Greetings, reader!
For the third time, I'm doing a music theme month. To kick things off, I'm sharing my list of my favorite drummers of all time - with the drums being my main instrument, it's always a blast to take a look at my favorites to ever do it. Bear in mind, this is a subjective list, so it'll look very different from a "top 10 most technically skilled drummers of all time" ranking. Obviously, one's skill does have a lot of bearing on how they rank here, but so does a multitude of other factors - unique playing style, creativity and versatility, how much one's playing has affected me as a drummer, et cetera. I hope you enjoy!
There are so many great drummers out there that there's no way in hell that I could've condensed my honorable mentions into my typical five. This is the best I could do: Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Aleksi Ripatti, Brad Wilik, Buddy Rich, Clive Burr, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Larnell Lewis, Max Weinberg, Meg White, Mike Portnoy, Nicko McBrain, Raymond Hearne, Rick Allen, Roger Taylor, Sheila E, Taylor Hawkins.
10. Brandon Barnes
Arguably no other drummer has affected my playing style, and especially my playing style for my band Säätövara, than Rise Against's Brandon Barnes. Barnes may not be the most groundbreaking punk drummer out there, but the way he mixes elements from melodic hardcore, old-school punk rock and pop punk drumming traditions has always been very stimulating for my ear, and thus very inspiring.
Barnes' rapid-tempo playing and awesome fills on tracks like Paper Wings, his dramatic dynamics and sharp switches between half-tempo and double time on tracks like Audience of One, and his more creative chops being showcased on tracks like The Black Market make for a great listen, and a fun and educational play-along for a practicing punk drummer. Great stuff, and a big influence on me!
9. Philly Joe Jones
A large majority of today's list focuses on rock music and its subgenres, because that's what I grew up with (and where a big majority of the most legendary drummers are). However, one jazz drummer managed to sneak onto today's list - and his name is Philly Joe Jones.
I won't pretend to be an expert on jazz, but from the stuff I've listened to, no one's artistry with the kit has impressed me quite as much as this frequent Miles Davis collaborator. Jones' versatility will never cease to impress me - you'll run into him on hectic bebop records, slow and chill cool jazz albums and everything in between, and his touch will be absolutely perfect for what is being played every single time. Especially in the Miles Davis Quintet stuff from the 50's (which also featured John Coltrane on sax - what a dream team), Jones' rhythmic genius and nuanced touch is just so fun to listen to.
8. Phil Rudd
The phrase "human metronome" is thrown a lot when discussing good drummers with a special proficency in time-keeping - and hardly anyone fits that description better than AC/DC's Phil Rudd.
It's so funny that a drummer like myself, who constantly colors songs with excessive fills and out-of-the-box beats, considers Rudd (the very opposite of my comfort zone playing style) one of his big favorites. But, the thing is - a good drummer, no matter how creative, needs the skill to be a Phil Rudd whenever a song calls for it, and the music of AC/DC most definitely calls for a Phil Rudd.
When it comes to tight playing, keeping time with a solid beat and absolutely nothing extra, no one does it better than this dude. Many musicians who think they know something about drumming often joke that AC/DC must be so easy to play on the drums, because it's just a regular 4/4 beat and minimal fills for every song - but anyone who truly knows drums will recognize the greatness of Rudd, and how hard it is to do what he does with such precision and perfection.
7. Tré Cool
In the category of drummers who have influenced my playing style, Green Day's Tré Cool is pretty much right up there with Brandon Barnes - and with all the other factors that I considered for this ranking, he ranks even better overall. Not only has Cool's playing style inspired me a great deal, but his technical skill is absolutely marvelous, and his creativity with the set never ceases to amaze.
The role of the drums, not only as a timekeeping device and rhythmic basis but also as an extra spice to make a song more interesting, is often highlighted when the band is just a trio - and with Green Day, pretty much any given song is made infinitely more interesting by Cool's zany and imaginative drumming choices. Just listen to the unhinged fills on Burnout, the wide range of playing styles on 21st Century Breakdown, the emotionally charged dramatics throughout Homecoming or the brilliant dynamics on Wake Me Up When September Ends.
The inaugural drum fill in the first chorus of Basket Case is the first drum fill I remember noticing and liking, the first thing I wanted to learn when I got my own drum kit, and something so special that I paid tribute to it on our band's second album by sneaking a version of it into the outro of Ihmisenä Ihmiselle.
6. Antti Lehtinen
Suomi mainittu, torilla tavataan!
My favorite Finnish drummer of all time, out of many excellent choices, is Antti Lehtinen of Ultra Bra & Scandinavian Music Group fame. Most drummers fall either into the "does a lot creative stuff, sometimes at the cost of keeping the song together for maximum effect" category or the "really focuses on keeping the rhythm tight, sometimes at the cost of the drum part not being as interesting as it could be" one, and it's a rare thing to find a drummer who is 10/10 in both - but that's Antti Lehtinen for you. He always does just the coolest, most out-of-the-box stuff, yet still finds a way for every single touch of the drum kit to serve the broader purposes of the song and groove at hand.
