Next to Jesus, my family & friends, I love drums! Below are a few of the sets I've played over the years. Did I mention that I love drums?
This is the first professional kit I owned. It's a Slingerland Jazz kit. It had 4 mounted toms and 2 floor toms. It sounded awesome. This is one kit I wish I still owned today. I bought it in 1980 for $3,500.00.
This is a Yamaha Recording kit with a maple snare. Me and our bass player, Kenny Bentley, were laying down some tracks in an Atlanta studio for an upcoming album.
This is a Yamaha kit with over sized concert toms. It was great for playing live gigs. The floor tom had guts in it like a timpani and you could adjust the pitch of the drum with a pedal. It was so cool, I wish I still had it! In this pic we're ministering at Panama City Beach in the summer of 1982; I was 21.
Same Yamaha Kit. Apparently I like chrome finishes. I think I've had four different chrome kits.
This is a Simmons electronic kit. This was the first electronic kit I owned. I bought it in 1983.
This is another Simmons electronic kit. I believe it was the fourth electronic kit I owned. I know what you're thinking, "Why so many electronic kits?" Hey, man, it was the 80's! The pic was taken at a festival in Virginia in 1985.
This is the same Simmons kit at a gig in North Carolina.
More stage shots of my Red Simmons.
This is a Yamaha Recording Custom kit we had in our Atlanta studio. The snare was so deep it sounded like a canon. The little girl with me is a fan who stopped in with her parents.
The bright yellow water drum! I played this during a video shoot in Key West, FL. I took an old junk drum from a pawn shop, painted it yellow, put a new head on it & beat the day light out of it. That was great!!! I think everyone should have a drum!!!
Leading the Crowd in Worship in Pennsylvania. No drums in the pic, but this is the reason I played them; to worship my Savior, Jesus Christ.
At least once every concert I would have to get the crowd to shout to the Lord!
The coolest kit I ever owned! It's a ddrum electronic kit I got in 1990. It had 10 electronic pads: 8 were drums & 2 were cymbals. I also used 8 acoustic cymbals and slaved a Roland drum machine for additional sounds. The rack to the right had a mixing consol and several effects that I used when playing live. The whole kit cost about $30,000.00. Man do I miss that kit!
Same ddrum kit. These two pics were made before a live performance during our sound check.
A Ludwig kit. I am playing with a good friend of mine, Keith Shealy in Virginia in 2004. We did several gigs ministering to kids on the beach. These two pics were made during sound check.
You can't see me or the drums, but we're right in the middle of all the pyrotechnics. Man did that get hot!
My first Pearl kit. It's a Pearl Export series I bought in 2006 just to practice on. Not bad for the money. It now belongs to the church.
This is my newest kit. I bought it in 2007. It's the new Pearl Vision series. The thing that makes this kit so cool is that they use different woods and thicknesses for different drums. The toms are thinner and use more birch to give them more highs. The floor tom and bass drum are thicker and use more bass wood to give them more low end. They sound amazing.
The strata blue finish is also very retro and very cool.
This is me and my drummer buddy Louie Weaver. Louie played drums for Petra for over 20 years. Man, that makes you an old dude Louie! Louie has a really nice kit too. I'll try and get him to send me a pic of it. Here, we're hanging out at our friend Tommy's house back in 2007.
These pics were taken by our light man, Mike Murden, while he was climbing in the lighting trusses above me. I believe this was an outdoor concert in N.C.
My Two Dream Snare Drums. On the left is Yamaha's Dave Weckl Snare. It has two sets of snares on the bottom head instead of the traditional one set of snares. The drum on the right is Premier's Military Marching Snare. It also has two sets of snares, one on the bottom head and one on the top head - that's crazy! Both of these snares are incredibly versatile because of the extra set of snares. I think all snare drums should have an extra set of snares!
