In The Beginning: One Question with K. Langford

TheGourdsNews: I was wondering if you could talk a litte bit about how you got interested in playing the drums.

Keith Langford: I started playing drums the old fashioned way. My Dad did it and showed me. He did 12 years with Jello Jerry Brown and the Beats in Southern California...and, yes, that was their real name. "Back when Rock-n-Roll was the devils music", "A dog collar makes a good sizzle cymbal, and you can whip someone's ass with it" and other influential comments piqued my interest. He also had a brief stint with Ray Price, but didn't want to make my mother a "band widow". Anyway, cut to 1977, I'm seven years old and he shows me the Beatles' "Come Together", Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water", and the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye Love". I immediately moved his kit into my room for about three years--the same Gretsch kit I play now, by the way--but then I moved it back down to the basement when my interest turned to becoming a comedian and a cartoonist. I guess the defining moment came for me at summer camp when I lost the Art and Crafts award to a clearly less talented camper (laughs). I was really discouraged by it, so I pulled the drums back into my room when I got home and from then on I pretty much whipped everyone's butt on drums and made a career out of it.

Note: "Keith was a better drummer than I ever was by the time he was about seven" (D. Langford, personal communication, November 10, 2009).