Jimmy DeGrasso

Jimmy DeGrasso (born March 16, 1963) is an American heavy metal drummer. He is currently the drummer for Black Star Riders.

DeGrasso was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and graduated from Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1981 where he was a member of the world-renowned Grenadier Band.

DeGrasso has also performed with the Argentine band A.N.I.M.A.L., David Lee Roth, Lita Ford, Ozzy Osbourne, F5, Dokken, White Lion,^[1] Suicidal Tendencies,^[2] and Y&T.^[3] More recently, DeGrasso was a member of Megadeth,^[2] a multi-platinum heavy metal band.

He was Alice Cooper's drummer who played in Wayne's World (at the very end of the 'Hey Stoopid' tour), South America '95, Summer '96 and '97 tours along with filling in for his good friend Eric Singer in Summer '08. Prior to his work with Alice Cooper, he played with Talas (before they recorded), Suicidal Tendencies and White Lion.

Career

DeGrasso originally auditioned for Ozzy Osbourne and played on the demos of The Ultimate Sin before Ozzy and Bob Daisley had a fallout and Ozzy chose to replace the entire band except for Jake E Lee. DeGrasso then joined the veteran metal band Y&T in 1986, replacing their original drummer Leonard Haze. He remained with the group into the '90s. In 1991, he briefly filled in as White Lion's touring drummer when Greg D'Angelo left the band.^[4] He would go on to play on Dave Mustaine's (Megadeth vocalist/guitarist) side project band, MD.45 in 1995. Mustaine asked him to join Megadeth in 1998 as drummer and continue the band's Cryptic Writings Tour. He was asked to play with Megadeth five days before the next show. He walked around with a walkman all day to memorize the songs. DeGrasso recorded and toured behind Megadeth's Risk album in 1999–2000, The World Needs A Hero in 2000–2001 and was featured on Megadeth's first ever live CD and DVD release, Rude Awakening in 2002.

Since Megadeth, DeGrasso has performed at the prestigious Modern Drummer Festival in 2002, Ultimate Drummers Weekend in Australia, Drummer Live in the United Kingdom and toured with Stone Sour (Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor’s side project) and guitar legend Ronnie Montrose. Jimmy played with David Lee Roth Band in 2006 and joined with Ministry on their final tour in 2008. He is a highly sought after session player and drummer.

He currently resides in San Jose, California, where he used to run his own drum shop, San Jose Pro Drum, which has now closed.

In late August and early September DeGrasso played 11 shows with Alice Cooper to fill in for Eric Singer while Singer played a few KISS shows in the United States.

DeGrasso has also been the full-time drummer for heavy metal band F5 and Hail (along with current Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson).

In summer of 2012 DeGrasso toured with Dokken, filling in for Mick Brown who was touring with Ted Nugent.

In December 2012, DeGrasso was announced as the drummer with Thin Lizzy spin-off band, Black Star Riders.^[5] Black Star Riders' first album All Hell Breaks Loose was released in May 2013.^[6]

It was announced in early 2014 that he would temporarily be filling-in for Bobby Blotzer in Ratt, and played with them on the Monsters of Rock cruise. He is the first drummer to have filled in for Blotzer, since he joined the band in 1982.

Bands as drummer

• Mama's Boys ~ 1985–1986
• Y&T ~ 1987–1990, 1995
• White Lion ~ 1991
• Fiona ~ 1992
• Suicidal Tendencies ~ 1992–1995
• Alice Cooper ~ 1994–2002, 2008-2010
• Megadeth ~ 1998–2002
• O'2L ~ 2006
• David Lee Roth – 2006
• Ministry ~ 2008
• Dokken ~ 2012-2013
• Ratt ~ 2014
• Black Star Riders~ 2012-present

Discography

• 1987 Y&T – Contagious
• 1990 Y&T – Yesterday & Today Live
• 1990 Y&T – Ten (also featuring Stef Burns)
• 1991 White Lion – Escape from Brooklyn – VHS
• 1992 Fiona – Squeeze
• 1994 Suicidal Tendencies – Suicidal for Life
• 1995 Y&T – Musically Incorrect
• 1996 MD.45 – The Craving
• 1997 Alice Cooper – Fistful of Alice
• 1997 Y&T – Endangered Species
• 1998 A.N.I.M.A.L. – Poder Latino (session drummer)
• 1999 Megadeth – Risk
• 2000 Megadeth – Capitol Punishment: The Megadeth Years
• 2001 Megadeth – The World Needs a Hero
• 2001 Megadeth – Behind the Music
• 2002 Megadeth – Rude Awakening
• 2002 Megadeth – Still Alive... and Well?
• 2005 Megadeth – Greatest Hits: Back to the Start
• 2006 Megadeth – Arsenal of Megadeth
• 2006 Sex Machineguns – Made In USA (session drummer)
• 2007 Megadeth – Warchest
• 2008 F5 – The Reckoning
• 2008 Megadeth – Anthology: Set the World Afire
• 2010 Alice Cooper – Theatre of Death, Live at Hammersmith 2009
• 2011 The Worshyp – Evil Abounds (session drummer)
• 2011 Alice Cooper - Welcome 2 My Nightmare
• 2012 Dokken - Broken Bones
• 2013 Black Star Riders – All Hell Breaks Loose
• 2015 Black Star Riders – The Killer Instinct
• 2017 Black Star Riders – Heavy Fire

References

External links

• Jimmy DeGrasso Official Web Site.
• Jimmy DeGrasso (on drums) and Megadeth performing "Ashes in Your Mouth" live.
• Jimmy DeGrasso (on drums) performing live with the Ronnie Montrose Band.