JIMMY DeGRASSO

At the age of two, Jimmy DeGrasso’s parents gave him his first drum kit. His parents supported their son from the very beginning; his mother has gone to see every band Jimmy’s been in, including Alice Cooper, Megadeath and Suicidal Tendencies.

In his early twenties, Jimmy moved from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, “hoping that someone like Ozzy would be looking for a drummer…” In an interesting twist, Ozzy was in fact looking for a drummer to play on the Ultimate Sin Album. After the gig, Jimmy moved on to join the metal band, Y&T, replacing Leonard Haze. He played with them until the early 1990’s.

After Y&T, Jimmy went on to play with punk band, Suicidal Tendencies in 1992. In He went on tour with Alice and Chains as a “fill in” in 1993 and again from 1995 to 1998. He also played on the Fistful of Alice album in 1996 and returned briefly returned to them in 2001.

In 1995 Jimmy played on Dave Mustaine’s solo album, MD-45. A few years later, Mustaine called him back and asked him to join Megadeth as a permanent member and continue the bands’ Cryptic Writings Tour. He played on Megadeth’s Risk album in 1999-2000, The World Needs A Hero in 2000-2001 and was featured on Megadeths’ first ever live CD and DVD offering, Rude Awakening in 2002.

After the fall of Megadeth, Jimmy performed at the prestigious Modern Drummer Festival in 2002, Ultimate Drummers Weekend in Australia, Drummer Live in the UK and toured on Slipknot Vocalist Corey Taylor’s side project, Stonesour. He’s also toured with guitar legend Ronnie Montrose, and rock icon, David Lee Roth.

Currently, Jimmy is the drummer for the melodic heavy metal band, F5. They recently performed at the Sabian LIVE event at the 2009 NAMM show, which was live streamed here on Drum Channel. Jimmy also owns San Jose Pro Drum shop with Paul Batres. Around the world, Jimmy is a highly sought after session player and drum clinician.