The Man Who Paints Rock & Roll: World Renowned Drummer and Rock & Roll Artist John Douglas to Appear Live in Tampa | Destination Tampa Bay

John Douglas has been busy as a drummer, drum tech, artist, and drum customizer—and not necessarily in that order. Sometimes it depends on the day of the week!  It does seem to come all at once!

Not long ago, three of John Douglas long-time clients needed their drums painted/customized at about the same time. This rarely happens all at one time, but in this case Murphy’s Law was in full effect! During this time, Douglas had the opportunity to work on artwork for ZZ Tops’ fiftieth anniversary tour (ABOVE).  Douglas was determined to build a kit for his friend Frank Beard that was worthy of such a distinguished honor. Since it was for ZZ Top’s fiftieth it was a special golden anniversary.  Douglas decided create artwork in 24-karat gold leaf, something he had never done before.

At the same time Alex Gonzalez was gearing up for another big tour with his band Maná and needed a kit done. He wanted to start with DW stainless steel shells, which added another level of labor-intensive prep work. Alex always has a strong idea of what he wants, and it is John Douglas’ job to understand and share his vision. They have been doing Maná kits together for almost thirty years.

Yet before he could start both ZZ Tops’ and Alex Gonzalez’ kits, John Douglas needed to get drums together for Joey Kramer, who was set to start his Aerosmith Las Vegas residency on April 1. Douglas has been Joey’s drum tech for the last six years, so he knew what he wanted: BLING! Douglas started with Pearl Masterworks shells in black and proceeded to glue more than 50,000 Swarovski crystals on the shells—one at a time. This process was very tedious. The design was a playing card theme—large diamonds, hearts, spades, and clubs on the shells in multi-colored stones. When the stage lights hit it, there is nothing like it!

While painting and customizing drums is the natural culmination of John Douglas’ two greatest passions in life—art and music—his true artistic love is painting black and white portraits on canvas. He always carries minimal art supplies he tours, a roll of canvas, black paint, white paint, and a few brushes. And that is how he spend my days off, painting rock ’n’ roll portraits on canvas taped to the hotel room wall. This keeps him creative, productive, and kills lots of time on days off. This seems to be vital for John Douglas to maintain a healthy tour lifestyle.