BISSONETTE, GREGG
When => Simon Phillips couldn't join Toto in 1995 for the first part of the => "Tambu"-tour because of problems with his back, Gregg Bissonette (born in Detroit) was chosen as his replacement:"In 1994 => Simon Phillips called and asked me to sub for Toto in Europe. As soon as I went into the intro of that tune [Rosanna, DH], the whole arena went to their feet and freaked out. It was a worldwide groove that people recognized! The trickiest thing about playing that song live was that B section where it goes: 'Much quieter here since you went away,' that finger snap part. Jeff had this ability to pull it back ever so slightly and put it in this whole other place. I remember I called it the B section, but Mike Porcaro always called it the church section. 'We're going to church in this part.' That's how Jeff would think of it."
"I remember the first time I heard => Rosanna on the radio. I was driving to go hear nnie Colaiuta's band at the Flying Jib in Encino, and the song had just come out that day. Everybody was playing it. I remember getting to the club and the band was setting up, and percussionist Michael Fisher started playing his conga's to that kind of shuffle and said: 'How about that new Toto tune?' Everybody in the club - which was always packed with musicians - was talking about Jeff's feel and the shuffle. When I was a kid growing up, it was: 'Hey, can you play In a gadda da vida?' But it became: 'Hey, can you play Rosanna?' 'I don't think so, man, can you?' 'I don't think so.' That feel!" (Modern Drummer, August 2002)
Bissonette played with David Lee Roth for quite some years, but also played with the likes of Joe Satriani, Any Summers, Stevie Nicks, Steve Vai and jazz great Maynard Ferguson. With his brother Matt, he has a band called the Mustard Seeds.
He and Luke enjoyed their collaboration so much, Gregg was invited to play on Steve's third solo album => "Luke" and subsequently on the Lukather / Carlton tour & album "No Substitutions." Gregg has released two solo-albums: "Siblings", featuring Steve Lukather on guitar, and "Submarine"
On the album "Submarine", Gregg plays a song called "Frankenstein" and mixes that with various other famous drum
patternes:
I started with the "Frankenstein" thing, then I did Joey Kramer's "Walk This Way," Charlie Watts' "Honky Tonk Women,"
with the cowbell in the groove, Ringo's "The End" from Abbey Road, Don Brewer's intro to "American Band," with the cowbell
and toms, Ringo's "Tomorrow Never Knows," Alex Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher," John Bonham's "Rock And Roll," Ron Wilson of
the Safaris' version of "Wipeout," Mitch Mitchell's "Manic Depression," Jeff Porcaro's "Rosanna," Ringo's "Come
Together," ending up with "Frankenstein." It was just really fun to get to do that.
(DRUM! Magazine)
Related Pages
Steve LukatherSimon Phillips
Tambu
No Substitutions
No Substitutions: Live In Paris (DVD)
LUKE