Gary James' Interview With Drummer
Sandy Gennaro



What an impressive resume Sandy Gennaro has! As a drummer, whether in the studio or on the road, Sandy Gennaro has worked with the very best in the music business. We're talking The Monkees, Cyndy Lauper, Joan Jett, Bo Diddley, Benny Mardones, Johnny Winter, and The Mamas And Papas. He's been featured on several Top 10 singles and performed for over a billion fans in a career that's spanned more than fifty years. Now that's impressive! He's appeared on TV shows like Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, The Grammy Awards, The American Music Awards, The MTV New Year's Ball and The Late Show With David Letterman. Sandy Gennaro talked with us about the people he's met and worked with over the years. You'd be hard pressed to find a more interesting story.

Q - Sandy, you've worked with some of the biggest names in the music business, haven't you?

A - Yes, I have.

Q - I just interviewed a guy named Rich Dart, who plays drums for The Monkees.

A - Right.

Q - You played drums for The Monkees from 1987 until 2012 when Davy Jones passed away.

A - Right.

Q - Your work with The Monkees took you around the world, did it?

A - Yes, it did. To use the term Monkees nowadays is really kind of a stretch. When Rich Dart goes out, he goes out with either Mickey Dolenz solo, or he goes out with Mike Nesmith and Mickey. The other two Monkees are gone. From a personal standpoint I even kind of thought the Monkee name was a little bit diluted down after Davy passed away. That's one of the main reasons why I left. I didn't think it was The Monkees anymore without Davy. And second of all, at the same time I was getting more and more work with Bo Diddley. So, I sort of went with Bo Diddley. Rich Dart was the one that replaced me in The Monkees' band, if you want to call it that, or Mickey Dolenz's band. Mickey Dolenz still does solo shows, which most of 'em Rich Dart is part of. He's a real nice guy by the way. I like Rich.

Q - You spent so much time with The Monkees I take it you were a fan of the group?

A - Oh, yeah. I was a Monkees fan even before I met those guys. I was a Monkees fan when I was in grammar school and high school in the '60s. I used to rush home and watch 'em . I thought it was fascinating that they were the first band to basically use video to sell a record. If you remember their show, at the end of the show they'd all play a song as the credits rolled. They would all lip-synch the song, a Monkees song, and that particular song was the single at the time.

Q - Their songs have held up very well.

A - Yes, 'cause they're great songs and great songs will always be played and always hold up years later and they become our classical music. The Brahms Sonata and Beethoven's Fifth and all that, there's reasons why they're still popular and they're called classic music. It's because the public latches on to them and never lets go. That's why you'll hear Monkee songs, "I'm A Beliver", "Clarksville" and "Steppin' Stone". You'll hear them forever. And the same with some of the other songs I've been involved with, like some of Cyndi's songs and "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" by Joan (Jett). All of those songs. "Time After Time", "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", "Hey Bo Diddley", "California Dreamin'" I'm very lucky to have been involved with in some iconic songs.

Q - Yes you are! At 14 you joined your first band.

A - Right.

Q - At 16 you were playing the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania high school party circuit. Does that mean high school dances?

A - Well, when I was 16 I played my first bar. So, I started playing bars, but more often when I was 16 I started playing high school dances, block parties, private birthday parties or graduation parties. Then eventually the dances morphed more into bars and playing every weekend in one bar. I remember we had one gig in one bar on Staten Island on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for months at a time. That kind of negated the high school dances and the gigs got to be more adult as time went on.

Q - Now, you did graduate high school, correct?

A - I did. I graduated high school and I have two years of college.

Q - At 18 you were in the mid-West, playing nightclubs and bars in a cover band.

A - That's correct. It was more like when I was 19 to 20. Something like that. I joined this band and we went on the road in the mid-West and we played five sets a night, six days a week for months at a time.

Q - You could do that back in those days.

A - Yeah. There were the venues to do it. We drove around in a van with no crew and set up all our stuff and played five hours a night, six nights a week and that's basically how I cut my teeth in playing Rock 'n' Roll.

Q - In 1976 you moved to California and joined this band Blackjack with Michael Bolton. What was it like to work with Michael Bolton?

A - Michael was a very, very good songwriter. He had a very unique voice. Even though Blackjack was a total, equal band membership situation, we each had a say in what went on. But being that Michael and Bruce (Kulick) were the principal songwriters, they basically dictated what songs we did and what songs we recorded. Of those two, Michael was basically the kingpin of that band.

Q - It was Michael's label deal?

