Having played with Genesis, Weather Report, Santana and Phil Collins, Chester Thompson has a CV that stands up against that of any contemporary drummer, but, reflecting back over his career in a new interview, the Baltimore-born drummer singles out his time playing with Frank Zappa in the Mothers Of Invention where he truly learned what the art of drumming was all about.
In a new [paywalled] interview with The Telegraph, the 75-year-old drummer reveals that his first two years playing with Zappa in the mid '70s was an education like no other.
“People thought Zappa was some kind of freak-out hippy, but he was seriously dedicated,” Thompson tells writer Ian Winwood. “That was my first introduction to practising for 40 hours each week. It was eight hours a day and there was no time wasted. Every time we finished a rehearsal, I felt that my brain was sweating. It was really intense music, really difficult music, and I always say it was the best school I ever went to.”
