SKF NOTE: Ron Spagnardi asked me to interview two drummers for Modern Drummer‘s 10th Anniversary issue published in January 1986: Neil Peart and Alan Dawson. I don’t know exactly when this interview took place, but it was certainly in 1985.

Mr. Dawson and I met at his home in Massachusetts. The overall focus of these 10th Anniversary interviews was to ask drummers to reflect on drumming highlights from the decade just past, and also, on what was likely to happen in the drum world over the next ten years.

In this excerpt, I ask Alan Dawson about changes in his students. His answer leads into a broader discussion of the role of studio drummers past and present, and also, a glance into Dawson’s years (1963-68) as a popular studio drummer for Prestige records.