When you ask any drummer about their influences, the list of names is bound to include a one “Greg Errico” no matter what type of music they play. Errico, most famously the drummer for Sly & the Family Stone, baffled a lot of people in the industry—a white drummer in a multi-racial and multi-gendered band that seemed to defy every boundary they met. We sat down with the San Francisco native to discuss what went on behind the scenes in developing some of the most timeless music with one of the most groundbreaking bands of all time.

What were you listening to growing up that influenced the development of your own style as a drummer?

Growing up in San Francisco—it being an international city—we were exposed to a lot of music here between the radio and of course my folks loved music. So I listened to everything from Dave Brubeck to Xavier Cugat to James Brown and Wilson Pickett and Buddy Rich. I loved it all. I love good music and I gravitated to every genre. So when I started playing, I would explore all of those records and try to conquer them. I didn’t actually start playing until I was 14 and I was self-taught as well. I had a lot of drummer friends that would come home from school, hit the books, and hit the pads for a couple hours. I used to drive them crazy because I wouldn’t do that.

When we started Sly and the Family Stone I was 17-and-a-half, so it was only three years after I started playing. I wouldn’t know how to recreate that nowadays. Those opportunities came to me and that was my path in the beginning.

As the story goes—you met up with the musicians who would become Sly and the Family Stone and rehearse for seven nights straight. What type of music were you playing at that time in the absence of originals?

We didn’t even play the first night; we talked about what we were going to do. I had actually showed up that first night for rehearsal for another band because Sly’s brother Freddie and I had a band called the Stone Souls. So I was going to the house for the rehearsal for that band, but when I got there, Freddie and Sly told me we were going to do something new. I knew that Sly had made a couple attempts at starting bands that he wasn’t happy with, so he scrapped them.

So it was Sly that had worked on inviting everybody that night that were in the original band. Everyone showed up and met each other and we talked about what we were going to do. It’s December of 1966, so here we’re putting the band together with elements that had not really been explored or tested before, especially in the pop world. Being mixed—black and white, male and female, and all of these things—it was all very unusual. Sly was a great deejay and at that time had a very popular radio show. So he had visibility and he was a record producer already as well. It was very exciting and we just had the feeling that what we were doing was unique.

So that night we talked about what we were going to do. We were going to do our own material eventually, but if we wanted to start gigging we had to start out with some Top 40. At the same time, if we did that, we had to make them our own. We took these songs and rearranged them and just owned them. We approached it with that attitude. So those six other nights we took all these songs and reworked them and started playing them the week after. It looked, smelled, tasted unique, but when we got together and played, it was definitely something different going on. We didn’t realize the scope of what we would be doing until much later. Even as it was happening, we were just having fun and doing our thing. We were committed to it and we had each other’s backs. It was real cool.


Words by Eric Sandler

Full article: http://revivalist.okaypla...eg-errico/

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Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

[Edited 5/14/13 18:01pm]

Hands Feet!!!

Uh, part two tomorrow??? This band has done this to me all of my life, left me hanging.

Seriously, Mr. Errico had been only been playing for 3 years when he joined the family? Who does that... . Amazing.

^^^ People born to be players!

Prince was making records after playing guitar for only 4-5 years.

TD3 said:

Uh, part two tomorrow??? This band has done this to me all of my life, left me hanging.

Seriously, Mr. Errico had been only been playing for 3 years when he joined the family? Who does that... . Amazing.

EMPEROR101 said:

^^^ People born to be players!

Prince was making records after playing guitar for only 4-5 years.

TD3 said:

Uh, part two tomorrow??? This band has done this to me all of my life, left me hanging.

Seriously, Mr. Errico had been only been playing for 3 years when he joined the family? Who does that... . Amazing.

I said that in mock jest... but yeah duck to water as they say.

As for as Prince.

Interesting article but would love to read "part 2". That's what I'm really interested in- stories from between Woodstock and him finally leaving the group!