Our Featured Editorials
Larry Mullen Jr.
The only member of U2 that actually resembles a rock star got his start in the late Seventies as a post-punk amateur with low job security: At one point, his bandmates considered kicking him out, a move encouraged at the recording of U2's first demo by a record executive aghast at Mullen's dodgy timekeeping. He turned things ar
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Cindy Blackman
In 1993, Blackman altered the course of her career, shifting from a Tony Williams–style jazz ace to an arena-playing rock star as a member of Lenny Kravitz's live band. After the singer-songwriter surprised her with an audition, she was suddenly catapulted into his sphere, appearing in the "Are You Gonna Go My Way" video and touring off
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Steven Adler
Guns N' Roses' landmark debut, Appetite for Destruction, gets much of its swagger from the tense yet swinging beats of Steven Adler, the band's energetically goofy drummer. "To Steven's credit, and unbeknownst to most, the feel and energy of Appetite was largely due to him," Slash wrote in his autobiography. "He had an inimitable style of drumming that couldn't really be replaced,
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Travis Barker
Blink-182's Travis Barker is one of the most famous drummers of the new millennium thanks to his hardcore sensibility, skater aesthetic, hip-hop energy, pop appeal and reality TV-ready baby face — not to mention his ease working with EDM superstars or rappers, and DJ-ing i
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Mitch Mitchell
He played the kit like a song, it was just wonderful," said Roger Taylor of Queen, praising Mitch Mitchell's "fusion of jazz technique and wonderful riffs, but with this rolling ferocious attack on the whole kit … Total integration into the song. Not just marking time." And Stewart Copeland of the Police has admitted "All of this stuff I did that I was rather proud of, I thought I came up with it. But no,
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Al Jackson Jr.
Al Jackson Jr., the session drummer for the legendary soul label Stax, was known as "the Human Timekeeper" until his death in 1975 at the age of 40. During that era, Jackson's distinctively swinging but crisp grooves propelled legendary sides from Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Al Green
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Stewart Copeland
It may be Sting's melodies that have become ubiquitous, but the Police sounds the way they do because of Stewart Copeland's use of space, subtlety and aggression. He's surely the major drummer least interested in playing the snare (which is still uncommonly bright and cutting) and his signature parts often involve intricate hi-hat patterns
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Benny Benjamin
For years, Berry Gordy refused to record unless the hard-swinging Benny Benjamin was in the studio. "He had a distinctive knack for executing various rhythms all at the same time," the Motown founder has said of his label's key session drummer. "He had a pulse, a steadiness,
