{"id":28477,"date":"2021-06-06T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-06T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/?p=28477"},"modified":"2022-08-19T12:19:09","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T19:19:09","slug":"gregg-bissonette-take-their-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/gregg-bissonette-take-their-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Their Advice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If I hadn\u2019t followed through on great advice, I wouldn\u2019t have had the opportunities I\u2019ve had in my life. I wouldn\u2019t be drumming with Ringo. I wouldn\u2019t have been the drummer with David Lee Roth for seven years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. My dad was a drummer and my mom played jazz vibraphone. Dad\u2019s band used to play a lot of weddings and private parties and I\u2019d sit in on drums while my brother Matt would sit in on bass. Our sister Kathy was also super involved – she played guitar and violin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My brother is my favorite bass player. It\u2019s funny how our paths went the same way. We both went to music school. Matt plays with Sir Elton John and I play with Sir Richard Starkey – aka Ringo Starr. How much fun is that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kathy, Gregg, and Matt Bissonnette in high school<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t just want to be in a big name band; I had such a great family and I wanted to be a dad. So I thought about where I could live and raise kids, but also be in the center of it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detroit was too cold. I didn\u2019t want to live in New York City. To me, the real entertainment capital of the world was Hollywood – and the sun shines almost every day. I wanted to play drums in movies and TV shows, and on albums! I was really into Johnny Carson, and the NBC Orchestra featured Ed Shaughnessy on drums. How cool would it be to be on The Tonight Show like Ed and only work for two or three hours a day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gene
14-year-old Gregg and Gene Krupa!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I remembered going to my high school girlfriend\u2019s upper Michigan cabin one summer with her parents. We were water skiing and swimming and taking the boat out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe in LA there could be a place with a lake like that, <\/em>I thought. I could hang out on jet skis, drive to Burbank and play drums on The Tonight Show, then sub out and go on the road with bands.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was in my senior year of high school, and one night at dinner my dad said, \u201cYou\u2019re getting a performance degree? You already make good money playing parties and events in Detroit. Why don\u2019t you do what the sax player in my band does? He teaches middle school band, and at 2 o\u2019clock on Friday he locks his door and doesn\u2019t have to go back until 8 am on Monday. And then he locks his doors from June to September, and plays on cruise ships in the Bahamas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided to have something in my back pocket, so I took that advice and got a music education degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember when the first issue of Modern Drummer appeared in our percussion professor\u2019s office at North Texas State (now known as The University of North Texas). I started reading it every month and formulating the dream I\u2019d been praying about. \u201cGod, help me be a drummer that can go around the world someday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While studying at North Texas, I started hearing that if you move to LA or New York, you can\u2019t be a recording and<\/em> touring drummer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cWhy not?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, if you\u2019re a recording drummer, they call you a day before to play on the commercial or TV show. If you\u2019re on the road, they\u2019ll call someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were college professors and I felt like they didn\u2019t know what it was really <\/em>like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat about Steve Gadd?\u201d I shot back. \u201cHe plays on a million albums and does a million tours and balances it! People seem to wait for him to get back to town, and his phone rings off the hook.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew it could be done. But I was still a bit nervous. What if I move somewhere and don\u2019t make enough money playing drums? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

What if I move somewhere and don’t make enough money playing drums?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Skip forward to 1982, and I was teaching in Dallas. I had a gig with one of the top bands in the area, Buster Brown: a really cool R&B\/funk band playing stuff like Stevie Wonder, Tower of Power, and Earth, Wind & Fire. We got called to open up for Lee Ritenour, who was one of the <\/em>guitar guys in the \u201880s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee\u2019s drummer was this guy from Peru. You might have heard of him. His name was Alejandro Neciosup, better known as Alex Acu\u00f1a. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He came to see us play the night after the Lee Ritenour gig. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlex! You\u2019re still in town?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, we have the day off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs there any way I could take a lesson with you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnfortunately I don\u2019t really have time. My luggage was lost and I have to replace everything. But can I give you any advice?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was kind of in a creative drought at that time. I was regurgitating a lot of the same fills and beats and needed to work on my vocabulary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d I said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m in a rut. I\u2019m doing this really cool gig, but I feel like I\u2019m just playing the same stuff over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, here\u2019s what I would do if I were you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was all ears, listening like a madman. What\u2019s Alex Acu\u00f1a gonna tell this 22-year-old drummer? I got my degree, I can teach at a school if I can\u2019t make enough playing drums, but I know I wanna be a recording and touring drummer and play with big name bands all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDallas is a great city, but this band might not get a record deal here,\u201d said Alex. \u201cIf I were you, I would quit this band as soon as possible, pack everything up, and move to Los Angeles. And three nights a week – Sunday, Monday, Tuesday nights – you should go to this club in Encino, The Flying Jib<\/em>, and listen to my favorite drummer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVinnie Colaiuta.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe guy on the new Gino Vannelli album, Nightwalker<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe guy that played with Frank Zappa?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah. Go and listen to him. Try and figure out what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s your favorite thing about Vinnie? Is he your favorite at rock, funk, samba, Motown?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What? Alex Acu\u00f1a says he\u2019s his favorite drummer at <\/em>everything<\/em><\/strong>?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as I could, I gave the band my notice, packed up my drums, my water bed, a little stereo and cassette recorder, and my clothes into an old LTD station wagon, and drove from Texas to LA not knowing anybody, really. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My university band director had given me a list of thirty North Texas alumni who lived in LA who he thought could help me out. I picked up the phone and called them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started beating down doors and auditioning for every possible gig I could. I did a lot of private teaching. Weddings. Bar Mitzvahs. Retirement parties. I played in Top 40 bands because DJs weren\u2019t a thing yet. I did tours and recording sessions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long story short, I ended up playing with one of my musical heroes, Maynard Ferguson (whose band already included my brother, Matt on bass). Shortly after that great year-long tour, I met one of my drum heroes, Myron Grombacher, who helped me get the gig with David Lee Roth – my start in rock and roll. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n
Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n