Grieving Family Offers $2,000 for Return of Deceased Son’s Stolen Drumset

stolen_drums

SKF NOTE: A sad state of affairs. No joy, no music will ever come from this drumset until it is returned to the Serna family and, ultimately, to the 13-year old boy who must be missing his father very much.

Thank you in advance to the person reading this blog post who helps solve this mystery.

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Family offers reward for return of stolen drum set left behind by deceased relative
Aug 21, 2018
By Kate Nadolski

ALMA, MI (WNEM) – A family is pleading for the return of a beloved item.

The drum set was all that an Alma man left behind for his family when he died two weeks ago. The set was stolen just days after burying him.

“Kick you while you’re down. That’s how we feel,” said Rhonda Townsend, Ryan Serna’s sister.

She lost her brother to suicide about two weeks ago.

“We buried him on Friday and I get a call on Monday that someone broke into his garage and stole his drums,” Townsend said.

She is talking about a red Pearl brand drum set.

Ryan’s last wish was for the drums to be passed down to his 13-year-old son Riley.

The family…believe the thief knew Ryan, knew the drums were in the garage and knew Ryan had recently passed away.

The family [is] offering a $2,000 reward for anyone who can help find the drum set.

Full story

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Freddie Gruber – Greatest Disservice: Drum Teacher to Student

SKF NOTE: Here’s the back story on my interview with Freddie Gruber.

In this part of the interview I ask Freddie, “What do you think is the greatest disservice a teacher can do to a drum student?” And Freddie gives a direct answer.

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James Black on his Drums, Cymbals, Tuning

SKF NOTE: The full back story on this interview is posted on my blog here.

James Black is speaking here from his New Orleans home. I was in my Modern Drummer office. In this excerpt Mr. Black is answering my questions about this 1960s vintage Rogers drumset, his cymbals, and his drum tuning preferences.

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James Black on Playing Brushes

SKF NOTE: The full back story on this interview is posted on my blog here.

In brief, my James Black interview appeared in the December 1982 Modern Drummer. The first person to get me excited about James Black’s drumming was Jaimoe.

Later, Jim Keltner called me from New Orleans where he was touring with Bob Dylan. Jim said James Black was one of the first persons he called when he was there. James attended the Dylan concert, then he and Jim stayed up until the wee hours talking drums.

James tended to give brief first answers to my questions. I would wait for James to finish his thought. Then I would ask for a more detailed answer.

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Joe English: McCartney Gave Me a Fantastic Break

SKF NOTE: Joe English was tough to interview. Here’s what I wrote as part of the feature interview introduction in the June 1986 Modern Drummer:

Joe English agreed to to this interview in 1980. Then he disappeared. In 1983, I got approximately three-fourths of this interview on tape, when Joe disappeared for another three years. I nicknamed him the Howard Hughes of Drumming. I had no positive proof that Joe was a bad guy. He never returned my phone calls or answered my letters, but I have two grandmothers who are guilty of the same thing, and they’re not bad people. The last quarter of this interview was, finally, taped at the tail end of 1985, and I submitted it to MD in March 1986.

This excerpt is from my September 7, 1983 phone interview with Joe English.

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