Tuesday, March 8: Rock Birthdays
Remembering Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr today (March 8) on what would have been his 59th birthday. Former Eagles singer, bassist, and co-founder Randy Meisner is 70 today.
Clive Burr joined Iron Maiden in 1979 and was drummer for the band on their first three albums: Iron Maiden, Killers, and their breakthrough album The Number of the Beast. Burr died four days after his 56th birthday (March 12, 2013) due to complications from MS. Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson was quoted as saying that "Clive was the best drummer the band ever had. That's not taking anything away from (current drummer) Nicko. Technically, Nicko's probably a far more competent drummer than Clive. It's just that Clive had this incredible feel, and you can't learn that, and I regret that he wasn't given more time to try and sort himself out".
Burr was an influence on many metal drummers including Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Charlie Benante of Anthrax, Dave McClain of Machine Head, Jason Bittner of Shadows Fall, and Stefan Schwarzmann of Accept.