to thank him for writing the book.

Pete Jarvis has had a very long and illustrious career that includes composing, arranging and drumming for a Wes Anderson film and the HBO series, "Boardwalk Empire", plus he has performed as a soloist, chamber player, Broadway musician and as conductor/player with chamber music ensembles, orchestras and choruses. Pete shares his story with us and many key pieces of advice on how to plan for a long and diverse career in the world of drumming. He is not only planning his next gig, but he is always thinking of his next 20 years of his musical career.

Paul is a master drum builder who used materials such as Hemp, Carbon Fiber, Carbon Kevlar, and Fiberglass. He started Tempus in Vancouver in 1985 and and ran the company until he decided to wind down and close his shop in 2012. His unique materials and production style made some of the most unique drums on the market that were widely loved by players around the world. Paul made over 7000 in his career and has some amazing stories about learning to use these materials, running a business, competing with the major players, and tons of other great stories along the way.

Rob teaches us about the early origins of drum endorsements that dates all the way back to the early 1900's with drummers being featured in "The Ludwig Drummer" and "Leedy Drum Topics" magazines. We then go through the 50's and 60's where big money started to get involved and Rob shares stories of drummers like Buddy Rich receiving massive cash payments to play various drum brands and Gene Krupa's golden deal that he had with Slingerland. Rob also shares great information about how endorsements work with funding clinics and making it so we can all see the drummers we love at events like the Chicago Drum Show.

Beth is a passionate expert on all things to do with practice pads. She has an extensive collection of her own which she has used to get first hand knowledge, and is also a great researcher who has dug deep to find all the in-depth details that she shares in this episode. This is a fun episodes that is full of info on all the various practice pads that we all grew up with, and the pads of our ancestors.

Chris owns Bopworks drumsticks and he has recreated drumstick models of some of the most legendary players in drum history. Gene Krupa, Shelly Manne, Art Blakey, Mel Lewis are some of the stick's that Chris has gotten the rights to recreate and produce in Austin, Texas. He teaches us the process he had to go through to get the rights from the familys of these legends and then getting the sticks made. We also discuss the impact the different types of sticks can have on the sound and feel of cymbals. This is a great one with lots of different information.

The History of Zickos Drums with Wes Faulconer

This is a very fun episode where Rob Hart plays us multiple clips from a Tony Williams clinic that he tape recorded in 1982 in Boston. We break down each segment and Rob gives us his first hand experiences from being a student of Tony in the early 90's in the San Francisco Bay Area. We hear tony talk about his famous ride patterns, setting up his kit, hi-hat work, using brushes, and much more - and then each topic has a great explanation and discussion with Rob.

Prologix is celebrating 20 years of creating innovative and high quality practice pads that have become an industry standard. I sit down with company founder, Jason Edwards, about the origins of starting the company in his garage, then slowly growing the business, up to winning multiple "best in shows" at NAMM, to the modern days where Prologix are an international company that has some of the biggest names in the industry as endorsers.

Colin Hanton was the original drummer for the Quarrymen which featured John Lennon, Paul McCarney, and George Harrison in Liverpool circa 1956. He shares the amazing story of first meeting John Lennon and then the group evolving and growing gig by gig and adding the other future Beatles as time went on. It is amazing to hear the difficulties they faced trying to scrape together money to buy instruments and afford a 2 song EP which is an incredible story all in itself. We cover when Colin left the group and Pete Best became the next Quarrymen drummer and then when things exploded with Ringo. Enjoy this great piece of musical history with a living legend!

A&F is celebrating their 5 year anniversary and Ramy Antoun, founder of the company, joins me to discuss the history of the company, his personal background as a successful drummer both on the road and in the studio. A&F is a one of a kind brand that has exploded in popularity in a very short time and stands out with the unique art deco designs and timeless inventions that Ramy is bringing to the drum world. Enjoy this great conversation with a true innovator in the community!

In this special 100th episode, Bart gets interviewed by his brother, Spencer, and discusses his background in drumming, audio engineering and the podcast in general. I figure after 100 episodes I should probably let people know some more info about me and how I got to this point. Thanks so much to everyone who has enjoyed the show over the last few years and shared it and sent me such great messages. I am just getting started and have a long way to go!

Bryan is the founder of Dialtune drums and he tells us about some examples of cable tension drums that he discovered in his journey to create a modern day drum that is easily tuned with just two knobs. A cable tension drum by definition is a drum that uses a system of pulleys with cable or string/rope to make it possible to tune the drum using one point of tension, typically a knob or a key. The drums that Bryan teaches us about from his patent search are really remarkable, and I share my experiences with the amazing Dialtune snare drum that I have been using for the last few months.

Gil is a world renowned drummer who shares his deep passion and knowledge for Reggae drumming in this great episode, He takes us through all the sub genres such as ska, rocksteady, dub, and dancehall. Plus he teaches us about the legends in Reggae drumming such as Lloyd Knibb and Carlton Bennett, and the gear that these Jamaican drummers would use when playing with icons such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Lee Perry and many more.

Bill takes us back over a thousand years to learn the origins of rope tension drums and how the technology evolved over the centuries. We learn about shell construction, head types, guts and snare history, and much much more. Bill is a wealth of information and is the man behind Calderwood Percussion. He is a master drum builder and an all around great musician on many instruments.