Jerry Matula, Frank Beard of ZZ Top (drums)
Born in Des Plaines Il. in the mid 60’s to teenage parents I was raised on all types of great music but it was mostly the electric blues that was always cranking around the house. I wanted to play guitar at a young age so my dad borrowed a guitar from an uncle and i sighed up for lessons. after a few weeks of being taught “Michael rowed the boat ashore” when all i wanted to play was “purple haze” I lost interest pretty quickly. the one thing Ive always felt is that primal thing in us all that is the drum.
My neighbor buddy, who’s family had money, got a brand new drum set with lessons. He would come home and teach me what he learned. I wound up collecting mismatched drums from wherever I could fine and put a kit together. I stripped them all down and covered them in contact paper so they would match and you couldn’t tell I picked them from the garbage!
I wound up playing along with the chorus for 8th grade graduation, then was the summer I honed my skills. I was a “husky” boy, as my mom would say, So I put on 4 layers of clothes, locked myself in my room and played drums 8 hours a day–That made for a good way to start high school! We played mostly parties and local events (even unknowingly auditioning Ron’s son at one point) But at 19 I put down the sticks, started a career and a family. Fast forward about 15 years, and it was time for a hobby. Since I’m a really bad golfer, I figured, why not pick up the sticks again? I saw an ad in the local paper “band looking for a drummer” When I found out it was Eliminator (these guys are already local legends) I didn’t even bother calling–too intimidated!
I put together a smokin’ hot band called Betty Floored and we played around a few years. in 2009 my son joined a band with Bobby Z’s daughter. I was arranging a breast cancer fundraiser and asked if Eliminator would do a set. I asked to sit in and play a set…they agreed. We came out rollin’ like a stick o’ dynamite and the animal it has become hasn’t stopped growing since.
