Born into a musical family, John Wackerman continues the musical legacy which started with his father Chuck, a music teacher for over 45 years and precedes with his three brothers: Chad, Bob and Brooks.

Chad has played drums with Frank Zappa, Barbra Streisand, and Allan Holdsworth. Bob is bassist, he has played with Maynard Ferguson, Keiko Matsui, and Henry Mancini). And Brooks is a drummer too; he has played with Bad Religion, Avril Lavigne, and Suicidal Tendencies.

Starting piano lessons at the age of five was John\'s introduction into performance, but his true passion for percussion began when his father decided to sell his boat to purchase a vibraphone. John said in a recent interview:

\"My Mom and Dad would drive me to all my lessons and music competitions and were very supportive. I was doing all of these private lessons and going to school and things were really hectic, but it taught me persistence and determination\"

At age sixteen John Wackerman joined the Bill Watrous Big Band and from there moved onto playing with Maynard Ferguson, Kazumi Watanabe, Bunny Brunel, Patrick Moraz (Moody Blues, Yes), and Lindsay Buckingham (of Fleetwood Mac).

More recently he released his instructional book \"John Wackerman: Drum Duets\". In this publication, John performs one-of-a-kind drum duets with some of today\'s most notable drummers, including: Steve Gadd, Peter Erskine, Steve Smith, Ricky Lawson, Alex Acuña and Chad Wackerman to name a few. An audio cd is included.