For Kenny, his life would forever change on the evening of February 9th, 1964...
At approximately 8:12pm that night he and his twin brother, (along with nearly 73 million other Americans), tuned in to watch The Beatles historic performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. It was the greatest thing he’d ever experienced and he thought they were beyond amazing.
There it was! At that exact moment Kenny realized what his purpose in life was before he even knew what the words “purpose in life” meant. At that exact moment he immediately realized he wanted to be part of a team of people playing in a rock ‘n’ roll band, creating and performing music like The Beatles were doing. Afterwards, Kenny actually asked his mom to call The Beatles, because he wanted to play in their band. He said, “I don’t want to play the piano any more, I want to play the drums now. DRUMS, DRUMS, DRUMS!”
Now, let’s fast forward to 50 years later after he saw The Beatles on TV. 50 years later Kenny got a call to play drums on a CBS television special called, “The Night That Changed America” honoring The Beatles for that exact Ed Sullivan appearance he saw at age 10. He got to perform with the two remaining Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. It was like a fairy tail, like dreams do come true.
Today Kenny Aronoff is one of the most sought-after drummers/percussionists in the entire world. His unique skills and talents transcend ALL musical genres and his resume of artists he has both played and recorded with reads like a “who’s who” of music royalty. From The Rolling Stones, Sting, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Billy Gibbons, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Rod Stewart, and Elton John, to Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, The Smashing Pumpkins, Jon Bon Jovi, Kid Rock, B.B. King, Celine Dion, Steven Tyler, Dave Grohl and many, many more. (Too many to name here to be honest!)
You can see the resume of who Kenny has played and recorded with here…
And how cool is this…
57 years after watching the Beatles perform that fateful night, Kenny was re-united with the actual drum set Ringo Starr sat behind for the historic performance mentioned above. Kenny, along with several other “A-List” performers are part of the Jim Irsay Collection Tour. This collection of historic and culturally significant artifacts was put together by Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, and his passion for rock music and pop culture.
