John!

Monster ego? You can't be referring to Buddy, can you??!! From the very first viewing I had always thought/wondered the same. Knowing what we all know NOW about how things were THEN, well... I think it was indeed calculated. Buddy was IT in 1969! Still... LB was always such a gentleman!, and he had chops! Here's another BR tid bit to perhaps put this in perspective:

Slingerland badly wanted Buddy to play/endorse their drums.. BUT! .. Gene Krupa was TOPS at Slingerland, and had been for years. So Buddy said no... not until he could be #1 at Slingerland and get full billing as their number one guy. True to his word... he didn't hook up with Slingerland until GK was on his way out. Make no mistake here!, Buddy LOVED Gene! But this was business.. this was ego. This deal on The Tonight Show with Louie Bellson could have been the same type thing. I don't know that for a fact of course, but... past actions do give one pause.

Tommyp

Tommyp, My favorite drummer is Buddy Rich too. love to watch him play. he is/was amazing. I never researched him much, kind of wished i had. tell ya what tho.....You write that Buddy Rich book and i promise, i'll buy your first copy. ;)

this thread has become my favorite thread so far.

Thanks for sharing all this Buddy info.

so...what was Buddy like when you got to meet him?

Great thread this, I would also buy that book:D

Not to start war here but I've often wondered what Buddy Actually thought of other drummers like Louie, Gene, Max etc.

I know he didn't like Rock drummers. He didn't have any respect for them which made my wonder how Rock drummers had so much respect for Buddy. I'm surprised any drummer had respect for Buddy becuase of his large ego.

Buddy in my mind was a incredible drummer. One of the best. Notice I said One of. But I don't think he's the be all and end all of drummers. Every drummer of that era whether it be Jazz or rock had there own style. You could tell just by listening who it was. Every Drummer brought something different to the table. I love Buddy's Playing, but I also Love Louie, Gene, and Max. Because they are different.

I think it's an insult to Louie to be put on a shorter riser I really do. To me they're saying "You're good Louie but you're not Buddy Rich Good".

From what little I know about Buddy (and I'm closing in on 50), to me he was a superstar bigger than life personality who was an incredible player and showman. Sometimes an ego is what you need to make it. Tell me John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Paul Simon didn't have egos as well... Paul McCartney, wow. Talk about ego.. I love em all though.

Plus my 85 year old mother still talks about Buddy and his appearances on Johnny Carson, etc. How cool is that?

Tommy there was a thread on DFO about this item. It sold a few days ago but thought it was interesting. Seems to be the real deal.

Uhhhh sorry........

Ebay item 121589831225 Buddys Rogers WMP cannister throne and case.

Glenn!

No worries... I saw it! I was actually alerted to this item BEFORE it went up on eBay. It was the REAL DEAL! A good friend of mine and fellow BR freak were talking about it, and he was REALLY interested in trying to get it. There are some items of BR's still out there.. and .. some collector's are just now thinking about selling some of it!

Tommyp

Robyn/Olddrumgeek!

GLAD you enjoyed the read! I guess I know that I would be able to peddle at least a few copies of that book here! I have to think about how I can edit down my meeting with Buddy, yet still retain all the parts that led to it... and then what happened when I did meet him. I will tell you this much now: I caught him in a kinda embarrassing way... and he was taken by surprise!, and, er... well... it didn't start so well because of that. But it was fine afterwards! He DID have his ever present Kent between his fingers though. Let me see what I can do to get this edited a bit! I mean, not that I tend to be wordy or anything like that you understand.

Tommyp

Hey it's good to have those connections Tommy. It seemed like a pretty resonable price. Good to know some of BR's things are still out there. And some are thinking about selling! :)

BTW I'd love to hear about how you met Buddy.

Some good reading here!