Danny Carey

Danny Carey grew up in a very typical, middle-class American house in Paola, Kansas. His father was a manager for a large insurance company and his mother was a school teacher. Danny has one older brother and one younger brother. Danny's earliest musical memory was when his father took him into the music library at the University of Kansas and played The Planets by Gustov Holst. Danny started taking lessons when he was ten or eleven, just on the snare drum in school band, and then again when he got his first kit at thirteen. Danny received a scholarship in High School to go to the Conservatory of Music in Kansas City.

Danny studied music for over three years at the University of Missouri. He had a couple of offers to play basketball at small colleges, but knew he wasn't good enough to play major college basketball or to go pro. Danny spent years working on his rudiments and doing drum corps. He always loved Billy Cobham and Buddy Rich because no matter how fast they played, you could hear every note. When he was in college he got a lot of classical training, doing recitals for three and a half years. He could have earned a degree if he stuck it out a while longer, but just wanted to play the drum set a little more, so he bailed on school when an opportunity came to go on the road with a band.

 

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