Drummers Turned Strummers

Never one to rest long on his laurels, Stinky has a whole 'nother concept for his latest homemade album: Drummers Who Became Guitarists. If you asked me to name guitarists who started out as drummers, J. Mascis and Dave Grohl would come to mind. Given enough time, I might remember that B-52's guitarist Keith Strickland was their drummer before Ricky Wilson died; or that Skip Spence was Jefferson Airplane's drummer before Moby Grape got together.

If you've earned your indie music hipster badge, you probably know that Jack White was a Detroit stickman before he and Meg started the White Stripes, and that the fella now known as Father John Misty was once Fleet Foxes' drummer. But unless you're a tenured professor at the college of musical knowledge, you probably couldn't name 20 (twenty!) guitar slingers who started out behind the kit.

Stinky's compilation includes highly regarded guitarists whose fretwork has eclipsed their early beatkeeping careers; and (conversely) folks who are well-known as drummers, but less so as strummers.  Then there are famous singers who aren't known for either instrument. I could tell you that Belinda Carlisle was the Germs' first drummer, but didn't know that she played guitar. I knew that Chris Cornell played guitar, but not that he was originally Soundgarden's drummer.

Stinky submitted this comp with a note that there might never be a Volume 2, since even he was hard-pressed to come up with any more examples. If you've got some thoughts, leave a comment! Keep in mind the theme is intended to be more challenging than "drummers who also played guitar" (like Levon Helm) or "drummers turned frontmen" (like Iggy Pop, Ricky Williams, or Bobby Gillespie).

I can only think of one singer-guitarist who started as a drummer and isn't on today's compilation. It almost feels like cheating because I came across it by accident, while browsing Discogs' entry for Craig Bell's post-RFTT band Saucers. Turns out that Mark Mulcahy was Saucers' drummer, before he formed Miracle Legion.