Average band with a great drummer sounds great, great band with an average drummer sounds average.

But, I don't think any arranger should ever write a drum part for a drummer because if a drummer can't create his own Interpretation of the chart and he plays everything that's written, he becomes mechanical; he has no freedom.

I think at one time every drummer wanted to play like Krupa or wanted to win a Gene Krupa drum contest. This is the big inspiration for drummers and naturally it has to be the same way for me.

But I think that any young drummer starting out today should get himself a great teacher and learn all there is to know about the instrument that he wants to play.

I think it's a fallacy that the harder you practice the better you get.

There were so many individual styles thirty or forty years ago.

Every drummer that had a name, had a name because of his individual playing. He didn't sound like anybody else, So everybody that I ever listened to, in some form, influenced my taste.