A - Well, we were all signed to the label equally, but it was after the Blackjack situation. We did two records, Blackjack had our deal on Polygram Records, Polydor Records. Polygram was the parent company. And after that deal was done, after we exhausted the possibilities of that band, Michael went ahead and got a different manager and signed with Columbia. That's where his name became Bolton. In Blackjack it was Bolotin. Then he changed it or shortened it, changed the spelling of it, and the pronunciation when he went solo.

Q - You guys toured with Peter Frampton.

A - That's correct.

Q - You must've played some fairly big venues then.

A - It was the Peter Frampton tour after the one "Frampton Comes Alive". Peter Frampton put out a record called "I'm In You" and it was the tour in support of that record that Blackjack opened for Peter on about two weeks worth of dates. It wasn't very long. But he had the same band as the "Frampton Comes Alive" band. It was awesome.

Q - You played some big venues, didn't you?

A - Yes we did. We basically played arenas. In addition to that we went ahead and played smaller clubs like the Agoras around the country. We did a lot of live radio, King Biscuit and all of that stuff, to try and break the record. For the most part, those Frampton dates were in arenas, yeah.

Q - You played on Benny Mardones record "Into The Night".

A - Right.

Q - In 1980 people were talking about the three Bs, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger and Benny Mardones. Springsteen and Seger went on to achieve great success. Benny Mardones, not so much. From your perspective, what happened with Benny Mardones?

A - I can't really comment on why he didn't become like Springsteen or Seger. Let the Universe answer that. I don't really know, but it will all be conjecture, the way things happen, the way things are done and it was the '80s. Benny was probably the most intense singer I've ever worked with in the studio and personally speaking. He would command the attention of everybody that was in the room when he walked it. All eyes would go on him. It wasn't because he was a loud mouth or a boastful person. It was just his vibe. He was a huge fan of my playing. I was a huge fan of his singing. That had to be one of the most popular songs I ever played drums on. I get comments on that little drum fill in the opening of that song. Of all the tracks I've ever played on, that is one of the most asked about little drum fills that I ever did. The whole recording of that whole first record is a memory I have never relinquished and I treasure that memory. I'm still in touch with Benny. We have a lot of friends in common. I'm still in touch with all these people and we keep tabs on how Benny is. I don't know if you know it, but he's a little bit under the weather, to put it lightly, in California. He's not doing great. I was just in touch with his wife Jane like three days ago, asking how Benny was. So, he's hangin' in there.

Q - How did you meet Benny Mardones? Through the record label? Through the producer?

A - Okay, here's how the universe works buddy. I was rehearsing with Blackjack in a rehearsal studio on 30^th Street in Manhattan and I took a break from rehearsing. I went out to the soda machine in the hallway to buy a Coke and I get a tap on the shoulder and it's this guy. I turn around and he goes, "Were you playing drums in that room?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Would you like to play on my record? You sound awesome." I said, "Well, I'm a member of a band." He said, "I don't care if you're a member of a band. I want you to play on my record. You don't have to leave your band to play on my record. We'll adjust the schedules accordingly." I said, "Well, I'm not really sure. Can I hear some of your stuff?" He said, "Well, come down to the studio down the hall when you're done rehearsing. I'm in there with my producer, choosing songs. I'll play some of the songs that are definitely going on the record." I went in there after my rehearsal with Blackjack and Benny played me "Into The Night". He played and sang "Into The Night" just on a piano. I fell in love with the song. It sounded like a hit single to me. So, he put me in touch with his manager and in between Blackjack work commitments, I did his record, and the rest is history.

Q - You never did tour with Benny then?

A - No, I didn't because I was committed to other things. I couldn't tour with Benny.

Q - You did tour with Cyndi Lauper and Joan Jett. What was that like?

