JANE’S ADDICTION, ?UESTLOVE, 30 SECONDS TO MARS, ANGELS AND AIRWAVES JUDGE 2008 DRUM OFF

Angels and Airwaves, ?uestlove, Street Drum Core, Vinny Appice, Shannon Leto, Adrian Young and a few others were on hand for Guitar Center’s 2008 Drum Off.

Stephen Perkins of Jane’s Addiction hosted Guitar Center’s 2008 Drum Off which also featured performances by the four Drum-Off finalists as well as Angels & Airwaves, “Go Get A Late Pass!!!” featuring ?uestlove of The Roots and Nikka Costa, Street Drum Corps with special guests Adrian Young of No Doubt, Brooks Wackerman of Bad Religion, Shannon Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars, John Sawicki of Stomp and Byron McMackin of Pennywise. After four rounds of intense competition, Donald Marple of Keyser, WV battled it out with Paul Stoot of Everett, WA, Sherman Arnold of Aurora, CO and Ivan Garcia from Oglethorpe, GA and edged each drummer to win the title of 2008 Drum-Off Grand Champion. Just a few of the amazing drummers on hand were Joey Castillo of Queens of the Stone Age, Vinny Appice of Black Sabbath, Ray Luzier of Army of Anyone and Korn, Kenny Arnoff, Alan White of Yes and drummer for Rob Zombie, John Tempesta. Steve Smith of Journey and David Garibaldi of Tower of Power, had the tough job of selecting the winner among the four outstanding Drum-Off finalists.

We caught up with Stephen Perkins to get his thoughts on the Drum Off and what he was looking for from the 4 finalists.

“Well when you see four guys that have been competing for a year to get here, you’re going to see some very disciplined, precise drumming. What I’m looking for is stage presence, creativity and of course the technique, the chops. And then you’re going to see a bunch of drummers having a good time drinking a beer.”

We also caught up with ?uestlove to get his thoughts on why he finally took part in the Drum Off after getting approached the past few years and Atom Willard of Angels and Airwaves to get his thoughts on being part of another successful Drum Off.

“They’ve been coaxing me for the longest time. But pretty much, I don’t know, I’m so against the system of judge and jury and ‘You’re good! You’re not good!’ Basically a person’s performance is based on how they’re feeling at that moment. So, I shied away from it but last year they dangled something in front of my face. They said ‘Steve Ferrone’s coming.’ And I was like ‘Beep! Beep!’ Because that guy’s my idol. (Willard) Ok, the Drum Off is a chance for drummers like myself, who are very fortunate to make a living in the professional aspect of drumming, to be shamed and humbled by people who are competing in Guitar Center’s contest. Can I say F***? They’re F***in’ good! They are insane. These guys are something. I’ve judged a few of them the past few years and everything, so you come down and they do their thing and it’s amazing. So, it’s fun. It’s fun to hang out with other drummers and we all talk about how much we ha

We also spoke with Donald Marple who took home the title for best unsigned drummer to get his thoughts on what a dream come true this was for him and what goes into making a world class drummer.

“Unbelievable. I can’t believe it. It’s a dream come true. Originality, musicality and pretty much anything that the judges like. If you do your thing, go out there and have fun, those are the biggest things. I can’t wait to see them and they tell me they can’t wait to see. This is going to be a festival. We’re going to have some fun and do our thing on stage.”

Drummers across the country began competing this past September at Guitar Center stores. Beginning with preliminaries in over 213 Guitar Center stores, drummers then advanced on from store preliminaries to store finals. Winners of store finals then went on to compete at district finals at 24 Guitar Center stores nationwide for the chance to advance on to four regional competitions with the winner of each of these regions advancing on to the Finals, which took place in at Music Box in Hollywood, Ca on January 5th, 2008. Marple walked away with a prize package that included a Toyota FJ Cruiser, $10,000 cash, a feature in a Guitar Center ad campaign, a $2,500 Levi’s shopping spree, a custom designed drum kit from Roland TD20 electronic drum-set, a set of cymbals custom printed with the winner’s signature, a one year drum, cymbal, stick and head endorsement deal, and a write up in Modern Drummer magazine valued at more than $40,000. Previous Drum-Off winners have gone on to enjoy successful music careers, record albums and tour the world with noteworthy artists. Drum-Off Champion 2002, Cora Coleman, is currently performing with legendary recording artist Prince. Eric Moore II, Drum-Off 2003 Champion, has also achieved notoriety by performing with psychedelic funk band Sly and the Family Stone as well as singer Bobby Brown.