© Paul Hebert/Corbis
Stone Sour drummer Roy Mayorga knows a thing or two about showmanship.
His own playing style is fantastically frenetic. As he explained in March 2011's Rhythm, "That just happens to be my personality. It just comes out naturally. I've always experienced over-the-top things, like the kind of music I listen to from heavy rock to punk rock and the whole outlandish idea of being a spectacle. When I'm on stage I'm just possessed to do that. I'm not really thinking about it, it's all instinctive. I just feel the music and the room and the crowd. All of that caters to what I do on stage. It makes me give everything I've got. That night might be my last show, you never know. That's behind why I play the way I play."
"It's just subconscious. Every night's different, some nights I'm more full-on than others. It's how I feel during the day and my mood or what the vibe and low of the set is, how the crowd's going, how the band reacts and so forth. It's something you can't just put on, it can't be contrived and it has to come naturally. But it doesn't make you a bad drummer if you're not flailing around like a f**king maniac."
As Roy is such a renowned showman we asked him to give us his top three similarly charismatic tub thumpers. Here's who got the Mayorga nod.
Keith Moon
"His personality comes out in his drumming. This flamboyant personality. That's what I loved about his drumming, it was different from anybody else's. When you heard Keith you always knew it was Keith because he also did the four-on-the-floor kick drum pattern with these crazy triplet patterns on the snare and toms with accented cymbal crashes."
Gene Krupa
"The king of all showmen. Incredible. Without him you wouldn't have any stick-twirling or any of the crazy antics and just being over the top with your instrument. It all comes from Gene Krupa."
Arejay Hale (Halestorm)
"He has that crazy, on-the-edge energy, like Keith Moon. He's got this flailing about but such a pocket at the same time. That's really hard to do, being a showman and having a pocket. He keeps it solid."
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