A - Well listen. It's a good question, but it's sort of like an open ended question. I can go on and speak for two hours about each of those women. Everybody asks, what is the favorite tour I did? What is the favorite session I played on? What was the favorite song? What was the favorite artist? And I really don't have one because I can go through each artist on my resume and tell you why that was my favorite gig. Cyndi was my favorite because I joined her band when nobody knew who she was. As I was with that first band, the first album was release. It skyrocketed in the course of three, four, five months. We went from small clubs in a Winnebago to huge arenas and several tour buses worth of transportation. I saw the gig grow. I saw the music machinery in action, how it grew that gig and the short amount of time it went from nothing to five times Platinum. Cyndi was the type of artist, and we're still friends today, that she left it all on stage every single night. He voice sent chill bumps down my spine every single night, playing the same songs, in the same order basically, but man, she brought it every single night. That's why Cyndi was my favorite. Joan was my favorite because I respected her and the quick six month turn around that Cyndi had from nothing to success, well Joan had about a thirty year turn abound or at lease twenty. She started in the '70s in a male dominated, Rock 'n' Roll, big hair, Heavy Metal, Los Angeles music scene with an all girl band. Are you kidding me? You know what the odds were against that happening? Girls were considered, "Put your fish nets on and I'll give you a backstage pass." Women were looked at, at that point, as groupies and as auxiliary pieces. They weren't looked at as essential pieces to the music business as they are now. So Joan, with her perseverance, she met the right people at the right time and her working around and above, below, through several different types of obstacles, she ended up in The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. I was with her during the two year period of the promotion of "I Hate Myself For Loving You" record, which was called "Up Your Alley." Another aspect of her touring that I really, really liked was the fact that she liked to tour in off the beaten track places, places that Rock bands didn't usually go. So, that's why I went to Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Taipei and Korea and all of those out of the way places. Joan as a person is a very smart business woman. She's involved with her manager, Kenny Laguna ever since those early days in L.A. As a team, between Kenny Laguna and Joan Jett, they make a great team. Very aware of everything that goes on in the business. They know how to respect other musicians and that's why they keep a band for as long as they do. There's a mutual respect there. I will always respect Joan 'til the day I die because of what she's accomplished.

Q - Your bio says you've performed before over half a billion people in a career spanning over fifty years. How did you arrive at that figure?

A - Well, I got my calculator out. (laughs) That's obviously a very rough estimate. It's got to be seven figures with all the network TV I've done, from The Tonight Show three times. With Lauper it was MTV all day, all these lip-synch dance shows. American Bandstand. The TV, the media that Cyndi was involved in, and she wanted the band to be involved in all that media that she was involved with. We went on MTV with her, the Guest VJ. In '86 I did a stadium tour. I was in an opening act for a band called Queen and we toured soccer stadiums and open-air festivals and those open-air festivals would have 100,000 plus (people). Listen, it's probably more than a billion if you count TV audiences and all the arenas and all the clubs and all the stadiums. It has to be more than a billion. If I played ten stadiums, that's a million already. So, it's got to be more than a billion. I have no idea what the final number is, but that number is always changing because I'm still playing. I don't know how I arrived at that number. It's a rough guestimate.

Q - Today you call Nashville home. Why Nashville?

A - Well, several reasons. One, when I was in New York I was playing with The Pat Travers Band when I decided to move to Nashville. I didn't move to Nashville for a gig, for a job. I already had one when I got here, but I had a beer with this guy that wanted to meet me. He reached out to a mutual friends. His name is Rich Redman and he plays for Jason Aldean. Long story short, he reached out to a mutual friend and the mutual friend called me and said, "Jason Aldean is coming into New York City and playing Madison Square Garden. The drummer is a fan of yours. He wants to meet you." So, I was reluctant to go in the City from Staten Island, but I did and I met with Rich. He was telling me about Nashville and how the Nashville music scene is changing and it's a big community. Nashville music is not what it used to be, all pedal steel and fiddles. It's Rock 'n' Roll, and the New Country is more Rock 'n' Roll. So, I ended up going to Jason Aldean's gig at The Garden. It was sold out and everybody was singing all the songs and the band was rockin'. If you take the lyrics away it didn't sound like a Country band at all. It sounded like a Rock 'n' Roll band. So then he invited me to his house in Nashville. "If you ever want to spend a couple of days, I've got a guest bedroom. I can show you around." So, I put that on the back burner. My wife is from Charlotte, North Carolina, and she for years wanted to get back down South to be closer to her family, especially that her mother was getting on in years. And the third little spoke in that wheel was that my daughter was going to college in New York at the time, unhappy with the music business program at City College in New York. I asked her to investigate some other colleges that had an accredited music business program. She came to me with three colleges and one of them was Belmont in Nashville. Belmont University. I discussed it with my wife. My wife was overjoyed with the fact that I was even thinking about moving. I came down and spent a couple of days with Rich Redman in his house in Brentwood. He showed me around. I sat in with some people, had a great time. I loved the lifestyle. So that basically led to my move to Nashville. The final factor was that I had twenty years of equity in my house in Staten Island. So, financially it was a no-brainer basically. With the real estate values in New York compared to real estate in Tennessee it was a no-brainer. So, financially it was easy to do. I made my wife very happy, which a happy wife is a happy life, and my daughter went to Belmont, graduated and now she's the road manager for Lee Ann Womack, a noted Country star. So everything worked out great. I subsequently left The Pat Travers Band in 2017 I think it was. So now I'm just doing some motivational speaking. I'm doing sessions here in Nashville, playing live around town. As of right now there's nothing on the books for me to go on the road for three weeks or four months with any kind of Rock band and I'm kind of happy with that. So, basically my career path has gone into motivational speaking and I still play drums. I still teach and as I said, I still do sessions here in Nashville and play live here in Nashville with a band. It's basically like a corporate cover band, but the idea of going on the road three or four months at a time does not really appeal to me anymore at this stage of the game.

