Drummer Danny Young is my first interview of 2016. After an amazing 11 months on the road with the national tour of ‘Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You‘, Danny recently relocated back to Nashville where he has jumped into a variety of session work, and has also started working with a number of new and established artists in and out of town.
Prior to ‘We Will Rock You’, Danny was the drummer and drum book composer on the new Broadway bound show, ‘The Nutty Professor’; working with Jerry Lewis, Rupert Holmes and the late, great Marvin Hamlish. He also toured on Green Day’s ‘American Idiot‘, Mel Brooks ‘Young Frankenstein the Musical’, with the 80’s hair band Nelson, country artist Katie Armiger, The Platters, Derryl Perry, has made back-line appearances on NBC’s SMASH!, was the debut drummer of ‘Chicago’ and ‘Hairspray on the worlds largest cruise ships Oasis and Allure of the Seas and has many drum students. Danny has also made one time appearances with Shania Twain, Liza Minnelli, Ann Hampton Callaway, Lorna Luft, The Drifters, The Four Tops, Maureen McGovern, Andrea Clearfield and many more…
In addition to touring, Danny has also started a seminar with fellow drummer and friend, Danny Taylor, called ‘Beyond the Gig‘. The program focuses on the business, networking and promotion side of the music industry. By touching on topics that go beyond just “playing”, it offers students the knowledge and direction they need to be one step ahead of the game.
In this interview, Danny talks about:
Auditioning for Queen musical in front of Roger Taylor and Brian May
Playing Green Day musical while band members were on stage
Writing the drum book for Broadway show The Nutty Professor
Learning the music from the recordings
Not relying on charts alone
Being a music supervisor on cruise ships
Teaching others how to market themselves with “Beyond The Gig”
Applying large musical skill set to create work beyond drumming
Click here for pictures
this interview was conducted January 2nd, 2016