Of course, knowing Ultra Bra, it's possible that nearly every note of what Lehtinen played for that band was pre-composed by Kerkko Koskinen - but even so, not just anyone could play those parts, and certainly not as well. What I do know is that he definitely got creative freedom with the (even better, fight me) spin-off band SMG - the long fill in Mustana, Maidolla, Kylmänä Kuumana is among my all-time favorites, while Ota Minusta Puolet is filled to the brim with clever rhythmic nuances and dramatic expression via the kit.
And then there's Hölmö Rakkaus - quite possibly my favorite song of all time to play on the drums. The main beat goes so f**king hard, so much so that opening the track with only that was the best possible choice that the group could've done for the intro of their best song. The part where the final chorus begins in a stripped-down fashion, and Antti's drums kick in at full power before the bass and electric guitar et cetera, is profoundly haunting and one of my all-time favorite arrangement choices.
5. Lars Ulrich
I know, many elitist snobs and tempo purists may be shocked at my choice - we've all seen the videos, we've all made the jokes, and it's easy to dismiss Lars as a drummer who can't even keep time.
Tell you what, haters - since you clearly think it's so goddamn easy, why don't you go co-found a band that sells over 163 million albums worldwide, tours all seven continents, wins ten Grammys and is synonymous with its genre. Y'know, since it's so easy that even a bad drummer can do that and we can all make fun of him as if we're so much better. Do all that and then we'll talk. Fucking dipshit losers.
Now, if someone who isn't a musician and/or hasn't spent too much time in musician circles, but likes to enjoy good music, is reading this and is confused why people hate on Metallica's drummer, I'll explain it. Yes, Lars Ulrich isn't the best at keeping the tempo, which is generally considered the drummer's most important job. Mind you, he isn't (and especially wasn't in his prime) as bad as people say - keeping time is f**king hard, and it is very rare for a drummer to be perfect at it, hence the fabled "human metronomes". People make Ulrich's time-keeping seem worse than it is because it has become an easy joke, by making YouTube compliations of his worst flubs, guaranteed to convince people with the media literacy skills of a donkey that he's a bad drummer (I promise you, if you made a compilation of every time Kylian Mbappe has slipped up or made a bad pass in his career, the same people would be convinced that he's a laughably bad player).
Yes, I admit that Ulrich's time-keeping is below-average especially for a band so big - but guess what? The very fact that Metallica is as successful and beloved as it is, all while keeping the same drummer, kinda proves that he doesn't need to be any better at that. Time-keeping being the drummer's #1 most important job isn't true all the time - that depends on the genre, and the specific goals and ambitions of the individual lineup. Obviously, a band like Toto wouldn't work with a drummer like Lars. But with Metallica, it's all about the unique groove that they find together, and Lars fits that like a glove. When I saw the band live in 2019, Ulrich's tempo gaffes didn't bother the experience one bit, because the band isn't playing to a goddamn metronome and they've jammed together for so long that the rest of the band knows how to adapt, and they keep their own groove intact. And once again, that groove has sold more records and changed more lives than all of the miserable people who spend their free time putting others down, combined, ever will.
Now with my defense speech out of the way, here's what I love so much about Ulrich's playing: the guy is a boundless engine of imagination. With a band like Metallica, the drummer has more freedom to 'compose with the drums' and affect the big picture of what a song will end up sounding like via his playing than the drummer does in most bands, and the guy makes the most of it in every single song. The beats, fills and nuances on tracks like For Whom the Bell Tolls, Harvester of Sorrow and The Call of Ktulu are energetic, out of the box, completely bonkers in the best possible way, and hellishly inspiring. I've learned so much from listening to Lars, when it comes to coloring a song with creative drum parts whenever one has the freedom to do that. Thankfully, I get to play in a band like Säätövara, where creative madness is allowed and often encouraged (even in the drummer), and the stuff I've come up with wouldn't be half as cool if I hadn't grown up listening to drummers like Lars. Tempo-keeping is great, but that alone doesn't make the stuff of legends.
4. Dave Grohl
Before he founded Foo Fighters and became the quintessential frontman of modern rock, Dave Grohl played drums for the legendary and tragically short-lived Seattle grunge band Nirvana. The three-man lineup that Nirvana consisted of from 1990 to 1994 is one of the greatest lineups that band music has ever seen: Kurt Cobain's prowess as a vocalist, unique style of playing the guitar and groundbreaking composing techniques speak for themselves, while Krist Novoselic was and is a hellishly underrated bassist - and to perfect the recipe, they had a young and energetic Dave Grohl on drums.
