Welcome to Drummergeddon 2025, when your entire music world needs to know: What the hell is happening with the drummers? There’s an epidemic of high-profile bands dumping their drummers, or getting dumped by them, and no person has any clue why. It’s not simply the Who or the Foo Fighters. It’s not simply Nine Inch Nails or Pearl Jam or Primus. It’s not even simply GNR or Oasis or Iron Maiden. It’s a bunch of rock and steel bands from completely different genres, at completely different ranges of fame, shuffling their rhythm sections in a full-blown international percussion disaster. How did this occur?
The Drummerpocalypse simply retains hitting new ranges, reaching a farcical peak final week when the Foo Fighters and 9 Inch Nails traded drummers. The Who’s battle with ex-stickman Zak Starkey retains raging on, after they fired, re-hired, then re-fired him this spring. Final weekend, Roger Daltrey went off within the Instances, accusing Starkey of “character assassination.” Zak summed up the chaos again in Might when he told Rolling Stone, “What the fuck? These guys are fuckin’ insane! I’ve been fired extra occasions than Keith Moon in ten days.”
However this 12 months, we’re undoubtedly seeing a vibe shift behind the package. The Foo Fighters startled everybody in Might by firing Josh Freese, one of many rock world’s most reliable (and most-employed) rhythm kings. They only introduced his new substitute: Ilan Rubin, from 9 Inch Nails. That is bizarre as a result of Freese used to play in 9 Inch Nails—and Rubin is the man who changed him when he left in 2008. Now Freese has rejoined his previous mates, changing his substitute, as if Rubin had been simply protecting his throne heat for the previous sixteen years.
There’s by no means been a state of affairs like this: two of the world’s greatest rock bands switching drummers prefer it’s a baseball commerce. (Did Trent should kick in some draft picks? Did Grohl want one other left-hander for the post-season roster earlier than the buying and selling deadline?) There’s nothing comparable in historical past. The closest factor to the same swap, in accordance with Rolling Stone’s resident lore-master Andy Greene, got here in 2003, after Metallica’s bassist Jason Newsted stop the band. They employed Robert Trujillo away from Ozzy’s band—so Ozzy changed him with Newsted. However that is far crazier, given the drummers’ linked historical past.
The Freese drama is a shocker as a result of he’s the definition of a certain factor. He’s performed with everyone. I’ve seen him reside with Weezer, Devo, Paramore, the Replacements, most likely others. However there’s additionally GNR (he changed Matt Sorum), A Good Circle, Elegant With Rome, Lana Del Rey, Sting, Kelly Clarkson, Ween, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry, Ricky Martin, even the Buffy musical episode. He joined the Foos in Might 2023, stepping in for the late Taylor Hawkins. So everybody was shocked when he obtained the axe — particularly Freese, who stated, “In my forty years of drumming professionally, I’ve by no means been let go from a band.”
However these are unusual days for drummers. This week, Freese hits the highway with 9 Inch Nails, whereas Rubin will get cozy with the Foos. This example is principally one staircase crash away from Showgirls.
In the meantime, the Zak Starkey melodrama has changed into the messiest Who cleaning soap opera since Lifehouse. As Ringo Starr’s son, Zak grew up round Keith Moon and obtained drum classes from him, then performed with a number of million bands earlier than spending practically 30 years within the Who. He held the job longer than Moon ever did. However in April, they fired him for allegedly enjoying too loud (within the Who?), after Daltrey missed a cue in “The Tune Is Over” on the Royal Albert Corridor. They rehired him two weeks later (“Information Flash! Who Again Zak!” Pete Townshend posted), however then Cousin Kevined him out of the band once more two weeks later. It’s blown up into essentially the most infamous controversy over a dumped drummer since Zak’s dad took over from Pete Greatest.
If there was a tipping level for Drummergeddon, it may need been the bizarre second again in 2024 when three of the world’s high steel bands — Sepultura, Slipknot, and Suicidal Tendencies — rotated their tubthumpers. Jay Weinberg obtained kicked out of Slipknot, however signed on with S.T., whose Greyson Nekrutman stop to affix Sepultura, after Eloy Casagrande left to play for Slipknot. Followers had been puzzled, however as Sepultura guitarist Andreas Kisser mused, “Possibly it was higher for everybody.” Suicidal Tendencies, after all, used to have Trujillo on bass, for The Artwork of Revolt. And who performed drums on that album? Josh Freese.
