Rolling Stone Lists Its 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time, Actually Includes Some Metal Drummers
Rolling Stone are into lists that either span huge portions of rock music’s history or dig deep into important moments within rock’s development. And rightly so, as we all love to argue about who was included, who wasn’t, and how everyone was ranked! Nothing starts a conversation about music like someone saying, “Okay, best ____ of all time. Go, go, go.”
Well, today RollingStone.com has posted their list of the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time, which will no doubt cause more growling and grumbling among music fans. But honestly, I was surprised to find that the list was pretty fair to metal and hardcore, overall.
Since the RS website is an ad-cluttered chore to read, here are the drummers listed who are relevant to readers of this site (if I didn’t include a band name next to the listing, you should probably know who that person is):
- 99. Travis Barker
- 98. Steven Adler
- 93. Tomas Haake
- 91. Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt)
- 89. Bill Stevenson (Black Flag)
- 86. Phil Rudd (AC/DC)
- 85. Tommy Lee
- 84. John Stanier (Helmet)
- 75. Earl Hudson (Bad Brains)
- 70. Tommy Ramone
- 52. Matt Cameron (Soundgarden)
- 51. Alex Van Halen
- 47. Dave Lombardo
- 42. Bill Ward
- 27. Dave Grohl
- 26. Danny Carey
- 16. Bill Bruford (King Crimson)
- 8. Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix Experience)
- 4. Neil Peart
- 3. Ginger Baker
- 1. John Bonham
See? Not terrible! Dave Lombardo, Tomas Haake, Bill Stevenson… that’s more than I expected from RS!
Of course, there are some notable names not on that list that will cause drama (one of them rhymes with ‘Bars Bulrich’). I’m a little bummed they didn’t include Mick Harris or Pete Sandoval, both of whom are often credited as inventing the blast beat. Then again, that might be asking a lot of RS, and there are a ton of drummers on this list whose work I don’t know, so hey, maybe they needed the slots.
Anyway, you can read the whole list here. Feel free to grouse a bunch in the comments section.
