Nick Mason Reveals His Favorite Drummer Of All Time

via @pinkfloydbt | Instagram

Nick Mason, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd; the only member of the band to appear on all of their albums. He is also the only member who has remained with the band since its inception in 1965.

Mason’s drumming style is heavily influenced by big band music and jazz so he was drawn to acoustic drums. He also took a relaxed and mellow approach to drums, contrary to that of other progressive rock drummers of the time. The band Sigma 6 later morphed into Pink Floyd and Mason has been the drummer on every album of the band since its formation. As a drummer for Pink Floyd, Mason performed almost no vocal parts, except for some lines as spoken in different songs.

In his 2004 autobiography called Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, Mason stated the influence and effect of seeing Ginger Baker play the drums. He wrote, “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Ginger Baker.” Watching them play at his university venue would be a driving factor in Mason’s ascendance to greatness. He remembered: “When the curtain opened at the Regent Street Polytechnic in 1966 and there were Ginger, Eric and Jack — I thought, that’s what I’d like to be, and that was it.”

He clearly revealed that his drumming hero was Ginger Baker, a drum virtuoso heavily influenced in jazz, and blues music. And he was mainly the reason why Mason chose to use two bass drums.