A drummer recently reflected on being asked to stay on as a backup for another band member in 1994 during an appearance on ‘1 Question With.’ When asked if he felt insulted by the offer, he said:
“Sort of, yes. I wasn’t very happy about it. Who would be, right? They wanted to keep me on in case. The band’s guitarist called me personally. He was a very nice guy.”
The drummer played on the band’s 1990 album and its supporting tour. He was asked to stick around by the guitarist in case things didn’t work out with the previous drummer, who had been fired in 1983:
“He called me personally, not a manager or anything, and he said, ‘Look, it’s nothing bad. There’s nothing you are doing or have not done, but we’re going to try the previous drummer out again, OK?’ And I said, ‘Oh, well, that’s it. I’m gone.’ Then he said, ‘No, no. We’d like you to stay around.’ I said, ‘No. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.'”
The drummer expressed willingness to return.
The previous drummer stopped touring with the band last year, and they hired a new drummer. The former drummer celebrated the new hire on social media, writing:
“I know the new drummer as a very nice guy from my days of living in California. He is a very capable, teetotal drummer and will put the drums exactly where the guitarist wants them… At the back of the stage. I wish him the best of luck!”
The band kicked off a new tour – their first since 2016 – with the new drummer in May 2024. Meanwhile, the former drummer said in a previous interview that he was open to playing with the band again. His words to ‘Rock Camp: The Podcast’ were:
“Of course, I know I would’ve done it. I can’t walk, but I can play drums. [Laughs] I don’t think the guitarist believes that, but who knows? I’d probably play it more like the previous drummer does these days, not like I did in the ’90s. I would’ve been interested, definitely. But that’s the way it rolls, you know.”
The band will wrap up their 24-date European tour in Ireland on August 17.