Q - If a kid comes up to you at one of your motivational speaking engagements and says, "Sandy, I want to have a career like you," what do you say?

A - If I'm asked a question as a speaker or a drummer?

Q - If as a speaker you talk about your career as a drummer and someone comes up to you and says, "I'd like to have the same kind of career you've had as a drummer," you'd say what? I would say it's impossible. I don't think a person could do what you did.

A - Well, I'm not a big fan of the word impossible, number one. Number two, I agree with you that the world is a different world than it was in 1965 when The Beatles were on TV. It's a different world. My best advice to anybody is when you meet people, no matter who they are, no matter what their status is, no matter what color they are, no matter what ethnic background they come from, no matter what religion. they ascribe to , no matter what sexual preference they ascribe to, no matter what political party they ascribe to, is to make everyone grateful for having crossed your path. In other words; I go into this in my motivational thing. This is how I got gigs, is reaching out and adding value to people. When I'm in a hurry, I don't blow people off when they're waving a sharpie and a piece of paper. I stop and I engage them whether I'm a hurry, whether it's cold out, whether there's a line around the block, I engage them because they care enough about meeting me that I want to return the favor. Do that with everybody in general. It's true. I can go on for an hour and talk about just this subject. It's what I do in my motivational presentation. The universe takes care of those that take care of others because as human beings, we are all members of the same family, regardless of all our differences that I just mentioned; religious, ethnic, color of the skin, male, female, political, everything. We all have something in common and it's called a soul. That's what makes human beings different from a dog. A dog doesn't have a soul. We have a soul because it's a power. It's the power to choose. Do I talk to this guy or do I blow him off? Do I help this woman with her groceries? There's cans of vegetables dropping all over the parking lot, or do I just head on to my car and drive away? These are the choices you have every single day. We have the power to choose the right way or the wrong way, the helpful way or blowing somebody off. And when you live like that and the acronym that I speak about is BEATS. It stands for Belief, Enthusiasm, Attitude, Tenacity and Service. When you apply those principals to your everyday life and make them part of you in a positive way and think outside yourself, then the universe smiles upon that and places opportunities in front of you that you had no idea existed. Each gig that I've had in my life was as a result of me being nice to somebody or the domino theory of my being nice to somebody and I get a great gig. Then when I'm doing that gig, somebody else sees me and I get that gig years later. Or, I help somebody else who's needing a drummer in two days because the drummer bailed on him. I helped him out when I really didn't have to and I didn't know him and that led to The Monkees gig and my Monkees gig ended up to be a multi-year gig that goes on and on, the domino effect. It's like the little game where you hit one domino and fifty thousand of them fall in sequence. Well, that's the way life is when you're nice to somebody and you help somebody. You build people up instead of breaking them down. Your name could be on the marquee, but you treat the person selling the beer in the arena the same way you treat the person whose name is on the marquee. You treat the janitor the same way you treat the CEO because we all have that in common. It's our soul. It's that little match of flame inside of us.

Q - And your speaking engagements are not necessarily musicians, are they? You're getting people from all walks of life.

A - Correct. I speak to universities. Student bodies. I speak to corporations. I speak to associations. There's no drums on the stage. It's me and a Power Point. I go into more detail of what I told you about how I got certain gigs and what some gigs led to others. It's been very, very well received, the presentation. I'm still talking about the music business. It's not like it's apples and oranges. It's still a version of the music business 'cause I'm using examples and playing little snippets of video of me being involved with famous artists. One of the lasting benefits of my presentation, now after the presentation is over, they hear a song like "I Love Rock And Roll" or they hear a song like "Time After Time" or they hear a song like "Into The Night", six months hence they'll think of the presentation and they'll think of the take-aways, the lessons learned in the presentation. So, that's why the music factor of my career is very important, 'cause that's what makes people think and remind them of the valuable take-aways from my presentation.

Official Website: SandyGennaro.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.