Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm was an American rock 'n' roller, Americana musician, and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and regular lead vocalist for The Band. Helm was known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, multi-instrumental ability, and creative drumming style, highlighted on many of the Band's recordings, such as "The Weight", "Up on Cripple Creek", and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDrummer
Date of Birth26 May 1940
CityElaine, AR
CountryUnited States of America
When I was younger, I used to drive up to a bunch of turkeys, roll down the window and say something. They'd all gobble back at once.
Dad and mom would have preferred that I be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, or a great humanitarian.
Forever Young, by Dylan, is one of my favorite songs.
Conway Twitty was always our local hero while I was growing up. He had a series of good bands. I wanted to sit in, if Conway would let me. And he did a couple of times.
The Jungle Bush Beaters didn't last too long as a group, but we had a pretty good time while we did.
You can either make it come around or you can't. By the time we would be ready to record a song, we would know for sure that it was the best way we could do it.
I like to get within handshaking distance of the crowd. If it happens, they know it, we know it, and that's all we came here for.
Maybe the greatness we heard in [Richard Manuel]'s voice, that catch in it, came from all that pain. To this day, we don't really know.
By the time The Band did The Last Waltz, the chemistry had changed, and it wasn't a thrill anymore to live that studio kind of life.
I played some Yamaha drums that I like a lot. And I like the Yamaha people a lot too. They've been really nice to me and The Band.
Most of our stuff was trial and error. You live with a tape recorder, you turn it on, you play the song and you listen to it.
Good times don't last long sometimes.
I love horns, and the bigger the band, the better it sounds to my ear.
Drums usually seem to tune themselves.