Ron Bruner Jr. was exposed to the drums at a young age when he climbed up on his fatherÂ’s drums. His father, Ronald Bruner, was a well known drummer, performing and recording with some of the giants of Motown; Diana Ross, the Temptations and Gladys Knight. Ron Jr. began playing at the tender age of two, showing great promise, so his father exposed him to a variety of different styles of music.

Ron started his professional career when he was 15, at the Theolonius Monk Institute, which opened the door for him to perform with many great artists such as Wayne Shorter, Dianne Reeves, and Ron Carter. At 18, he became a regular member of Kenny Garret's jazz band and in 2004, he was involved in the Young Jazz Giants CD with his brother, Stephen. His diversified style is evident by his membership in the punk rock band, Suicidal Tendencies, as well as being a sideman for the likes of Stanley Clarke, George Duke, and Marcus Miller.

Ron Bruner Jr. was exposed to the drums at a young age when he climbed up on his father’s drums. His father, Ronald Bruner, was a well known drummer, performing and recording with some of the giants of Motown; Diana Ross, the Temptations and Gladys Knight. Ron Jr. began playing at the tender age of two, showing great promise, so his father exposed him to a variety of different styles of music.



Ron started his professional career when he was 15, at the Theolonius Monk Institute, which opened the door for him to perform with many great artists such as Wayne Shorter, Dianne Reeves, and Ron Carter. At 18, he became a regular member of Kenny Garret's jazz band and in 2004, he was involved in the Young Jazz Giants CD with his brother, Stephen. His diversified style is evident by his membership in the punk rock band, Suicidal Tendencies, as well as being a sideman for the likes of Stanley Clarke, George Duke, and Marcus Miller.



Ronald Bruner Junior played with Suicidal Tendencies, Kenny Garrett, Marcus Miller, the Micheal Landau Band and Lee Ritenour. He is also working with his own band which is called Ron Bruner's Son and a solo R&B singing project. Some other artists as well, such as Scott Henderson, and Scott Kinsey.



Schooled in jazz, Ron had already performed on stage with jazz icons Wayne Shorter, Ernie Watts, Gerald Wilson, Gerald Albright and Bobby Rodriguez, Patrice Rushen, Dianne Reeves, Ron Carter, Horace Tapscott, Clark Terry and numerous others before he was eighteen years old.



Ron Bruner Jr. has played drums in Suicidal Tendencies since 2002. The line-up was completd by Mike Muir, Mike Clark on guitar, Dean Pleasants on second guitar and Ron's brother Steve Bruner on bass.



The Bruner brothers' commitment to rapper Snoop Dogg would see the band without their services for one gig, Suicidal Tendencies duly enrolling Josh Paul and drummer Dave Hidalgo Jr. for this ocassion.



Ron Bruner's father, Ronald Bruner Sr. has been a great influence. Ron recalls:

"When I was three, I have memories of my dad allowing me to get on his drums and bang on them. My father figured that if I was going to do this, he had better guide me. So he started turning me onto records, and I remember my first record I got. It was Chick Corea and the Electric Band, and I remember studying that record. My father was really my guide. He was like, "Now that you 've done this, listen to this". He would take me to the drum store every Saturday and we would listen to a tape in the car. We 'd listen to a great drummer and I'd be like "Whoa! Who is that?" He wouldn't tell me, and instead he would just let me listen to it. Then he'd leave the cassette tape on the dash board or somewhere in the car and then I would recognize the cover. Also, my father would leave the tape sitting on the table somewhere, and over the weekend I would go and practice to it. I did that for years until I figured out that drumming was what I really wanted to do."

Ron's other main influences were, in the early years, the drummers at his church. Dave Weckl and Dennis Chambers were also influences.



Factoid: Ronald Bruner junior was the 1997 US West Coast regional winner of Guitar Center's "drum-off" solo competion.