The Drum Set He Had to Earn
gary-wiseman
The summer between sixth and seventh grade, Gary and his best friend, Matt Morris, decided to form a band.
One of them would play guitar.
The other would play drums.
Matt had an aunt who owned a guitar he could borrow.
The decision was made.
Gary would become the drummer.
There was one small issue.
He did not own any drums.
Gary begged his mother for a drum set. She agreed to buy him one for Christmas under one condition: he had to join the school band in seventh grade.
Gary reluctantly accepted the deal.
His mother kept her word.
That Christmas, Gary received his first drum set. He and Matt began playing together, starting a musical partnership that would continue through multiple punk bands and last until Gary left college to join Bowling For Soup.
Gary had already demonstrated some natural ability before owning a kit. In elementary school, a friend’s father had a drum set, and Gary became the only kid in the group who could play the drum fill from Tone-Loc’s “Wild Thing.”
Once he had his own drums, the first complete song he learned was Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks.”
Gary was not particularly interested in becoming a Led Zeppelin drummer.
He wanted to learn the beat because the Beastie Boys had sampled it for “Rhymin’ & Stealin’.”
That may be the most Gary Wiseman way possible to learn a Led Zeppelin song.
School band gave him a musical foundation that extended beyond rock. He played in marching and symphonic settings, learning how to function within an ensemble rather than treating every song as an excuse for a drum solo.
His mother had pushed him into the band program, but she had mixed feelings when music began replacing football.
Gary quit football after reaching high school because he wanted to focus more seriously on playing. His mother worried that, without a father in the house, he needed the masculine role models and structure the football coaches provided.
The disagreement created real tension between them.
In the end, music won.
It had already become much more than another activity.