Johnny Thompson had the distinction of being the very first music student of a young steel guitar player named Ernie ball. Back in the early 1950s, before he established a string company,...
Lol Tolhurst formed a rock band with some friends in high school that went on to revitalize and define music in the 1980s. The Cure enjoyed wide success with millions of albums sold, live...
Al Torre feels music was more than part of his life, it was the driving force behind it, like love and passion. He played drums at an early age and was a key part of the careers of jazz ...
Chuck Turk has been active in the music industry in both manufacturing and in retailing. In fact his experiences have included working with small independent retailers as well as large ch...
Ron Tutt is best known for playing drums behind Elvis Presley during most of the king’s tours during the 1970s. Ron grew up with a deep passion for music and the drums, which led him to a...
Sam Ulano was the drum teacher, performer, method book author and drum shop owner whose name became synonymous with the world of drumming. During his long and celebrated career, Sam play...
Jimmy (J.M.) Van Eaton was the house drummer for a little recording company in Memphis that began one of the centers of the birth of rock’n’ roll. Sun Records was formed by Sam Philips in...
Ron Vaughn began his career in the music industry as a drummer who was always looking for new gizmos that could produce the sound he sought. After creating a long list of clever products ...
Tony Verderosa was inspired by Bill Bruford's use of electronic percussion units to write new music in real-time. After graduating from the Crane School of Music, Tony began working with ...
Johnny Vidacovich was born in New Orleans and raised by his mother and grandparents. He started playing drums when he was ten years old and would go to night clubs around New Orleans and ...
Rosa Villa is the Lead Supervisor within the drumhead shipping department at Remo Inc. headquarters in Valencia, California Like many of her co-workers, Rosa has been working for the co...
Greg Voelker is the inventor of a specialized drum rack system that has been used by top artists since the 1980s. His first rack was distributed by Premier Drums, which led to a full ser...
Harvey Vogel was having a difficult time finding and purchasing quality percussion instruments and accessories for his daughter Lauren while she was in high school. He decided to do somet...
Lauren Vogel Weiss was playing in the high school band but struggling to find the accessories she needed. This program gave her and her father, Harvey, an idea. Together they formed Lon...
Chuck Wackerman always enjoyed making music. As a child he took trumpet lessons and later fell in love with jazz. Chuck joined the United States Air National Guard after high school, and ...
Frank Waddy has been playing drums since he was a small child. During his long and creative musical career, he has played with artists such as James Brown and George Clinton. Frank has es...
Ted Wade was raised in a house full of music! His father played trumpet with several big bands such as Clyde McCoy during the swing era. When Ted was four years old he was playing drums...
This audio only interview was conducted by David Schwartz and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Narada Walden formed Tarpan Studios in San Rafael, California in 1985. Over the yea...
Rob Wallis and Paul Siegel formed DCI Publishing based on videos they recorded at their Drummers Collective School in New York. DCI soon became a pioneer in the field of video education ...
Jay Wanamaker found his passion for music as a member of a drum and bugle corps and eventually honed his skills while attending the Crane school of music at SUNY Potsdam University in Pot...
Herman Ward is known for his creative technical work and programming for Live Sound tours with the likes of Usher, Zapp & Roger and Klymaxx. As a producer, Mr. Ward has worked with su...
Dave Weckl was proudly inducted into the Modern Drummer Magazine's Hall of Fame in 2000. The award was extra meaningful to Dave given the list of previous winner who inspired his playing ...
Dave Weiderman was raised in a family with a great love of music. Dave’s father owned a music store in Chicago, where Dave was able to meet some of the great musicians of the time. His ...
Steve Weiss loved playing the drums as a small child, but never imagined in a million years that he would have a career in music, let alone a pioneering and successful career in the music...
Paul Wertico grew up in Chicago with a passion for music making. At the age of 15 he landed his first professional gig as a drummer and never set the sticks down. As an award winning musi...
Terry West started playing in bands at an early age and continued throughout his twenties and thirties. He was always one to maintain a day job, and his many roles at an outdoor advertisi...
Ron Whitaker is a rock drummer who found himself an endorser of several cutting-edge percussive products over the years. As he proudly points out, he never endorsed a product he did not b...
Bill White played drums since he was a child. So when his son approached him to make a snare drum for him after Bill’s retirement, he agreed. Since that time the snares his son played hav...
Chris Whittington is the product engineer at Remo Inc in Valencia, California, a place he has referred to as his home. After all, Chris is a musician who is passionate about playing, who...
Vince Wilburn, Jr., was born in Chicago and began playing the drums on pots and pans as early as five years old. His uncle, Miles Davis, encouraged young Vince to listen to the great dr...
Patrick Wilson grew up in a very musical family. His father played piano in his own tenor band that his mother sang in and his sisters also played and sang. Patrick recalls the first inst...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Jac Winroth was born with a handicap that his mother insist...