....and now for an exclusive.

If you are reading this, it’s possible you saw an ad for me on page 77 of the November 2020 issue of Modern Drummer. I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t put that ad there.

Well then, who did?

A couple months prior, I ran into a former student while on a walk with the family. Alex who had been a student of mine through his high school years and I were discussing various issues of Modern Drummer. I was telling him how I was keeping afloat during the pandemic by selling old issues of the magazine, most notably the ones featuring Neil Peart as demand for back issues increased due to his unfortunate death.

Alex mentioned he would love to get the issues with Taylor Hawkins on the cover. Sadly, I must have sold those issues in the last six months and couldn’t give them to him. However I did have some digital archived issues and was able to forward the pdf of one of the issues featuring Hawkins on the cover.

When sent the digital file to him, he asked me if I ever considered running an ad in MD for exposure. I told him I had never given it much thought but that it was probably the closets I would ever get to being featured in the magazine.

So to my surprise, Alex calls me and tells me he wants to drop something off. I thought maybe it was a cd of songs he’s been working on or some sort of promo swag type stuff for that project. He comes up to my door(wearing a mask, of course.) and says to me: “TAYLOR HAWKINS” and hands me a Modern Drummer with a napkin in it. I truly had no idea what was going on and as I’m looking through the bookmarked page I spot this picture that I recognized from my own collection. It was a screen grab from a performance video from years ago and below it read this website. I was blown away. In fact, speechless. He took out an ad so I could so I was in Modern Drummer as a birthday present. Still in shock actually. Heck, the advertising department at Modern Drummer thought it was so cool they sent him multiple copies of the magazine.

There is something more to this story though.

I was going to quit drums.

The pandemic has wreaked havoc on my music career and ambitions. I shut everything down for fears I would get the virus right before the birth of my daughter and I wouldn't be allowed to be at my wife’s side for her delivery. All my gigs were gone. I had no plan, I wasn’t prepared and honestly was chasing my tail this whole summer. My drums have been stacked in a corner in the basement for the past two months. I miss playing them but it’s currently a little bit of a challenge to play anything other than a practice pad.

As this amazing gesture/gift started sink in I told Alex how energized I felt. Maybe because it was so unexpected or just the fact that one of my students believes in me that much that the feelings of quitting were lifted almost instantly.

To be honest, if I was ever featured in Modern Drummer now, it wouldn’t be as cool as Alex’s ad.

Thanks Alex!