John Bonham is considered by many to be the best rock drummer ever to pick up a pair of sticks. The [mp3com-artist]Led Zeppelin[/mp3com-artist] beat keeper died in 1980, but his skills and most famous beats are being preserved by current [mp3com-artist]Whitesnake[/mp3com-artist] drummer Brian Tichy.
[photogallerylink id=64615 align=left] Tichy, a huge Bonham fan, is posting “how-to” videos each day this week for Rhythm Magazine, focusing on showing drummers how to play various popular Bonham songs. The first installment is the complex beat for “Rock and Roll.” Tichy replaced the late Bonham’s son Jason in the band Foreigner in 2009 before joining Whitesnake a year later.
In 2007, Stylus magazine rated Bonham number 1 on its list of the 50 greatest rock drummers, as did the online music magazine Gigwise.com in 2008 and a Rolling Stone reader’s poll in 2011. Bonham was ranked at no. 1 on Classic Rock’s 2005 list of “50 Greatest Drummers in Rock” and both Modern Drummer and Rhythm magazines voted him the greatest drummer ever.
Bonham, who never had formal training, was noted for his amazingly fast style using only one bass drum. Roger Taylor of [mp3com-artist]Queen[/mp3com-artist] is reported to have said that Bonham “did more with one bass than most people could do with three.”
Below is the first video installment with Tichy and some classic Bonham footage.
