|
What gave you the idea to put the cymbals behind you? |
 |
 |
 |
I get asked this one a lot. Years ago (1990, maybe) a friend of mine, Billy White, was playing guitar with Don Dokken. I was talking with him on the phone about the drummer auditions that they were holding. He mentioned that they had a guy audition that had a cymbal way back behind his floor tom and he had to reach way back to hit it. I said, "Wow, a cymbal behind him?!" He said, "No, not behind him but he definitely had to reach for it". I thought about it for a bit and went to my practice room and set up a cymbal behind me on the right. It wasn't difficult at all to hit and use it in patterns. I thought, "Cool, I'll put one on the left, too". The left one was a bit strange. It didn't feel comfortable at head level the way the right one did. I experimented with it and found out that it felt better quite a bit higher.
It has become the most identifying aspect of my setup. I didn't use the cymbals behind me on the Iced Earth tour in 2003 because I didn't have much time to work out the songs and I was surprised how many drummers, singers, even record and radio people asked me "Where's the cymbals behind you?" - I guess, I'm stuck with them. I'm just glad that I did it before anyone else did. |
