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Drumming News
This week Scott looks back on a an interview he had with Jim Keltner for the November 1981 Modern Drummer Issue that brought some personal insight to Buddy Rich.
Scott writes:
Re-reading drummer Jim Keltner’s interview in the November 1981 Modern Drummer, something he said about Buddy Rich made me smile. I decided it warrants reposting.
Here’s part of what I wrote about Keltner at the start of his MD interview:
Trying to establish a representative interview with Jim Keltner requires a sense of humor. The way he plays drums and the way he is seem to be so alike. Talk to Jim on Monday about drum heads, for instance, and you’ll get a different answer than you would if you asked again on Friday. We conducted this interview on and off for several months, putting the finishing touches to it only weeks before publication.
I had forgotten all about our interview preparation, and how much I enjoyed talking about life and drums with Jim Keltner.
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Jim Keltner: Let me tell you something about Buddy Rich. Everybody says that he’s real conceited and you can’t talk to him, right? A few years ago, Emil Richards took me and my wife to see Buddy play at a musician’s night in a restaurant in Glendale. All the musicians in town were there—especially drummers!
So after his set—which was incredible—we all went back to see him in the dressing room. I’m just watching him sitting there and talking and having been buzzed on how he played so incredible.
He looked real small and kind of vulnerable. So I went over and I said, “Can I kiss you, man?” I reached down and kissed him on the cheek. Everybody in the room was thinking, “OH S@#T WHAT’S JIM DOING? HE’S CRAZY! BUDDY’S GONNA KILL HIM!”
But he was so gracious and beautiful. He understood where I was coming from. He could feel what I felt in my heart, you know. He is an incredible man. Everybody’s got a reputation of some sort if they’re in the limelight at all.
Link to the original post: HERE
About Scott:
Scott K. Fish was part of the original team that created Modern Drummer, he started as a freelance writer in 1976 and was the Managing Editor of Modern Drummer magazine from 1980-1983. By the time he left in October 1983, he had written almost half of Modern Drummer‘s feature articles. His interviews and articles were enjoyed by readers and artists alike, his questions were not run of the mill, as Bill Bruford put it, your questions are about “life beyond the cymbals.”
Scott K Fish is a public relation, writing, marketing, and communications expert across all media, with a 25-plus year track record in high profile positions.
Scott is an extremely active blogger and he often posts the original interviews with the artists that he used as reference for his article. We encourage you to follow Scott’s blog at www.ScottkFish.com, we will continue to post one of his posts weekly.
Please consider contributing to support Scott’s ongoing writing. We need to support writers like Scott who continue to educate us, the readers, about important drummers, their contributions, and how their work has been so impactful. You can support him at the link: HERE
