I started drumming when I was around 14 or so. I'm 36 now. I've actually been playing guitar longer than drums, but I never really got good at guitar. I took to drums much more naturally. I think listening to Van Halen in the early days is what made me want to become a musician -- just air guitaring to Eddie Van Halen...

The first show I ever went to was Michael Jackson, "Bad" tour, with my parents. The next show I went to was Guns n Roses opening for Aerosmith with my friend & his parents. The first show I went to with just friends, sans parents, was Motley Crue, Dr. Feelgood tour. I think I was 14.

My drums are DW. It's actually a huge kit with 2 bass drums, 4 rack toms and 2 floor toms. But recently I stripped it down and am enjoying playing a smaller 5-piece version of it.

Update: I'm putting the big kit back together.

Looking to meet other musicians to jam with, in San Francisco and elsewhere.

By far Alice Cooper. I was initially exposed to him because I was a big pro wrestling fan, and one year he was in Jake The Snake's corner at Wrestlemania. He just looked bad-ass. So I convinced my grand father to get me an Alice Cooper tape (I think it was Raise Your Fist And Yell). And have been collecting Alice Cooper albums ever since (he's got like a million, so it's almost impossible to get them all...). I'm also hugely influenced by Dream Theater, and by early 90's death metal.

I'm currently in a cover band called Coverflow. We play rock version of contemporary pop songs by Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and so on. It's fun and we play lots of Silicon Valley events (all the members are in the internet business). 8 years ago I was in an instrumental prog metal band in NYC called Spel. Before that I was in a death metal band called Nefarious.

Dimebag Darrell (RIP) from Pantera. He's got the meanest guitar riffs ever, and I would love to lay down some heavy beats over them.

Recently I played a corporate gig with over 2,000 people in the audience. They weren't paying that much attention to the show though. As for small shows -- I've played tons of shows where the only other people in the club are the bartender and maybe the other band waiting to go on...

"Scenes From A Memory" by Dream Theater. The album is so awesome. It's also so complex that it would take a long time to get sick of it, if ever.