1.
If you have a great band with a mediocre drummer, you have a mediocre band. If you have a mediocre band with a great drummer, you have a great band!
Duke Ellington
2.
I told people I was a drummer before I even had a set, I was a mental drummer.
Keith Moon
3.
Just because you're not a drummer doesn't mean you don't have to keep time.
Thelonious Monk
4.
It takes a pretty good drummer to be better than no drummer at all.
Chet Baker
5.
Where I come from we say that rhythm is the soul of life, because the whole universe revolves around rhythm, and when we get out of rhythm, that’s when we get into trouble.
Babatunde Olatunji
6.
Artt Frank is my all-time favorite drummer. He always seems to know where I'm going.
Chet Baker
7.
The American drummer is a one-man percussion orchestra.
Max Roach
8.
Drumming was the only thing I was ever good at.
John Bonham
10.
I'm not a singer who plays a bit of drums. I'm a drummer that sings a bit.
Phil Collins
11.
That's what the drummer is supposed to do. Keep the time. If you can do something else besides that, fine. But the time is essential and non-negotiable.
Elvin Jones
12.
My names John Bonham, I'm a drummer and I'm potty about cars.
John Bonham
13.
I always resented the role of a drummer as nothing more than a subservient figure.
Max Roach
14.
I'm a drummer. I can count to four and repeat.
Tre Cool
16.
Hip Nip just sounds groovy. A drummer laid it on me.
Pat Morita
17.
To be a drummer you also have to be a musician.
Ian Paice
18.
I consider every drummer that ever played before me an influence, in every way.
Buddy Rich
19.
Almost the moment he died, they put him in Playboy as one of the greatest drummers, which he was - there's no doubt about it. There's never been anybody since. He's one of the greatest drummers that ever lived.
Jimmy Page
21.
It doesn't matter what songs we sing. I'm a drummer. Chicks dig me.
Larry Mullen, Jr.
22.
Generally, I end up being the one thrown against the wall, because Zach is the drummer. He's stronger than me.
Isaac Hanson
23.
When I joined Nirvana, I was the fifth or sixth drummer - I don't know if they'd ever had a drummer they were totally happy with. And they were strangers. There was never much of a deeper connection outside of the music.
Dave Grohl
24.
I usually write from the rhythm section...If a drummer got a funky beat on some things - like a half-shuffle or a shuffle or a backbeat that's even - I can write something.
Miles Davis
25.
There is no music unless the drum and the drummer are one.
e. e. cummings
26.
Thank God that I had the ability to understand that I had a different beat and that I was a drummer.
James Brown
27.
Ringo isn't the best drummer in the world. He isn't even the best drummer in the Beatles
Jasper Carrott
28.
I was a drummer, and I did a little singing too.
Lou Gramm
29.
But primarily, the drummer's supposed to sit back there and swing the band.
Buddy Rich
30.
We were always going to dump him when we found a decent drummer.
John Lennon
31.
A drummer is usually like the backbone.
Brody Dalle
32.
Everybody marches to a different drummer.
Hugh Hefner
33.
I create my own lyrics. I have a great band. I have a drummer from East Berlin.
Nina Hagen
34.
PimpCo is a little business I've got, which basically offers drummers the affordable opportunity to make their drums that little bit more bespoke. I love drums and love how they look, so we offer re-wrapping to reboot your old kit, a hardware lacquering service - the black looks amazing, and bespoke snare drums.
Al Murray
35.
When I was thirteen I only wanted to be a drummer.
Ringo Starr
36.
I can't consider myself a drummer any more.
Phil Collins
37.
Once I had defined myself as a compositional drummer, I thought, "Well, I want to be an improvisational drummer."
Neil Peart
38.
In respect for drummers, see, I love drummers.
Miles Davis
40.
The drummer's always going to be there. They're the floor of the whole deal and everyone can stand up on you.
Ringo Starr
41.
I had trouble fitting in, in a musical sense. A lot of drummers get sidetracked by the instrument. It can engulf you.
Tre Cool
42.
I love more percussions more than anything. I always wanted to be a drummer.
Pharoah Sanders
43.
I am also a drummer of sorts. I've got an electronic set sitting in my bedroom.
Gary Cole
44.
Plus I am being hounded by all the fabulous new drummers, Bill Stewart at the head of the pack.
Bill Bruford
45.
There aren't enough girl drummers.
Tobi Vail
46.
I do like to look at female drummers, because I am one.
Caroline Corr
47.
As regards my feelings about drummers - there's Buddy Rich, and then there's everybody else.
Mel Torme
48.
Hendrix rehearsed different drummers, before we met Mitch Mitchell.
Noel Redding
49.
I read somewhere that drummers are practically Olympic athletes. I feel pretty good, most of the time. After 38 years, I can't expect much better than that!
Michael Bland
50.
I play weird. I'm always just behind. We [drummers] only have so much room. We're not guitarists.
Ringo Starr