Huey Lewis & The News is a band that enjoyed great success in the 1980s and early 1990s. At the time, they placed 19 singles in the Top 10 of three Billboard charts: the Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock. Three of those singles (“The Power of Love“, “Stuck With You” and “Jacob’s Ladder“) went number one, and the former was featured on the cult movie soundtrack, “Back to the Future.” In total, the band has sold more than 30 million records worldwide, earned two Grammy nominations and one Grammy Award, as well as an Oscar nomination.
Bill Gibson and Huey Lewis (photo source: facebook.com/hueylewisandthenews)
All of this means that if any of the band’s musicians have something to say about music, it’s worth paying attention to. Recently, Huey Lewis (vocalist and co-founder of the band) said the following about the relationship between the singer and the drummer in a band:
“The connection between singers and drummers is super important. It’s the pocket. It’s time. If you’re playing and the time is really good, it widens the pocket. And if it widens the pocket, it makes singing the song effortless. It makes pitch easier to find. It makes everything easier because the rhythm is so solid. It carries you with it. Drummers and singers really feed off each other a lot in the best bands. So I’ve always connected with the drummer.”
Bill Gibson has been the band’s drummer since its inception. Like most drummers of his generation (he was born in 1951), he cites the the so-called British Invasion (a period in the mid-1960s when British rock-and-roll groups gained immense popularity in the US and other markets) as the turning point that made him want to get into music. He received his first drums from his parents at the age of 14. As a teenager, he saw the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five live, but also Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Buddy Rich. In addition to the latter, his percussion heroes included: Ringo Starr, Rufus Jones and Sonny Payne.
Bill Gibson‘s Yamaha Drums artist profile: https://www.yamaha.com/artists/billgibson
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