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Tutt, Ron (12th March 1938-16th October 2021)

He was a multi-instrumentalist and drummer born in Dallas, Texas whose first musical studies came at the age of three when he took tap dancing and voice classes and this would be followed with violin lessons which would prove useful when he was enrolled in the school orchestra.

When he was ten he won a ukulele competition and when he was eleven he appeared live on television in Dallas.  Although becoming a good trumpet player he decided in high school that he wanted to concentrate on the drums and this would be his road to success.

He studied music at the University of North Texas and becoming a drummer for Elvis Presley in 1969 he would remain with him until his death in 1977.

He became a member of the Jerry Garcia tour band before becoming a long-term member of Neil Diamond’s band from 1981, which was only temporarily halted when he had a heart attack.

Making over 150 recordings, other acclaimed artists that he  been worked with are the band Mink DeVille, Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, David Cassidy, England Dan & Jon Ford Coley, The Carpenters, Little Richard, Kenny Rogers, Stevie Nicks, Tony Sheridan, Billy Joel and Michael McDonald.

He died in October 2021 when he was 83 years old.

Sources:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Tutt
  2. https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/1507185/Elvis-drummer-Ronnie-Tutt-dead-TCB-band-drummer
  3. http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Ron_Tutt.html
  4. http://tonysheridan.com/html/tcb.html
  5. http://www.neildiamondhomepage.com/band.htm#RT