I also greatly enjoy Grohl's drumming in several other projects, but his Nirvana years in particular earn him such a high ranking. Among many other virtues, the man is one of the most genius conveyors of dynamics that I've ever come across - big dynamic shifts were essential to Nirvana's style, and Grohl did so much to make those shifts interesting. The small ways in which he'd make the beat during a verse sound extra-light and careful, the build-up he'd do as the chorus approahces, and the absolute wildbeast mode that he'd passionately bang the drums with once the chorus has arrived - absolute chef's kiss. There's so much to learn when listening to his nuances and techniques.
3. Marco Minnemann
As I'm sure my fellow drummers have noticed, subjective preference has more sway on this list than pure technical skill. However, here we have a drummer who would be ranked just as high (or even higher, arguably) if I were to rank the most skillful drummers of all time: Marco Minnemann of the Aristocrats.
The German rhythm engine from this prog rock supergroup has talent that simply cannot be put into words - you have to see it to believe it. You get the sense of Minnemann's godlike skills when just listening to Aristocrats albums, but what will really convince you that he's a divine being walking among us mortals is seeing the band live. I got to do that back in 2016, and my God - I've gotten to see my fair share of iconic drummers live (McBrain, Rudd, Weinberg, Taylor Hawkins before he passed), but with regard to the art of drumming, nothing else comes close to what I saw that night. The drum solo to Desert Tornado was just different gravy.
2. Ringo Starr
When discussing modern music history, the importance of the Beatles can't really be overstated - and when discussing the Beatles, the importance of Ringo cannot be overstated. Not only did this weird little dude bring tons of heart to the band with his unique personality and humor, but his drumming was such a big part of why they worked together so well. I will die on the hill that the Beatles, more than any other band, was such a lineup that if you replaced any of the four members with someone else from the beginning, they never would have become half as big of a thing as they did. It needed to be those four exact guys, with their exact talents and styles and quirks, in order for the lightning-in-a-bottle effect to work.
Ringo always had the practical aspect of being a drummer down to perfection, being known as a 'human metronome' who knew how to keep the pulse going. He also found a very fun balance between the "stick to the job, nothing extra" type of drumming philosophy and the more creative and improvisational style - he always went strictly song first, coming up with the exact right type of beat for each song, but as the band had such range within their songs, that meant about a hundred different things.
For the more basic rock bangers and pop ballads, he could be just the right kind of boring, playing an assortment of simple beats that never draw attention but always reinforce the objective of the song. But for the kind of songs that called for more creative drum parts - well, listen to the fills on Magical Mystery Tour, the out-of-the-box beats on Something, the unhinged artistry on the kit throughout A Day in the Life or the legendary drum solo on The End, as they speak for themselves. Ringo is a drummer who has given me so much, in terms of inspiration to draw from, and the Beatles have always been my favorite band to play along to when practicing the drums, largely thanks to how fun he made so many of his drum parts.
1. Neil Peart
A part of every drummer died on January 7th, 2020, along with this master of the craft. With Rush's Neil Peart, it's pretty damn impossible to find the right words to do him justice, but I'll try my best. With a combination of wild creativity, a rigidly structured rhythmic mind and unfathomable technical skill and precision, Peart spent a big chunk of his life perfecting the art of drumming, and recording many of the coolest, most groundbreaking and fascinating moments of drumming ever created.
I'm not just speaking for myself when I discuss how influential this guy has been - from Dream Theater's Mike Portnoy proclaiming himself a disciple of Peart to Dave Grohl sharing that listening to 2112 was the first time he really paid attention to what the drums are doing which got him hooked, pretty much anyone who has become anyone in the drum world post-Peart has made it clear that they owe a lot to him.
And count me in on that - I wouldn't be half the drummer I am today if it wasn't for Peart's zany cymbal patterns, triplets-upon-triplets fills, awe-inspiring drum solos and so much more. Many of my best memories behind the kit are thanks to Peart, either directly (learning to play YYZ and performing it in a high school concert; playing along to Tom Sawyer at home and learning to love 7/8 thanks to Peart's groove in the instrumental section) or indirectly (trying my best to channel Peart's touch when coming up with drum parts for key moments in Säätövara songs). Sure, playing along to the Beatles was always the most fun, and it helped me hone in many skills and nuances within my comfort zone - but playing along to Rush, whenever I had the courage and stamina for it, was pure survival-mode adrenaline that pushed me to challenge myself and improve.
Every time that I listen to pretty much any Rush song or album, as well as every time I watch a clip of one of their live performances, only works to enforce my view that Peart was the best to ever do it. This man was a genius behind the kit, using the instrument as a means of supporting one song and composing another, making one song more interesting by adding fun rhythmic elements while making another one more complex for music nerds to decipher by adding head-scratching polyrhythms - you name it. He did it all, with a razor-sharp precision to back up his revolutionary rhytmic imagination, and he'll always be my GOAT.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as Music Month III continues with a a dumb and arbitrary ranking of my favorite musical instruments.
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