In high school, back in the early 80's, I took guitar class for 4 years. It was held in the band room, and there was always a set of COW Ludwigs set up in there for jazz band. The teacher NEVER let anybody play them during class. I guess this made me want to play them even more!

I was into Rock mostly, listening to Rush, Zep, and all kinds of stuff and purchased my first kit in 9th grade, a Rogers BDP 4pc. from a friend who bought a new Pearl kit. $125 I paid for them, no cymbals. Wish I still had them. I know now it was a Holiday, 20, 12, 16 kit. Who would have thought in 1981 those would be worth probably $1500 today!

I gravitated toward John Bonham, Niel Peart, and even Stewart Copeland of The Police. Very talented players then. Headphones on every chance I got. When my parents would go shopping, I would set them up in the living room and crank up the stereo to play along.

Started in a first band around 12th grade. Didn't take lessons until I was on my own and paying for them myself. Rock bands up to the mid 90's, then took a few years off. In 2000, after moving, I got back into it with a cover band, then a second band which was a old blues band. Then on to Rockabilly, when my back started to give out.

To this day, I recall trying to duplicate the triplet Bonham could do with his single foot. He didn't need no double pedal!Coffee Break2

Steven Adler

Thanks to my mom, I got a black Tama Rockstar kit and a set of Sabian B8 cymbals because Adler endorsed those brands in the late 80s.

My first drum was a used Ludwig acrolite with an orange case. I never played the Tama snare and kept the acrolite for many years.

Bev Bevan. When I started getting into music at age 14, ELO's "New World Record" was the first LP that really caught my attention. That's also why my first kit was Slingerland (a barely used white 1977 13-14-15-16-18-24), although it was also because my cousin wouldn't sell me his Gretsch BDP 12-14-20.

Seeing Live footage of Peter Criss playing with KISS in the 1970's was my " Yea, I wanna be that guy " moment, but I had a desire from drums prior to that. Once I opened the door though and discovered Eric Carr,Neil Peart,Mike Portnoy,etc... each player made me want to become better. Wish I was old enough to have seen KISS with Eric Carr playing, one of the greats.

For me it was Ringo. I was like 6 when the Beatles first hit the states and all that followed. My best friend and I were both hooked on drums. We learned together and shared everything we knew and picked up. Playing 45's on 33 and 33's on 16 to dial things in. We slowly learned and took turns banging on whatever we could set up as mock drums. We switched days at each others house to limit the amount we drove our parents nuts. Few years later we both got real drum sets, took lessons and never looked back. Rock, Jazz, Jazz Rock, Fusion etc followed..... but Ringo was the start of it all. These were the best times!

Great thread you started, and brought back a rush of a few of the best memories I have had to date!

Buddy Rich inspired and John King (Steve Miller Band) duplicated.

First "credit established" in my life was at "Otasco" with my father consigning my $165 hi fi turntable/ 8 track player. I still remember sitting with my father talking to the CREDIT MAN. All I could think about was the new system that I could play drums to. I'll never forget the salesman filling out the paperwork asking me, "son, how much money will you be putting down on this purchase"? I pulled $42 dollars out of my pocket and put it on his desk. He pushed his chair back stood up, leaned over at me and said, boy.....what did you do! ROB A BANK! I said no, I have a paper route. My father and the man just started laughing. Heck, I was 9, I didn't know what it meant.....

Good days...thanks for bringing it back with this thread.

Nevin

Bunch of guys from a town called Trutnov, dressed up as orcs from JRR Tolkien's books, banging away on djembes, on a convention.

I wanted to feel the beat again.

Not going to be the coolest response, but when I was a little kid it was Max Weinberg on a bunch of Springsteen tracks like Born To Run, Thunder Road, Backstreets, and Born In The USA... all stuff with those big cheesy stadium rock fills.

Went from that to punk and metal and then back out to 'classic' rock and soul and eventually hip hop and a bunch of weird stuff like Zappa and Waits...

Phil Ehart for me. Huge Kansas fan back in the day,still love to listen to them. I liked all the hard rock music of the 70's but Phil was the best to me.