So as to add further ranges of irony, Jay Weinberg’s dad retains time for a man named Bruce Springsteen. At 74, Max Weinberg hasn’t misplaced a drop of his superman stamina, however not even Bruce is aware of his secret. “Max is a human marvel,” he told Rolling Stone this summer time. “So the man comes out and performs principally for 3 hours straight with out stopping. He stops, perhaps there’s 30 seconds the place he will get to take a sip of water twice, two or thrice throughout the evening.”
Look, drummers have it powerful. We take them as a right. They work so laborious for us, and get so little respect. They undergo a lot bodily and emotional torment, endlessly the butt of jokes. What’s the distinction between a drummer and a big pizza? What do you name a reasonably lady on the arm of a drummer? What do you name a drummer carrying a tie? They’re the musicians that bands substitute most ruthlessly, those producers shuffle out and in at will, ever because the Beatles ditched Pete for Ringo. Or for that matter, ever since George Martin changed Ringo with a session man for “Love Me Do” and demoted Zak’s dad to tambourine. (BTW, a big pizza will feed a household of 4, a tattoo, and the defendant.)
The drummers take essentially the most punishment bodily—as with baseball catchers, there’s a ceiling on what number of innings the muscular tissues can take. When Primus drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander stop final November, he didn’t mince phrases. “Being a drummer for nearly 4 a long time has taken its toll on my physique,” he told Rolling Stone. “As I stated beforehand, my physique hurts, My palms damage. My again hurts.”
Drummer tradition is its personal tribe throughout the music world, with a language that’s designed to be incomprehensible to outsiders. How drummers snicker when the remainder of us say “within the pocket” or “sick groove,” the best way Marines snicker at civilians who say “semper fi.” To regular folks, “Don’t Cease Believin’” is a Journey track. However for drummers, it’s the sound of acclaimed jazz-fusion virtuoso Steve Smith, winner of many journal polls, enjoying an intricate open-handed sample by which he performs the hi-hat together with his left hand whereas his proper strikes across the package. (That’s a direct quote, from Rolling Stone’s superior Greatest Drummers of All Time listing, proudly compiled by drummers for drummers. I’ve no clue — don’t all drummers’ palms “transfer across the package”? Isn’t that like what a drummer freaking does?) However that’s the purpose. Percussion heads have a sure defensive hostility with regards to the surface world; you haven’t any concept what they’re speaking about, and so they prefer it that manner.
That’s as a result of the drummer has a novel place in music tradition, offering the ahead movement. In case your stickmaster sucks, it merely doesn’t matter how good anybody else within the band may be. You won’t know the title of the drummer on “Maggie Might,” “Midnight Practice to Georgia,” “Simply Like Heaven,” or “We Are Household,” however they’re a key purpose you continue to hear these songs on the radio. (Micky Waller, Andrew Smith, Boris Williams, and Tony Thompson.) Even at a pop present, once you go see Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, or Harry Styles, you’re getting rocked by Matt Billingslea, Jordi Radnoti, or the mighty Sarah Jones. All people loves the story about Charlie Watts punching out Mick Jagger and telling him, “By no means name me your drummer once more. You’re my fucking singer.” Should you suppose Charlie was exaggerating, simply take heed to any of the solo data the Stones made with out him. Or title one.
But the drummer is the primary to get blamed when issues go flawed. Historical past is stuffed with rhythmatists who get the axe when their band hits the massive time — Steven Adler, Chad Channing, Stan Lynch, Vini Lopez, changed by iron males like Grohl or Weinberg. No one notices when the bassist slips up. If the singer has an off evening, the present goes on. However the drummer has nowhere to cover.
Weapons N’ Roses simply changed Frank Ferrer in March, practically 20 years after he performed on Chinese language Democracy, as did Freese. “An amicable exit,” the band known as it. Axl Rose, the essence of amicable, greeted the brand new child Isaac Carpenter by bitching him out onstage in Yokohama, Japan, for taking part in “Mr. Brownstone” when Axl was within the temper for “Dangerous Obsession.” Welcome to the jungle, dude.
Iron Maiden legend Nicko McBrain quit touring in December, after recovering from a 2023 stroke. They changed him with Simon Dawson, although McBrain stays an official member. “It’s possible you’ll ask your self, how do I really feel a couple of new drummer taking my place after 42 years?” McBrain said on July 26, at a solo gig. “Nicely, the straightforward reply is, I’m nonetheless the best-looking bloke in Iron Maiden.”
