Rock and Roll
David Teegarden, the drummer for the Silver Bullet Band and noted recording engineer, was among the first musicians to be interviewed for the NAMM Resource Center collection. With a growing number of industry leaders from all aspects of the music products industry, the collection needed the views...
Carol Kaye can be heard on such landmark recordings as “La Bamba,” the Mission Impossible theme, and scores of hits produced by Phil Spector. She started playing jazz guitar in a big band during the early 1950s. Within the decade, she gained employment at the studio where she would later meet...
DJ Fontana drove down to Houston in a pink Cadillac with Elvis Presley after being hired as the then unknown singer’s first drummer. They pulled up to Herbie Brodstein’s Drum Shop (Herb would later form Pro-Mark Drum Sticks) to buy a kit. After playing on all of the sets Herb had out on display,...
Jeff “Skunk” Baxter gained enormous international fame as a founding member of Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers. Skunk’s solo licks are among the most noted and influential in rock and roll history. As product advisor, he has also played an important role in the early Roland guitar synthesizers...
John Hampton was a Grammy winning engineer at the Ardent Studios in Memphis, where he worked side by side with the studio's founder, John Fry. The studio recorded a long list of artists from Stax in the early days when Mr. Fry opened the business. Over the years the studio was home to many...
This audio only interview was conducted by David Schwartz and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Al Jardine can be heard on the very first Beach Boys recording. The song, “Surfin’” was recorded in 1961 for Candix Records. Al left the group for a bit but returned to play bass for the group in...