Born as Prince Rogers Nelson, this little great man grew out to one of the greatest performers and guitarists in the world. But Prince is also celebrating drumming. You may or may not know this, but Prince loves playing drums — and he’s very good at it. It’s just one of the many facets of music he’s studied—along with singing, songwriting, and dancing. Signed to a major record deal at the age of nineteen, Prince wrote, engineered, and performed every instrument on his first few recordings. Prince:

"I had to audition on every instrument for the record company before they signed me, because they didn’t believe it was all me."

Through the many years of his recording career, Prince has always played most, if not all of the instruments on his album—and that includes drums. And if there was a guest drummer, Prince would be right there showing or directing what was to be played.



As in the past, on the album Musicology, Prince plays drums on several tracks. In fact, without a scorecard, it’s almost impossible to tell if it’s Prince or his regular drummer John Blackwell, playing. That’s pretty impressive, considering what a monstrous drummer Blackwell is.



Prince is fully autodidact; he never took lessons. Prince started when he was thirteen years old. Prince:

"I would play on cardboard boxes. I’d use the flaps for dexterity and different sounds. I wouldn’t play drums in front of anyone until I felt I was good enough. In school, everyone always wanted to play the drums. As soon as the drum chair was empty, someone would get behind the kit and play. Where I come from, if your beat was whack, you’d be made fun of."

Prince has never patterned himself after anyone. But he names Morris Day [of The Time] as his biggest influence.



(Main source: Billy Amendola for Mordern Drummer Magazine)