Pearl Jam’s Matt Cameron stop in July, 27 years after he got here in from Soundgarden to exchange Jack Irons. They nonetheless haven’t introduced their new banger. However perhaps they may snag Irons — he famously crashed their Corridor of Fame induction ceremony with out an invitation and bumrushed the drums for his or her last track, which is critical Corridor of Fame mojo. Umphrey’s McGee jam wizard Kris Myers stepped down in Might, a pair years after rotator-cuff surgery.
Oasis changed Chris Sharrock, their final pre-break-up drummer, though he performed in each Gallagher brothers’ solo bands. However they employed Joey Waronker, one other a kind of sure-thing execs who’s held down numerous gigs, from Beck to R.E.M., from Neil Diamond to Paul McCartney. Bob Dylan switched Jim Keltner with Anton Fig in March. As for Primus, when Alexander stop, they brilliantly turned the audition course of right into a public spectacle, with their “Interstellar Drum Derby.” Even Les Claypool’s pal Billy Strings made a hilarious audition video for the gig, earlier than they lastly discovered new man Jack Hoffman.
Via all of it, the Who’s Zakrophenia drama by no means ends. Starkey complained bitterly about “the weeks of mayhem of me going ‘in an out an in an out an in an out like a bleedin squeezebox.” Even Ringo, the simplest man to get together with since human beings had been invented, obtained dragged in when Zak quoted him as saying, “I by no means favored the best way that little man ran that band.”
Daltrey denounced Starkey within the Instances final week, saying, “It was form of a personality assassination, and it was extremely upsetting.” He additionally launched a brand new account of the notorious “Tune Is Over” debacle that began the difficulty, now blaming all of it on the sound crew. The 81-year-old singer defined, “It’s managed by a man on the aspect, and we had a lot sub-bass on the sound of the drums that I couldn’t pitch.” However as he bluntly put it, it might probably’t be his fault, as a result of he’s the boss. “Pete and I retain the best to be the Who,” he advised the Instances. “Everybody else is a session participant.” In different phrases, the IP is the shotgun that sings the track.
That may be one purpose Zak Starkey has blown up into such a cult hero for individuals who ordinarily don’t care a factor about lineup modifications in basic rock bands. The Zak saga appears to resonate with folks manner outdoors the Who’s regular viewers, individuals who can’t inform Rabbit Bundrick from Pino Palladino, or “A Fast One” from “The Quiet One.” However folks can relate to Zak, the hard-working inventive betrayed by his company boomer bosses, who slip up and make him the scapegoat, tossing him apart like a discarded plectrum. It’s cool to see him refuse to go quietly. Possibly that’s why this story has taken on a legendary lifetime of its personal in 2025. Nevertheless it’s the largest Who buzz in a long time, and the most well-liked save-the-drummers parable of the previous 60 years. In the meantime, Pete Greatest occurred to announce his retirement again in April. (Hey, you don’t suppose…)
Will we even have to say that Zak was in Oasis? He even texted the Gallagher brothers to allow them to know he abruptly was within the job market this summer time, or as he put it, “Why the fuck aren’t I in your band, man, serving to make it the best rock band on this planet once more?” Nevertheless, Noel and Liam have Waronker for his or her reunion tour, and so they’re correctly not letting him get away.
These are undoubtedly bizarre occasions for drummers and people of us who worship them. However the Drummergeddon chaos hits house for individuals who don’t even like every of those bands, just because it hits to the emotional core of music, particularly reside music. Percussionists do extra than simply maintain time — they’re those who make a band a band. The drummer represents the entire excellent of the band as a group, one nation, indivisible, with Liberty and DeVitto for all. That’s why the spirit of the drum lives on in anybody who confronts a stick and a snare and asks, “What can this unusual system be?” (R.I.P., Neal Peart.)
“I’ve already obtained my headstone,” Zak advised Rolling Stone. “It says, ‘Zak Starkey, the track is over.’” Nicely, perhaps. However he’ll most likely simply ultimately be a part of Oasis once more, so he can snag a cooler epitaph like “The place had been you whereas we had been getting excessive?” That’s the factor about drummers: you’ll be able to’t maintain a great one down. They get work. They transfer round. Each performer wants a great drummer, and everyone who’s obtained a great one needs a greater one, even when they should steal, poach, or kill. It’s too quickly to inform the place all this upheaval will lead. However you must suspect the drummers would be the final ones standing. Now greater than ever, it’s time to provide the drummer some.
From Rolling Stone US.