The one drummer Jack Black says beats John Bonham: “Out of control”

Being a drummer is about way more than hitting things for a living. Despite every single rock and roll drummer commonly being labelled as ‘the dumb one’ in whatever group they’re in, there’s a lot more that goes into keeping time than playing a decent rhythm, and the most technical percussionists have reshaped what people think the drum kit is supposed to be. And for someone with as much energy as Jack Black, it’s no surprise that he found himself drawn to the wild animals behind the skins whenever he played.

Throughout his career, Black has never strayed too far from rock and roll. His day job might help pay the bills and made him one of the most in-demand comedic actors of his generation, but his heart was always in music, and when looking at his performance in School of Rock, it’s not like he had to do a lot of research to play rhe role of a rock and roll teacher. He’s been playing the part all his life, and all he needed was the finer touches behind him.

When Black first got acclimated to rock and roll, though, he was always drawn to the heavier side of music. He grew up in the era when the biggest names in hard rock were people like Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne, and while both of those acts have earned their place in the upper echelons of rock god-ery, none of them would have had a chance were it not for what Led Zeppelin brought to the table.

Up until Jimmy Page put together his supergroup, rock and roll was still knee deep in the blues. Everyone was wondering what someone could possibly do to follow up Jimi Hendrix, and while Zeppelin’s music was nowhere near as musically sophisticated as what Hendrix did, Page had a sonic assault behind him whenever John Bonham stepped behind the drum kit.

From the minute he kicks off ‘Good Times Bad Times’, Bonzo was the definition of what an animal should sound like playing the drums. Everything was very calculated and included some of the most pulse-pounding rhythms that anyone has heard on a rock and roll song, but Black felt that Bonham was just the tip of the iceberg for what could be done with a couple of tom-toms and a hi-hat.

“I’m gonna be controversial. Everyone’s gonna say John Bonham but I’m gonna say Keith Moon. Why? Because he’s out of control. He’s right on the edge of barely being sane.”-Jack Black

Despite Tenacious D ally Dave Grohl bowing at the altar of Bonzo every time he plays drums, Black said that he always gravitated more towards what Keith Moon was doing in The Who, saying, “I’m gonna be controversial. Everyone’s gonna say John Bonham but I’m gonna say Keith Moon. Why? Because he’s out of control. He’s right on the edge of barely being sane. I like that. I like the crazies in all arts.”

And when Black says the word ‘crazy’, he’s not messing around. Moon seemed to be certifiably insane whenever he played the drums, but whereas Pete Townshend brought a level of control to every Who concert, Moon was the court jester that somehow managed to play the perfect drum fill whenever the band needed to come roaring in on songs like ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ and ‘Magic Bus’.

But if there’s one thing any musician can take away from Bonham or Moon, it’s that the most celebrated drummers don’t always have to have the most sophisticated techniques. It’s clear that both of them had done their homework in terms of keeping time and laying into a groove, but the core message behind both of their techniques was about having fun whenever they got onstage.