Here’s some really terrible news that I just heard about tonight; Tom Ardolino, NRBQ’s longtime drummer and one of my favorite drummers of all time, has died. I don’t know what the cause was, but he’d been sick for a while.
Tom Ardolino just whacked the hell out of the drums, and played the biggest, loudest, fattest grooves you ever heard. What I loved more than anything about his playing was the way he’d find a place somewhere right in between straight four-on-the-floor and a shuffle, and just hammer the crap out of it. Kind of like this.
I always hate it when great musicians die, but this one hurts extra bad. Dammit.
We just posted a couple of NRBQ videos a week or two ago. Go watch ’em again.