Joey Castillo was born March 30, 1966, in Gardena, CA. He is best known as the powerhouse drummer currently playing in Queens of the Stone Age. Castillo joined the band in 2002 after the departure of Dave Grohl who played and toured with Queens while his Foo Fighter’s album at the time was on hiatus.

A native of southern California, Castillo began playing drums at age fifteen, influenced by everyone from Al Green to Zeppelin to Black Flag. Prior to Queens of the Stoneage, Joey completed an eight-year tenure with Danzig, preceded by gigs with Wasted Youth, Sugartooth, and the Mark Lanegan Band.

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In honour of Roger Taylor’s 58th birthday, what better way to celebrate the man himself than with a look back on the fantastic career of the drummer of Queen and stadium rocker himself!

Since first teaming up with Brian May, and later Freddie Mercury, in the late 60s, Roger Taylor has become one of rock’s most successful musicians, combining his role as the world-renowned drummer/singer for Queen with that of accomplished singer and songwriter in his own right. Born in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, on July 26th 1949, Roger became fascinated with music in the early 50s, when his family moved to Cornwall. He learned his first instrument, the ukulele, at a tender age, and enjoyed a brief taste of things to come in a pre-teen skiffle band whose collective talent survived just two public performances.

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“I play the drums,” says John Densmore, with tangible pride.

He may be be laboring the obvious, considering that, as the rhythmic engine of The Doors, he’s responsible for some of the most famous beats in rock history. But Densmore still bristles at what he calls the “dumb drummer” stereotype.

“The drum was the first fucking instrument,” he declares. “The reason people move and dance is that they’re trying to get back to that heartbeat. It’s the heartbeat you hear in the womb that started the whole deal. An orchestra, a four-piece rock band, whatever it is, they’re trying to get back to that heartbeat.”

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Steve Smith was originally drawn to the drums by hearing marching bands in parades as a child in his native Massachusetts. At age nine, in 1963, Smith began studying the instrument in earnest with local teacher Bill Flanagan, who played in big bands in the swing era.

Smith performed in the usual school band program and garage bands while in his teens, but also began to broaden his performing experience by playing in a professional Brockton concert band and even the big band at the local college, Bridgewater State. After high school, Smith began studying music at the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1972. There he received valuable instruction from such renowned teachers as Gary Chaffee and Alan Dawson.

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2007 will mark the 40th anniversary of the beginning of legendary drummer, Carmine Appice who to this day continues to astound and inspire listeners and indeed drummer alike with the originality of his licks and utter dedicate to the art of music and drumming. Breaking new ground in every facet of his career
as a writer, a teacher and of course a performer. It was clear even from the early days of Vanilla Fudge that Carmine Appice was creating a new standard in rock drumming.

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Taylor Hawkins was born on February 16, 1972 in Fort Worth, Texas. Hawkins is not only a drummer but also an adept musician, best known of as the drummer of the rock band Foo Fighters.
After touring through the spring of 1996, the band entered a Seattle studio with producer Gil Norton to record its second album. Conflict erupted between Dave Grohl and then drummer, William Goldsmith, eventually causing Goldsmith to leave the band. The band regrouped in Los Angeles and almost completely re-recorded the album with Grohl on drums.

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Louie Bellson is without a doubt one of the greatest drummers of our time. One of the few whose name can be said in the same sentence with Buddy Rich, Louie has been captivating and entertaining audiences his entire life. Not only with his rare ability to continually hold one’s interest throughout a 15-minute solo but also as a prolific creator of music, both written and improvised, his compositions and arrangements (in the hundreds) embrace jazz, jazz/rock/fusion, romantic orchestral suites and symphonic works.

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John “Mitch” Mitchell was born on July 9 1947 in Ealing, Middlesex. A drummer, most famous for his involvement with The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Mitchell was one of the most influential drummers of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the few years before joining The Experience he was known locally as an outstanding session drummer and had hosted a children’s program on TV. Pre-Experience bands included The Riot Squad and Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames.

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Edwin Thomas “Ed” Shaughnessy was born January 29, 1929 in Jersey City, New Jersey and grew up in the New York City area. Ed is a big band and jazz drummer best known for his long association with Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.A self-taught drummer, Ed Shaughnessy came to prominence, mainly in the New York area in the late 40s working with George Shearing, Jack Teagarden, Georgie Auld and especially Charlie Ventura. In the 50s he became more widely known owing to engagements with bands led by Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey working also with Johnny Richards. In the 60s he was with Count Basie and also worked extensively in New York studios, securing a long-term engagement with The Tonight Show band.

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Tre Cool is an alias for Green Day drummer Frank Edwin Wright III who was born December 9, 1972 in Frankfurt, Germany, making him the youngest member of Green Day. He lived in Laytonville, California with his father and his 2 older siblings. His dad, a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, decided the move the family there to insulate them upon his return to the United States. Tré’s closest neighbor was future Lookout! Records owner Lawrence Livermore, who at the time was the singer of the punk band The Lookouts. At age 12, Livermore recruited Wright to join The Lookouts, and gave him the moniker of Tré Cool. It was when Green Day’s drummer current drummer at the time Alo Sobrante left the band that they recruited Tré to play drums. Tré decided to drop out of high school his sophomore year. However, he passed an equivalency test and earned his GED, and began taking classes at a nearby community college. He had to drop out of college however, when the demands of Green Day’s touring intensified.

