Carmine Appice is a true institution in the world of drums, a drummer who left an indelible mark in the history of the instrument, especially it’s rock variation. He is featured on some classic, seminal albums with bands such as Vanilla Fudge, Cactus and Beck, Bogert & Appice. He also co-wrote Rod Stewart’s mega hit “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”. Urban legend has it that John Bonham (who was a fan of Carmine’s) perfected his fast single bass pedal playing listening to his drum hero’s recordings not realizing Carmine was playing double bass drum. In a nutshell, we can say: when Carmine Appice talks, it’s good to listen to what he has to say.
Very recently, he had a few things to say to Heavy New York on the subject of drum heroes:
“I heard a drummer. He plays with Black Stone Cherry. I found out that they just, on their latest album, did one of our Cactus songs called ‘Evil‘, and that song has a lot of drum fills, and the guy was great. I don’t know his name, but he sounded great. But that’s what I’m saying — there’s a lot of bands that have great drummers and stuff, but because you’re not getting albums no more, there’s no drum heroes, no new drum heroes. It’s unfortunate, because we used to, growing up. Buddy Rich was the greatest. He did amazing things for the drum world. And there’s nobody else like him. Because even these new players that are great, it’s very clinical. Buddy played from the heart. He never even took a lesson. He was just unbelievable.