Louie Bellson Smithsonian Interview Block 221 (Q11017)

That's right. He was another little guy. Soaking wet, he weighed 98 pounds. They used to hire another drummer to come in, because after the first hour he'd get drunk and fall down in back of the bass drum. But he's the first guy to play damp drums, bass drum. By that I mean, years ago guys used to tune their drums - if you had a skin head, and you had to play outdoors in the sun, that drum hea ...