The Police‘s Stewart Copeland has nailed the drum parts to a Limp Bizkit classic after hearing the track for the first time – check it out below.
Copeland – drummer for The Police – joined drum YouTube channel Drumeo for their “First Time” series, in which famous drummers are challenged to play drums for a popular song after hearing the track for the first time.
Typically, these drummers take a couple of tries before locking in their final take – some draft up drum charts, some jam until they get it right and some record vocal cues. However, Copeland did none of the above. Instead, he hopped on the track almost instantly during his first listen and jammed along, barely missing a beat.
Check out Stewart Copeland’s take on Limp Bizkit’s ‘Rollin’ – which is quite close to original drummer John Otto’s recording – below.
Following the performance, Copeland revealed that he has not heard any of Limp Bizkit’s music: “I like those guys in concept. I’m not that familiar with their music.”
Speaking on his approach to drumming, Copeland shared: “I just make shit up. I just kind of look for the alternative, what the track needs. But I’m an asshole, so I’m probably not going to provide that, I’m going to do something else.”
On working with The Police, Copeland said he “tried very hard to make my band happy”. He continued: “When Sting would have an idea for something, I absolutely would listen because he actually is pretty good with this stuff. I would listen, but then I’d forget and instinct takes over. I did my best, and I only wish to please. I wasn’t trying to be obstinate, I’d just forget.”
In other news, Limp Bizkit recently became involved in a legal battle with Universal Music Group. In October, Durst filed a lawsuit against UMG for $200million on the count of fraud, alleging that the music label and publishing company had withheld the band’s royalties for years before they made an inquiry on it and only got paid “recently”.
According to the Limp Bizkit vocalist, the group “never received any royalties from UMG”, until this August – despite having sold millions of albums and still earning “millions of streaming users per month on Spotify alone” for years. The lawsuit also alleged that UMG had intended to “unfairly keep those profits for itself”.
Now, it has been revealed that UMG are reportedly seeking to get the lawsuit dismissed. Per Rolling Stone, UMG on Friday (November 22) filed for their motion and said in a statement that Durst’s allegations were “based on fallacy.” UMG added: “Plaintiffs’ entire narrative that UMG tried to conceal royalties is a fiction”.
