Stewart Copeland is widely regarded as one of the best rock drummers out there. In addition to his work with The Police, with whom he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, Copeland has scored films such as Wall Street, television shows including Dead Like Me, and video games including the Spyro franchise. The man even composed a soundtrack for the Blackberry Bold smartphone in 2008, comprising six ringtones and an alarm tone for the device. Fifty years into the game, he has still very much got it.
Despite claiming that he “doesn’t know shit” and “doesn’t know any songs,” Copeland can spin straw into gold behind the kit, as he does for Drumeo in their wildly popular First Time series, in which drummers compose drum parts for songs they’ve never heard before and are (usually) way out of their respective wheelhouses. Host Brandon Toews gives the man also known as Klark Kent “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)” by Limp Bizkit, the drums for which were originally performed by drummer and Matthews Bridge enthusiast John Otto on LB’s Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water.
Copeland needs but one take, and the result is jaw-dropping for him given he decided to “fake the shit out of it.”
His improv skills are predictably off the charts, seeming to use Fred Durst’s lyrics and delivery as a guideline. On the line “fuck this track up,” Copeland hits the snare and crash with each syllable to highlight the aggression and liberal use of the word “fuck.” This flies in the face of what he confesses later, that he is “a riff guy… sign your goddamn song, I’m bangin’ shit here!” The bridge brings lots of said “bangin’ shit,” building to an Octaband crescendo that is only diminished by the fact that, by his own admission, Copeland “can’t remember where they are and [his] aim is not so good.”
Maybe his aim isn’t so good, but his on-the-fly drumming and dialing into the music sets him apart from many other musicians, much less drummers.
Check out Stewart Copeland’s First Time video on Drumeo below:
