It all started on my eighth Christmas. I got my first set of drums! Wow a Mickey Mouse kit! Bass drum, toms, snare & a cymbal to boot! Boot them I did. They were broke the first hour I had them and were thrown out in the garbage the next day. I was bummed.
Well it wouldn't be till I was 11 when I got my first real set. I was taken lessons and the pad was getting a bit boring, so drums were in order. My first kit was a 3 piece pink champagne set of Ludwigs with a Zildjian cymbal! No hi-hats just a ride! ( I still own this kit!) Well the first thing I did was call my best friends over for the first jam session. We formed Blaze. This was the band I was in right before I joined Avatar/Savatage.
When I was in the learning stages of drumming, I took lessons from the original drummer in Metroplis/Avatar, Vinny and studied with some other local cats who I thought could help me.
It wasn't till I joined Avatar when my skills were to be honed. I used to jog five miles every day to warm up then go into the Pit to play by myself for two hours then spend two to three hours with the Oliva bros. The Oliva bros., at the time were quite a few steps ahead on being accomplished musicians. They were naturals, I had to work at it. That I did!
It wasn't till 1982 when we got signed did I realize this could be a cool living...
See Doc's Memoirs section for more.
