The Best Drummers Ever to Benefit Enormously From Their Own Insanity

Zach Dederick is the resident percussion expert at X8 Drums. He spent his formative years as a drumset drummer but found his calling after immersing himself in a study of West and Northwest African musical tradition. The djembe drum’s rhythm, energy and presence has since hopelessly hooked him to the instrument. He now spends his time sharing his experience with others online and through community drumming and live performances.

Just to get this out of the way right now: Animal, from theMuppets, will not be mentioned here. I love Animal as much as every otherdrummer who’s ever lifted a stick or argued about whether or not Neil Peart isreally the greatest drummer ever to grace the entire universe. (He’s not.)However, talking about Animal in any kind of “crazy drummer article” has become cliché to the point of obnoxiousness. It’s hipster indulgence and it will not be permitted here. DAMNIT! Too late. Anyway, getting to it- unlike other lists of crazy drummers, this one is about drummers whose instability (calculated or organic) has been a great boon to their careers. I have them in no particular order, except that in first place is the drummer for whom unaffected aberrant behavior, wild style on the sticks and raw talent converge for a solid first place. 

Ginger Baker

Regardless of what anyone says, there is one correct opinion regarding the craziest of all drummers: Ginger Baker. Just looking at the man should remove all doubt: if the love-child of a pagan Scottish Pict tribesman and a Viking berserker was carved out of rough granite, put on a crash diet, fed amphetamines and dropped behind a drum kit, you’d have a being something like Baker.

Baker is incredibly influential, powering legendary acts from the super-group Cream (with Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce), to the super-supergroup Blind Faith (Clapton, Steve Winwood and Rick Grech), Iggy Pop, Fela Kuti and an uncountable collection of equally legendary legends. Baker also sailed through the rock star staples of women, drugs, brawls and general mayhem. He once decided to kick heroin by driving across the Sahara Desert. Last year a biopic of Baker entitled “Beware of Mr. Baker”, by filmmaker Jay Bulger, was released to some acclaim. One telling scenes
revealing Baker’s unglued behavior features the drummer bloodying the director
Jay Bulger’s nose with a cane (Baker is now in his 7os) for no reason that makes sense. This is after Bulger had stayed, peacefully, at Baker’s home in South Africa with the drummer for weeks. The title is based on a seemingly eminently reasonable warning sign outside Baker’s home. 

Keith Moon

Of course Keith Moon had to make the list. There are some staples on listicles like this and Keith Moon is one of them (John Bonham being the other, Ginger Baker admittedly is also a frequent inclusion). Moon’s problem, at least one of them, is that he was a punk drummer trapped in the body of a guy in a hippie psychedelic rock act . The hippie rock act was, of course, The Who.

Along with being out of place, Moon was an apparently unsalvageable alcoholic with a taste for amphetamine and tranquilizer pills. Of course mixing that kind of chemical cocktail is a (literal) recipe for unpredictable, impulsive behavior.

In Moon’s case that behavior largely manifested itself as the repeated, catastrophic destruction of his drum kit, toilets (with dynamite) and hotel rooms too numerous to list. So great was Keith Moon’s swatch of carnage that for a great portion of The Who’s successful tenure they ran at a financial loss. Moon’s constant inebriation and destructive behavior (both internal and external), cost the group so much on a 1975 UK that they ended up with less than £50 profit.

In a sad but perhaps predictable finale, later that year Moon ingested 32 clomethiazole pills- prescribed to detox from alcohol. Six of the pills were enough to prove fatal. However, his legacy as bright-burning legend lives on, fed by his incredible skill; frantic, manic style on the drums and wild lifestyle.

Topper Headon

Nicholas Bowen “Topper” Headon, drummer for punk immortals The Clash was a punk drummer trapped in the body of a guy in a punk group. Headon was/is an exquisitely talented drummer known as the “human drum machine” for his metronome-like timing and great chops. He also had prodigious taste for drugs. So much so that he had a ready-to-rush-onstage roadie waiting in the wings with a cocaine-topped mirror off of which Headon would insufflate lines when the house lights went down between songs.

Eventually Headon’s drug use, particularly an increasingly demanding heroin habit, led to his ouster from The Clash. You know someone has a real problem when they’re kicked out of punk band for their chemical abuse issues! Headon managed to survive his relationship with narcotics and continues to work as a respected musician to this day.

John Bonham

Consistently voted among the top three (often the top two or one) drummers to have ever lived, if Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham (or vice versa) didn’t invent the drum solo, he certainly made it his own. Of course, his “Moby Dick” solo is the no doubt the most oft cited drum solo in history and for good reason- it demonstrates what one critic identified as perhaps the most telling evidence of Bonham’s genius: he managed a half-hour drum solo and managed to avoid boring everyone to tears with it.
That is a truly legendary feat. Bonham died after his now-famous taking of 40
vodka shots in a day. I’d always thought he was in a drinking contest or something but no- that’s just how he kicked it: the four quadruple vodkas he had for breakfast set the tone for the rest of the day.

Lars Ulrich

Lars, Metallica’s drummer, has honestly benefitted less from his insanity than he has despite it. Ulrich (and James Hetfield to some degree) is a Danish rich kid who’s always had a reputation as something of a prima donna. His very vocal condemnation of Napster turned off many fans and casual listeners, coming across as the miserly penny-pinching of a wealthy snob. This reputation was reinforced (if not solidified) by Ulrich’s behavior in the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster in which his ego enjoys a starring role. It’s just hard to respect a guy, or respect his stability, when he makes roadies put his socks on for him before every show.

Flava Flav

When I first heard the Public Enemy album It Takes a Nation of Millions
to Hold us Back, I was blown away. There were two particular mind-blowers: 1. Chuck D’s brilliant, hard-hitting and unapologetically political rap. 2. Flava Flav’s presence. My first though was one that’s been shared by a lot of other people: “What in the name of everything holy is this clock-wearing chump doing in Public Enemy? Did Chuck D really need to add some guy in Viking horns screaming ‘Yeahhhh Boyyyeeeee’ over his razor sharp lyrics?”

Well, it turns out that not only is Flava Flav is Public Enemy’s drummer, he’s also arguably the chief musical architect of Public Enemy’s first album. Although better known for his reality TV antics, ridiculous fashion choices, the millions he lost to a crack addiction, getting busted with pounds of pot, etc., Flav is actually a crazy-talented musician. Chuck D once famously told a Flava-critic, “He can play 15 instruments, I can’t play Lotto.”