Music

Metal drumming's earliest influence Ginger Baker hates metal

by Richard Howard

Ginger Baker is often considered to be the greatest early influence on modern rock drumming. Because of his manic, hard hitting style, he is also perceived to be the first metal drummer, predating even Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham. So you can imagine there were many tears shed onto snare drums and way-too-short drummer shorts when Baker revealed that he absolutely hates heavy metal. Sorry, I’m misquoting him. He actually “loathes and detests” the genre.

If you’re not familiar with Baker’s groundbreaking playing with Cream, supergroup Blind Faith, or Jonny Rotten’s Public Image Ltd, you can start with the excellent documentary Beware of Mr. Baker on Netflix. Along with his prodigious talent, the film showcases Baker’s impressively foul mouth, crotchety nature, addictions, and hate of pretty much everyone and everything. The revelation of his distaste for metal may come as a surprise, but the way he chose to express it is pretty much par for the course.

“These people that dress up in spandex trousers with all the extraordinary makeup — I find it incredibly repulsive, always have,” said Baker in an interview with Forbes. “I’ve seen where Cream is sort of held responsible for the birth of heavy metal. Well, I would definitely go for aborting. [Laughs] I loathe and detest heavy metal. I think it is an abortion.”

At this point, drummers will no doubt exhale and think, “Makeup? Oh, he just hates hair metal! Well, everybody hates that crap — thank you sweet baby Jesus for not making my universe collapse upon itself.” Sorry everyone, bad news… Baker then went on to clarify that he hates all heavy music:

“A lot of these guys come up and say, ‘Man, you were my influence, the way you thrashed the drums.’ They don’t seem to understand I was thrashing in order to hear what I was playing. It was anger, not enjoyment — and painful. I suffered on stage because of that [high amplifier] volume crap. I didn’t like it then, and like it even less now.”

Oh, and just to put the icing on the I-want-to-destroy-everything-you-love-about-the-genesis-of-metal cake, Baker then shit on the only man who gets an equal or greater amount of props than him for inspiring legions of metal drummers: John Bonham. “Years ago, John said, ‘There are two drummers in rock and roll, Ginger Baker and me.’ There’s no way John was anywhere near what I am. He wasn’t a musician.”

Jesus. Can somebody give this dude a hug? Actually, scratch that suggestion. I’m pretty sure he’d just put one of his rapidly chain-smoked cigarettes out in your eye.