Carmine Appice names his favourite drummers of all time
From Ginger Baker to John Bonham, only a select few can claim to be truly great rock drummers. One of the most important of this set is Carmine Appice. A widely influential rhythmic master whose name isn’t as prominent as those above, Appice drew on a range of masters to create a distinctive and thunderous sound all of his own.
Appice’s playing is fuelled by an unrelenting dose of energy that helped set a precedent for the more visceral forms of rock after the 1960s, including metal and punk. Indicating the broad reach of his impact, Appice’s work is even credited with making its way into some of the most bombastic modern rap beats. Whilst he has provided many stellar moments over the years, his mesmeric work on Vanilla Fudge’s 1967 cover of The Supreme’s ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ makes a solid claim to being the finest.
It’s no coincidence that Appice counts many familiar faces from the drumming world amongst his disciples. These include John Bonham, Phil Collins, Tommy Lee, Dave Lombardo and Ian Paice. Considered one of the very best by those in the know, Appice’s extensive CV is astonishing.
As Appice’s style is so dextrous, it makes sense that he names a host of drummers as inspirations outside of the obvious. When speaking to Forbes in 2021, he listed some of the “really great drummers” that were his favourites when starting. It is here that his heavy debt to the jazz world becomes clear.
He said: “When I first started playing drums, rock music was very basic, elementary. The only music with drums that inspired me was, ‘Wipe Out,’ Sandy Nelson’s ‘Let There Be Drums’ and ‘Teen Beat,’ and Cozy Cole’s ‘Topsy II’ – what I would call drum singles. There were no great rock drummers yet. The really great drummers then were more jazz: Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Max Roach, Joe Morello. So those are the guys I followed.”
The attention then turned to some of those who Appice respected later on, in the 1960s, with Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham and Clive Bunker of early Jethro Tull mentioned.
Appice recalled: “We did a gig in Chicago with Jethro Tull as the opening act, Led Zeppelin in the middle and Vanilla Fudge topping the bill. We were all Ludwig guys. When Clive was on, me and Bonzo [John Bonham] were standing on the side throwing spitballs at him. When Bonzo went on, me and Clive threw spitballs at him. And, of course, when I went on, they threw spitballs at me. We gave all the equipment back to Ludwig, broken [laughs].”