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Bill Bruford grew up with jazz. As an amateur drummer in the 1960s, and after a handful of lessons from Lou Pocock of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, he began his professional career in 1968. He was a guiding light in the so-called British “Art Rock” movement, touring internationally with Yes and King Crimson from 1968-74. There then followed several years spent observing and participating in the music making processes of, among others, Gong, National Health, Genesis and U.K., until Bill felt ready to write and perform his own music with his own band Bruford, recording four albums from 1977-80.

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Gene Krupa was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 15, 1909 and was the the youngest of Bartley and Ann Krupa’s nine children. His father died when Gene was very young and his mother worked as a milliner to support the family. All of the children had to start working while young, Gene at age eleven. His brother Pete worked at “Brown Music Company”, and got Gene a job as chore boy. Gene started out playing sax in grade school but took up drums at age 11 since they were the cheapest item in the music store where he and his brother worked. “I used to look in their wholesale catalogue for a musical instrument - piano, trombone, cornet - I didn’t care what it was as long as it was an instrument. The cheapest item was the drums, 16 beans, I think, for a set of Japanese drums; a great high, wide bass drum, with a brass cymbal on it, a wood block and a snare drum.”

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Phillip Hugh Norman Rudd (born Phillip Hugh Norman Witschke Rudzevecuis, on May 19, 1954 in Melbourne, Australia) is the drummer for Australian rock band AC/DC. He held the position from 1975 until 1983, and again from 1994 to present. After the 1977 departure of bassist Mark Evans, he became the only Australian-born member of the band. He uses SONOR drums, Paiste cymbals, and Aquarian drumheads.

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Dave Abbruzzese was born on May 17, 1968.

Dave grew up in Texas banging on his dad’s tackle boxes in the early days. He dropped out of high school at an early age and began to focus on playing more than ever. Along the way he formed a band with his buddies called Dr. Tongue. In 1991 Dave got a call from drummer friend Matt Chamberlain, whom Dave knew through the Texas music scene, in regards to filling in for him in the band Pearl Jam when he left. Chamberlain had his eyes set on G.E. Smith’s band on Saturday Night Live. Dave left for Seattle to meet and become acquainted with Pearl Jam. Although his musical tastes were far diverse from Pearl Jam, Dave chose to fill the hot seat behind a DW drum kit on August 23, 1991.

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Philip “Phil” James Selway (born May 23, 1967 in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England) is the drummer of Radiohead. His precise timing and varied drumming helps to give the band its distinct sound. He is a year older than the other members in the band and people think he’s unkind because he’s bald. Of course it’s not true, but that’s why the other members of the band call him Bald Member (~bandmember). He joined Radiohead because their primitive drum computer broke down and they couldn’t afford a new one. Before Radiohead became succesful, Phil studied English and history at Liverpool Polytechnic. He had worked for various touring musicians and worked as an English teacher as well. Phil has a wife, Kate, and three sons: Leo, Jamie, and Patrick (to whom Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail to the Thief were dedicated, respectively).

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Born and raised in New Orleans (and living there still, when he’s not on the road), Stanton Moore is very much a product of geography, culture and creative networking. He grew up in the thriving music scene of his home town that included Professor Longhair, Doctor John, the Meters and countless other Big Easy mainstays.

In the early ‘90s, Moore hooked up with guitarist Jeff Raines, bassist Robert Mercurio and keyboardist Rich Vogel and saxophonist Ben Ellman to form the New Orleans-based “steam-roller” funk band known as Galactic. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in music and business from Loyola University, Moore and the band made their first record (the widely acclaimed Coolin’ Off) and hit the road to do nearly 200 gigs a year for the first ten years of Galactic’s existence. The band has since released five more albums since Coolin’ Off, and continues to amass a worldwide audience via recording and touring globally.

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Ginger Baker was born Peter Edward Baker in Lewisham, South London on 19 August 1939.

As a teen, he trained and competed as a racing cyclist, developing strong leg muscles which later contributed to his skill on the double bass drums. Ginger had always planned on becoming a professional cyclist, until he bought his first drum kit at the age of 15. Baker was keenly interested in modern art and jazz, a rebellious beatnik with an eccentric appearance and artistic flair. Later, he would become interested in sculpture, painting, rally driving and polo. It was his wide range of interests which led Ginger to take up the trumpet in the local Air Training Corp band. Watching the drummer gave Ginger the idea of playing drums himself.

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When Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones first got together in a London club in 1962 to form the seeds of the Rolling Stones, Mick Avory was their drummer.

Jagger and company’s first gig as the Rolling Stones, at the Marquee Club, marked the beginning of Avory’s tenure with the soon-to-be-giant band. It was not a long one, however, as the Stones didn’t feel Avory was up to the task. Around the same time, art school student Ray Davies joined his brother Dave’s band, the Ravens. Switching his career interest to music, Ray took over the band, which he renamed the Kinks. The Davies brothers completed their lineup with bassist Pete Quaife — and Mick Avory on drums.

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