Ron Perrone, Jr.
Born 2/17/76 Tacoma, WA
Drums
My interest in drumming started
around age 9. When 5th grade rolled
around I decided I was going to play
the snare drum in the school band.
On the day of try-outs, I found out
there was a small rhythm test you
had to pass to play the snare drum.
I chickened out at the last minute
and picked the trumpet. For that
year of my “musical beginnings” I
was miserable. The following year I
ignored the band teacher’s
suggestion to stay with the trumpet
and switched to the snare drum. I
think the band teacher wanted me to
stay with the trumpet for 5th and
6th grade so he didn’t have to catch
me up to speed with the other
drummers. After 6th grade, we were
off to junior high and out of his
hair, hence his stay with the one
instrument for 2 years suggestion.
I was determined to be the best of
the snare drummers that year. I was
able to catch up on my own and
remained the first chair for the
rest of the year despite the fact
that I bombed my first small drum
solo in my first school concert. It
was pretty embarrassing. But small
disappointments and accomplishments
aside this is what I wanted to do.
One day in practice one of the other
snare drummers, that use to bully me
and beat me up, made a make shift
drum set and began playing. All the
other kids just looked at him in awe
and cheered. I knew I couldn’t beat
him up, but I thought it would be
great to be able to out play him.
By age 10, I was prepping my parents
to get me a drum set for my 11th
birthday. To my surprise they did
and I promised them that I would
stick with it. I practiced playing
that kit relentlessly. It was a
white five piece Pearl kit. I
played that kit for the next 7
years.
Foolishly, I stopped playing in the
school band by 8th grade to pursue
the drum set. I was too stubborn to
take lessons, and thought I would
just play by ear. This worked as I
learned to play rock. I tried to
learn every Metallica song I could.
I thought Lars Ulrich was the
drumming god. I had great success
in learning how to play this kind of
music and played in a few heavy
metal bands during my junior high
years. During my early high school
days, I was able to establish myself
as a known drummer in school.
Luckily, I was able to get into
bands by “out drumming” the current
drummer of that particular band.
One
night during my sophomore year in
1992, I went to see two bands play
at a small coffee shop. The band
members were all kids that went to
my high school. The first band was
Kelton Ave. The second band was The
Dempseys. The Dempseys at this time
had band members Brad Birkedahl, Joe
Fick, Mike Moffitt, (another guitar
player who led the band), and a
rival drummer of mine, Scott Jobe.
The music style of both bands was
along the lines of REM, the Beatles,
and the Rolling Stones etc... I
liked Kelton Ave. better then The
Dempseys. I noticed their drummer
was not a good fit for the band. I
mentioned that I thought I would be
a better fit and they gave me a
chance to prove myself. I got the
gig and we were off and running. We
put a lot of time into practice. I
played my first show at the same
café where I first saw the band. It
went great and our name quickly got
around. The word was out that we
could really give the well known
band, The Dempseys, a good run for
their money. This was the beginning
of a fierce rivalry between our
bands.
My band
Kelton Ave. consisted of
guitarist/singer Adam Prince,
guitarist Leonard Kim, bassist Rob
Pierce and me on drums. During the
summer of 1993, guitarist Leonard
Kim unexpectedly quit the band. The
band struggled on as a 3 piece for
awhile. The Dempseys were not doing
much during that period so we asked
Brad to join the band. He did and
shortly after that bassist Rob
Pierce went off to college so we
asked Joe if he would join. He did
and the new line up for Kelton Ave
was guitarist/singer Adam Prince,
Brad on lead guitar, Joe on electric
bass and me on drums.
Around
this time I was getting bored with
the style of music we played and
began searching out a more
challenging drumming style. I began
listening to jazz. However, this
was a drumming style that I was not
able to imitate using the
play-by-ear method. I just couldn’t
figure out what these jazz drummers
were doing. By age 17, I began
taking my first drum lessons. With
lessons, my drumming advanced much
faster then it ever did using the
play-by-ear method. Afterwards, I
was hooked on jazz. Music with a
good swing to it was much more
interesting to me then the grunge
band Nirvana, which was the popular
style of music during those years.
My instructor introduced me to the
music of Buddy Rich. I was
floored. I really began studying
this unbelievable drummer and the
more I studied him the more amazed I
was. This began my Buddy Rich
journey. Today, I have all of his
CD’s, DVD’s and continue to study
him vigorously. He is the biggest
influence in my drumming style. For
someone to tell me they hear a
little Buddy Rich in my playing is
the biggest compliment I can
receive.
