He is a drummer who began studying the drums when he was five years old and became professional as a young teenager. When he had finished his high school education he became a member of the Navy Jazz Band that led him to studying Roy Knapp for a year in Chicago.
He moved to New York and performed with the Zoot Sims/Al Cohn Quintet before becoming a sought after studio drummer.
Paul McCartney contacted him in New York, and after auditioning him, asked him to London to join him and Linda on work they were doing and this would lead to him becoming a co-founder of Wings with the guitarist and singer Denny Laine. With them he would perform on the hits “My Love” and “Live and Let Die” among many others. Leaving them around 1973, after doing three tours, he carried on his work in London with artists such as The Who on the rock opera Tommy, Donovan and Joe Cocker.
He returned to the United States and over the course of his career has featured on recordings by artists that include Astrud Gilberto, Deniece Williams, Billy Joel’s “Cold Spring Harbor”, James Brown and Art Garfunkel.
In the movies he has appeared in the 2006 film Bobby as well as featuring as part of Wings in various documentaries, and working on the music for Dinosaur, Waterworld and Atlantis among others with the composer James Newton Howard.
As a teacher he has held drum clinics and visited several universities.
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