Same here - KISS - but I was quite young when I always became excited when they came on TV. I was born in '71. Then before I even had any drums, I used to bang on a cardboard box which contained a wooden box - and played along to a K-tel cassette tape entitled Full Tilt. Notable songs that was on there that I really enjoyed 'playing' to was Whip It, and Cheap trick's live version of Aint That A Shame. That tape also included He's So Shy (Pointer Sisters) and maybe a Hall & Oates song. Years later at a Salvation Army, I was thrilled to discover the same Full Tilt - on RECORD! Yup, snagged it right up!

That said, I would say that I was more excited about drumming by Bun's performance on ATAS, moreso than any Peter Criss playing. Pretty remarkable since I never even saw any live video of CT in those years - it was all inspiration from the audio live performance only. Good Job Bun E.!

Speaking of playing on boxes - after I had gotten my first snare drum it was all I had for some time. So I took a metal pail and placed it on a small coat rack ( used it as a hi-hat ) and then used empty buckets as toms. For what it was, it worked.

Someone you never heard of, Lou Ramundo. Child prodigy drummer. That guy played better then, at 16, than I do now after 50+ years. He was one of Bobby Columby's ace students. He not only inspired me to play, he took the time to teach me. I'll be indebted to him always for getting me turned on to drums.

John

+1 on that for me. And the guy for Edgar Winter's band who played on "Frankenstein".

And whomever said "when the parents went shopping"...yeah I did all kinds of crazy things when my parents were out of the house :)

Loved you story. K-Tel!! I still have a nice collection of their LPs. They contained those rare mild one hit wonders on them. Whip It by the Dazz Band. Awesome R&B stuff :)

Memory is a bit vague, but I'm going to say from '63 to '70 or so, corresponding to ages 11 through 18, it was these guys one by one:

Dennis Wilson, Ringo Starr, Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones and Bobby Colomby. They and the music they played have had the greatest effect on me, though many, many others have as well.

A big +1, Jeff, regarding Ehart, but I was already playing clubs by the Kansas era, so I can't say Phil had any influence on my decision to play drums.

So to honestly answer the question, "You started playing drums because of whom?", I have to confess it was Rhonda Thompson, the cute blue-eyed blonde who sat next to me in the 5th grade. When I told her that I had to choose which instrument I wanted to play in the school band, she just smiled at me and said, "I like drummers".

That was it.

Mike

Ah... Rhonda. Help Me Rhonda! Which leads to the song being stuck in my head now. And maybe a discussion of Dennis Wilson's drumming...

It was definately Richard Starky for me.Ringo was the reason why i chose to make music my living and have maintained that to this day.

Wayne

Joined the marching band in 9th grade and the drum section leader was Vince Colaiuta.

Need I say more?