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Looper's Delight
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One of my dearest friends from the percussion and live looping world,
Tom Roady has passed away.
I got the news from Jerome Deupree and have no details but
this is just the saddest of news.
I was at the Nashville Pasic on the last day with several business appointments
with endorsers and I kept getting this call from a guy named Tom Roady, who I didn't know
who wanted to know more about live looping.
I finally promised him that I'd meet him in the food court of the convention center
at exactly 15 minutes to the hour with the proviso that i could only talk for around
10 minutes or so before my next appointment. I'll admit, I was impatient as hell
when this kind grey hair, bestacled man came up and introduced himself to me.
We talked for five minutes and in that five minutes I suddenly realized that I had
met a soul brother. Here was a cat who was knowledge as hell about world percussion,
electronics, sequencing, drum controllers and who had not only a razor sharp intellect
and a really wonderful sense of humor, but was also just the sweetest guy I think I've ever
met.
We sat there for three hours, transfixed; talking about all the things that are rare to talk
about at a drumming convention if you are a little outside of the box.
I didn't even know who he was. Afterwards I went to his website and realized that I had
been naively talking to one of the great drummers of Nashville history..........a guy who
had played with EVERYBODY!!!!!!!
Born in St. Louis, Roady got his first break working at the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where he recorded with such artists as Mac Davis, Tom Jones, Candi Staton, and Paul Anka. Since then he has played with a vast roster of artists, including James Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Simon and Garfunkel, Michael McDonald, Bob Seger, Emmylou Harris, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Dixie Chicks, Kenny Chesney, Alabama, and Kenny Rogers, just to name a few.
In my own life experiences with Tom, he got us a wonderful improvisational gig on NPR Nashville and I remember one memorable evening jamming at his home studio with German Frame drummer, David Kuckhermann.
Everytime I came to Nashville he would always insist on putting me up.
One time, he apologetically told me that he couldn't give me
a ride back to the PASIC convention on the last day because he had a gig in Memphis.
I said, 'who are you gigging with' and he said, nonchalantly....."Aretha".
"ARETHA????? ARETHA FRANKLIN ARETHA?" I asked,
and he said yes. Well, I blew off the last day of PASIC and we drove together to
see Aretha......and I got to watch him do a three hour rehearsal with a 30 piece orchestra/band and even got to go
back stage and meet Aretha herself.
Tom was so humble he wasn't even going to tell me that he couldn't give me a ride to the
convention because he had a gig with the Queen of Soul.
That was the kind of guy he was. A great player, a great heart, a great wit, a great friend.
RIP Tom Roady You will be sorely missed, brother!!!!!
love, Rick Walker