I was the only one of my siblings to love Zeppelin. My sisters turned me on to Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, ELO, and many other artists I came to love. They were my resource. But my sisters didn’t care much for Zeppelin. My mother used to refer to them as “acid rock” and “drug music.” However, when I was in my late teens, I finally had a breakthrough and my mother started to appreciate Zeppelin’s music. In fact, she once told me that she saw a drummer who had, “The bass drum technique of John Bonham and the cymbal technique of Stewart Copeland.” That’s how deep my mother got into even drumming, although she didn’t play drums, music was her passion. I had periods where I became immersed in an artist — mostly ones that were slightly before my time — like Hendrix. I remember going to the library and taking home every Hendrix album and listening to Hendrix over and over for weeks. It was like Hendrix school!

But Zeppelin? I had heard a song on the radio. I don’t remember which one. I think maybe it was “Since I’ve Been Loving You” and I thought was one of the most awesome songs I ever heard. I had goose pimples and just wanted to play drums like that. Although it was The Who that made me finally decide that I wanted to be a rock and roll drummer. Both because playing drums was so much fun, and also because, my sisters were far superior keyboardists to me and I knew that I’d need to grow two more hands to play Chopin like my mother and sisters could play it.