by Tina WhelskiDrummer Tommy Aldridge admits he’s enjoyed a very blessed career. He’s performed alongside the likes of guitarist Randy Rhoades, Ozzy Osbourne, John Sykes, Yngwie Malmsteen, Pat Travers and currently Whitesnake, who he’ll appear with at the Beacon Theatre on July 28.
“I met David Coverdale [Whitesnake frontman] when I was working with Ozzy touring in Europe supporting Whitesnake when Randy Rhoades was alive—in the good old days,” says Aldridge. “...David just out of the blue one day phoned me and we’ve been kind of hooked up off and on ever since…I’ve been really really blessed to have worked with some really really great guitar players and great musicians over the years.”
Coverdale qualifies as one of those exceptional talents.
“There are just a handful of guys like that in the history of the genre,” says Aldridge about Coverdale. “…He’s the real deal. It’s not somebody out there struggling to maintain the status quo. The guy gets better every year. It’s amazing.”
While Aldridge humbly credits some of rock’s greatest vocalists and riff players as inspiration, he feels equal admiration for the drummers whose well-written parts he’s playing on tour.
“There have been some really great drummers, Ian Pace, Cozy Powell, and Aynsley Dunbar associated with Whitesnake,” says Aldridge. “Even though I don’t play things exactly the way someone else would, I try to faithfully re-produce whatever magic was created in Cozy’s parts and particularly with Aynsley Dunbars because really the incarnation of Whitesnake that really set Whitesnake up was that 1987 record with John Sykes on guitar and Aynsley Dunbar on drums. It’s just a stellar record. Those drum parts could in no shape or form be improved upon…If I can’t successfully in my mind improve upon what’s there, then I won’t touch it. It’s the same with some of that early Ozzy stuff. When you’re working with someone like Randy Rhoades and he comes in with a guitar riff, like “Over The Mountain” the drum part is like built in. I really feel in a lot of ways how Mitch Mitchell must have felt when, not to compare myself with him, but when Jimi Hendrix would come in with some of those ridiculous guitar riffs or Jimi Page would come in with some of those unearthly guitar riffs, how inspiring to a drummer that is. Again, I don’t take a lot of credit for some of the parts that I’ve come up with working with Travers [Pat] and some of those guys. They’re just inspired by the riff you know? So you just sit down behind the kit and they kind of play themselves.”
Aldridge’s personal approach to writing is akin to “separating the weed from the chaff.”
“When I’m coming up with material I always overplay,” says Aldridge. “Like most drummers I like to play more notes than really are called for. I think it’s a complex from being constantly pushed to the back. We try to compensate for it by making as much racket as we possibly can. So I try to start simplifying things…We’ll throw stuff down in Pro Tools or something and I’ll listen to it and study it at home at night and come in the next day and just try to make it as simple as possible…The bottom line is really coming up with something creative that I haven’t heard everyone else play and it becomes ever more challenging with every passing year. Being the oldest instrument on the planet, it’s a real challenge to go in the rehearsal room and come up with something that’s different. It’s kind of daunting sometimes.”
Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/27/05.
Tommy Aldridge performing "Here I Go Again" live with Whitesnake.
“I met David Coverdale [Whitesnake frontman] when I was working with Ozzy touring in Europe supporting Whitesnake when Randy Rhoades was alive—in the good old days,” says Aldridge. “...David just out of the blue one day phoned me and we’ve been kind of hooked up off and on ever since…I’ve been really really blessed to have worked with some really really great guitar players and great musicians over the years.”
Coverdale qualifies as one of those exceptional talents.
“There are just a handful of guys like that in the history of the genre,” says Aldridge about Coverdale. “…He’s the real deal. It’s not somebody out there struggling to maintain the status quo. The guy gets better every year. It’s amazing.”
While Aldridge humbly credits some of rock’s greatest vocalists and riff players as inspiration, he feels equal admiration for the drummers whose well-written parts he’s playing on tour.
“There have been some really great drummers, Ian Pace, Cozy Powell, and Aynsley Dunbar associated with Whitesnake,” says Aldridge. “Even though I don’t play things exactly the way someone else would, I try to faithfully re-produce whatever magic was created in Cozy’s parts and particularly with Aynsley Dunbars because really the incarnation of Whitesnake that really set Whitesnake up was that 1987 record with John Sykes on guitar and Aynsley Dunbar on drums. It’s just a stellar record. Those drum parts could in no shape or form be improved upon…If I can’t successfully in my mind improve upon what’s there, then I won’t touch it. It’s the same with some of that early Ozzy stuff. When you’re working with someone like Randy Rhoades and he comes in with a guitar riff, like “Over The Mountain” the drum part is like built in. I really feel in a lot of ways how Mitch Mitchell must have felt when, not to compare myself with him, but when Jimi Hendrix would come in with some of those ridiculous guitar riffs or Jimi Page would come in with some of those unearthly guitar riffs, how inspiring to a drummer that is. Again, I don’t take a lot of credit for some of the parts that I’ve come up with working with Travers [Pat] and some of those guys. They’re just inspired by the riff you know? So you just sit down behind the kit and they kind of play themselves.”
Aldridge’s personal approach to writing is akin to “separating the weed from the chaff.”
“When I’m coming up with material I always overplay,” says Aldridge. “Like most drummers I like to play more notes than really are called for. I think it’s a complex from being constantly pushed to the back. We try to compensate for it by making as much racket as we possibly can. So I try to start simplifying things…We’ll throw stuff down in Pro Tools or something and I’ll listen to it and study it at home at night and come in the next day and just try to make it as simple as possible…The bottom line is really coming up with something creative that I haven’t heard everyone else play and it becomes ever more challenging with every passing year. Being the oldest instrument on the planet, it’s a real challenge to go in the rehearsal room and come up with something that’s different. It’s kind of daunting sometimes.”
Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/27/05.
Tommy Aldridge performing "Here I Go Again" live with Whitesnake.
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