During
my senior year in high school, I
really began to study jazz.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a
source to practice it regularly,
especially not with the aggressive
style like Buddy Rich. There was no
way I was going to “snake” some jazz
drummer out of his gig. Those
drummers were just too good for some
young dude like me to come in and
take their gig. To listen to these
guys play was very humbling. It
started me down the path of trying
to learn everything I could about
the art of drumming, hoping that I
could play like that one day. I knew
Brad and Joe were still playing in
The Dempseys outside of playing in
my band (Kelton Ave), but this was
an alter ego Dempseys. They had let
drummer Scott Jobe go and stopped
playing rock music and began playing
rockabilly. This rockabilly version
of The Dempseys was busy. They were
playing for tips on street corners
and in farmers markets, handing out
flyers and getting paying gigs from
their promotional efforts. They
put lead guy Mike Moffitt on the
drums, Joe played the upright bass
and Brad was on lead guitar. In
December of 1994, I was asked to
fill in for drummer Mike Moffitt on
a Christmas gig (a paying gig!). The
gig went very well since Brad, Joe
and I were used to playing with one
another. In the fall of 1995,
drummer Mike Moffitt left for
college. The Dempseys were working
pretty steadily at that point and
didn’t want to wait until summer to
pick up where they left off. They
asked me to fill in until Mike
returned from college. I accepted
and we started gigin’ more and more
with The Dempseys and less and less
with Kelton Ave. This style of
music was a perfect chance for me to
start applying my jazz drumming
interest. We were gigin’ so often
that there was just no time for
Kelton Ave. Adam Prince decided to
leave the band in the summer of 1995
and the current version of The
Dempseys was born. Mike Moffitt
never did attempt to reclaim his
drumming position with The Dempseys.
From
1995 until late 1997, I worked a
full time job during the day and was
gigin’ at night on Wednesday through
Sunday. It was tough trying to get
the band going. If we weren’t
working, we were gigin’. If we
weren’t gigin’ or working, we were
practicing. Sleep was not on the
list. Music was the only thing on
our minds. No girls, no hanging out
with friends, just music. In 1998,
we were able to quit our jobs in
Washington to play music full time
in Memphis. We had landed a job as
the house band at Elvis Presley’s
Memphis. This gave me a perfect
opportunity to hone in on my
relatively new found drumming style.
Getting the chance to play 5 nights
a week was just what I needed to
really explore the art of drumming.
I have also learned the business
side of the music industry. This is
an important part of ones drumming
career since you can’t drum for a
living if you don’t have a gig! I
enjoy running the business
management side of the band. It is
a constant learning experience and
seems to be an art of its own. I
have continued my studies in Memphis
with Master Instructor Stan Head.
Stan Head is the timpanist for the
Memphis and Jackson city orchestra
and runs his own teaching studio. I
have been studying with him for the
past 5 years. I study the art of
classical drumming, as well as
taking an interest in other fields
of percussion such as marimbas,
tympani and ironically leading me
back to the beginning of my drumming
journey, the snare drum.
Over the
years of my drumming journey, I have
had been very fortunate to make a
living playing the drums since
1998. I have had the opportunity to
travel all over the US and also made
a few stops over seas. Playing
around 250 shows a year, has given
me a great opportunity to practice
my art, at the level that I would
like, and playing the style that I
enjoy. Aggressive! I’ve had the
opportunity to play with many of the
music legends that I studied and
even got the chance to play one of
them in a movie about Johnny Cash
called Walk the Line in 2005. It
was a small blip in the movie where
I played Elvis’s drummer, DJ
Fontana. I’ve also had the great
fortune to become good friends with
DJ Fontana over the years, so I hope
I did him justice! We’ve played in
just about every setting there is,
from casinos to festivals, private
parties, arenas, backyards, night
clubs, bars, studio sessions etc…
One aspect I really like about The
Dempseys is that we give 110% no
matter what the setting or how many
people. We’ve played festivals over
seas in front of 25,000 to a club
with 4 people in it, but our goal is
always the same; playing a perfect
set and make the people happy. My
favorite setting to play is the
small bar or club. This gives you
have a chance to talk with the
people who come to see you. I also
like the small nuances that you hear
musically in a small club or bar
that you don’t hear in a larger
venue.
As for
my current drumming influences, I
study the styles of the classical
era, big band era, be-bop jazz ere,
rock and roll era and any other
styles that I can learn from
including other non traditional
areas, such as Indian rhythms. Some
of the drummers that have influenced
me the most are Buddy Rich, Jeff
Hamilton, Ed Shaughnessy, Dave Weckl,
Steve Gadd, Steve Smith, Jeff
Porcaro, John Bonham; just to name a
few. A great web site for drummers
is
drummerworld.com. I visit the
site all the time to watch, read
listen and learn about all of the
drummers that influence me. There
are also a lot of drummers that I
enjoy that are not “famous” but are
beyond my drumming comprehension.
