Steve Ferrone

Steve Ferrone (born April 25, 1950 in Brighton) is an English drummer.

He was educated in France and heavily influenced by the Motown sound. He also drew inspiration from the following drummers: Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, Tony Meehan, Bernard Purdie, Grady Tate, Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Art Blakey, John Bonham, Clyde Stubblefield, Al Jackson Jr., Bobby Mason, and Jack DeJohnette, his favorite drummer. He also came from a musical family: "My grandmother played piano, [and] my father was a dancer for the Sierra Leone folk dancing troupe, but my grandmother was really the one who encouraged me to do something in show business. She spotted my reaction to music early. She actually led me to start with the drums with girls. I saw some girls at a dance react to Manfred Mann’s band and decided that rock music was for me! I had figured out how to play the drums from appearing in a summer show…in England and watching the pit drummer every night. I took to the drums like a duck to water."

His first claim to fame happened when he opened for the not-yet-famous band The Who at Uncle Bunnie's Chinese Jazz Club, as part of a small local band in the early 1960s -- Ferrone was just twelve years old at the time.

It wasn’t long before Steve was very active in the music scene in Italy and France in addition to his studies at one of Europe’s most prestigious music schools, The Nice Conservatory. At this time, Steve was playing in such bands as Bloodstone and Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, which had previously featured future Average White Band drummer Robbie McIntosh.

When McIntosh died of a heroin overdose in September 1974, Ferrone was asked to join AWB and stayed with them until they broke up in 1982. He joined the Saturday Night Live house band in 1985. He intermittently served as sessions and tour drummer for Duran Duran from 1986 to 1988, and toured and recorded with Eric Clapton from 1986 to 1992.

He has also appeared on recordings by The Bee Gees, Brian May, Anita Baker, George Benson, Jonathan Butler, Climie Fisher, Peter Frampton, Jeff Golub, Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, Freddie King, Pat Metheny, Marcus Miller, Morrissey-Mullen, Dick Morrissey, Jeffrey Osborne, Paul Simon, Bernie Worrell and jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius, among others.

He began drumming for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1992, and as of 2005 is a full-fledged member of the band. His first contact with the band was when he met Mike Campbell that year while the two played a show with George Harrison as part of his Hara and the Hijack band at Royal Albert Hall. Steve started recording with the band that year for the Wildflowers album, with his first Heartbreakers gig coming three years later on February 28, 1995 in Louisville, Kentucky. Steve has thoroughly enjoyed his time with the Heartbreakers so far: "Everyone should have an experience like 'The Heartbreakers' in their musical life; creativity, passion, honesty, integrity, and a lot of fun," Steve commented. A man with the true heart of a musician, Steve claims "to continue playing music ‘til I drop."

He released a live solo album entitled It Up: Steve Ferrone and Friends Live at La Ve Lee in 2003.

Tom Petty had the following to say about Steve: "He never plays anything that doesn’t feel great. That’s what I liked about him immediately. Every time, every take, feels good. Somebody might make a mistake, or you might want to change the arrangement or this or that, but it doesn’t take really long to get a track because he’s so rock solid with his feel. And he’s a really bright musician. He actually can read and write music, which I can’t do. I see him in the sessions just making little notes, sometimes writing on his floor tom. And so he gets the arrangement down really quick. Yeah, he’s terrific. I just had him over here the other day doing some stuff with me. And I still am in awe of him." (tompetty.com interview with Paul Zollo—March 31, 2004)