DRUMANDSTAGE FORUM

How that dude can get out of bed every morning is beyond me, playing all those years...

He has a butt end stick in the left hand, this week.

Imagine the sheer number of wrist impacts he's had over the years. His wrists must be bionic! Tommy Aldridge is another guy like that--and is even older. Max Weinberg...there's another bionic dude. Imagine the number of hours these guys bodies have been exposed to that level of impact. Unbelievable!

Phil is actually an interesting study. I was watching a concert and there was one point that you could watch his hihat and foot. A little more going on there than meets the eye. Also, even with that golf swing snare technique, he actually finesses the hi hat and cymbals and when you can get a good shot of his left hand, especially on later tours, he looks like he nearly lets go of the stick before impact. I have a busy day, but when I get time I will try to find footage. And using a Foot Joy glove on his snare hand aids with not having to have a death grip.

That's why he wears gloves--because it "cushions" his grip a little, and he doesn't have to lock down on the stick so tightly. Gloves work well for that.

Ironically, I was using the Ahead drumsticks before Phil came back on the scene. I wish I still had some of the Easton branded ones. The grip tapes good, but my hand sweat would break it down. Adding gloves helped but then I fell too detached from the sticks. The sticks would get slick without the tape, so after 25ish years, I went back to wood.