June 27, 2024
10 Things We Learned About Donnie Marple
Lee Brice’s go-to drummer on Nashville, Neil Peart, Dave Weckl and the record-setting Stagecoach crowd that nearly made him cry.
In many ways, Donnie Marple is the perfect drummer for the current state of country music, when old-school honky-tonk fare has given way to explosive, genre-spanning music built for sold-out amphitheaters. He’s been influenced not only by classic Nashville sounds but by rock, fusion, jazz and more. He’s capable of show-stopping pyrotechnics that can make an arena full of fans go wild; at the same time, he’s a thoughtful, studio-adept drummer who puts the song above his own showmanship.
Marple broke through in the international drum community at age 20, when he won the 2007 Guitar Center Drum-Off competition with a five-minute solo. The judges at the Hollywood final comprised a cross-generational cast of drum legends including Yes’ Alan White, Journey’s Steve Smith, Tower of Power’s David Garibaldi, Vinny Appice of Black Sabbath and Dio, and more. Emboldened by the win, Marple relocated to Nashville.
He was only 24 when he played a session for hitmaking singer-songwriter Lee Brice and ended up with a long-running gig—just a babe in country-road-warrior years. “At that level,” Marple says, “you’re usually looking for someone with 10 to 15 years of experience to even be considered.” But Marple believes Brice saw in him a budding artist he could elevate and teach in the years to come. “He’s been a great mentor musically [and] life-wise,” Marple says. “Just someone to look up to.” In addition to Brice, Marple has worked with a who’s who of contemporary country heavy-hitters like Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley.
In a recent video conversation with Music & Arts’ Mark Gauthier, Marple traces his story from small-town West Virginia to Nashville stardom. Below are highlights from the interview; read on and be sure to check out the chat in full.
Even as a Tyke He Could Groove
Marple was just a toddler when he first brought down the house—a house of god, to be more precise. At the Assembly of God Church where his grandfather was the pastor, Marple sat in the front row every week absorbing spirited, music-filled services. One day after the service had ended, he took it upon himself to check out the church band’s drum kit. “Church is a place where you want to ask for forgiveness, not permission,” laughs Marple.
The tot began to play, and the parishioners who’d been chatting were astonished to discover who was laying down the groove. “Everyone kind of rushed up to the front and just watched,” Marple says. “One day I wasn’t a drummer [and] the next day I was, and to this day I still am. It’s kind of like walking, talking, breathing.”
He Thinks the Fundamentals are … Fundamental
Marple grew up a dedicated band kid, learning foundational drum technique in concert, jazz and marching bands alongside his own study of the kit; later, he taught high-school percussion. Today, he continues to practice his rudiments to maintain his chops. “I compare it to Tiger Woods,” Marple says. “You better believe he checked his grip at the beginning of the season, his posture; he went back to the fundamentals.”
At the same time, “music education is more to me than just reading out of a book or getting lessons,” Marple says. Developing drummers should find their personal drum heroes, he argues, and be open to absorbing influence from every excellent musician they encounter. “You’ve got to take initiative on your own and find what moves you.”
The Guitar Center Drum-Off Made Him Dream Bigger
So how does a drummer from small-town West Virginia make it in Nashville? It helps to win a national drum competition as a middle step. After conquering the 2007 Guitar Center Drum-Off, Marple gained “the confidence to get out of my hometown and just see what’s out there,” he says.
The Drum-Off helped Marple realize he had the skills, and got him thinking about music as a career: “Maybe I could actually do this for a living. Maybe I could take that leap, which was a leap of faith.” After he’d moved to Music City, he was amazed by the crazy amount of talent he encountered. “I came here thinking, OK, well, there can’t be that many drummers,” he says, “there can’t be that many bands, you know?”
Marple, age 20, competes in the Guitar Center Drum-Off final in Hollywood, early 2008. Credit: Robert Knight.
He Found His First Touring Band Via Craigslist
Marple discovered life on the road as part of Elmwood, a progressive, rootsy, jam-tinged rock outfit that he joined in Nashville after responding to an ad on Craigslist. Just a few months into his tenure, the group got hooked up with a prominent booking agency and started sharing bills with Dave Matthews Band, O.A.R. and other big draws. “It really got me seasoned quick,” Marple says, “’cause I didn’t know what touring was. I didn’t know what to expect. I got in the van, I loaded up the drums [and] we just started writing and playing.”
He Dropped Our Favorite Analogy for Studio Work Ever
Marple eventually made his way into the Nashville studio scene, where he’s tracked for some of the city’s finest musicians and songwriters. “Being a studio player versus a live player, I would compare it to being a sketch artist [or] being a tattoo artist,” he says. “Playing in a studio, when they hit Record … it’s permanent. It’s going to be there forever. So I had to get used to that and build that confidence.”
He’s the Rare Touring Drummer Who’s Also on Hit Records
Nashville drummers who both tour with a country megastar and appear on their chart-topping albums are thin on the ground. But Marple is one of Lee Brice’s favorite drummers, period, across disciplines. In addition to traveling the world in Brice’s live band, Marple has played on the singer-songwriter’s hits as well: That’s his old-school-soul foundation on “Rumor,” and his understated, orchestral touch on “I Don’t Dance.”
As Marple explains, Brice’s whole band is so tight it’s hard to imagine another arrangement. “The camaraderie, the brotherhood—we’re all best friends,” he says. Even right after a tour, Brice’s band will want to get their families together for a hang. “That friendship,” Marple says, “is just as important as the job.”
He Highly Recommends That You Do You
Marple’s most crucial piece of advice for aspiring musicians is equally sage and simple: Be yourself, because that’s all you can do. “I was trying to be so many different people, different drummers, different people,” he says. “And then I realized, I’m one of a kind.”
In essence, Marple argues that pursuing your own personal identity as a player eliminates the competition, because no one else can do what you do, or sound exactly like you sound. “I think the secret is to be yourself,” Marple says, “because then it takes the pressure off. All you gotta do is wake up and be you.”
Stagecoach 2018 Blew His Mind
In 2018, Brice’s band opened for Garth Brooks at the country mega-festival Stagecoach, held in California’s Coachella Valley. Brice is a generous leader who likes to “show off the band,” Marple says, so per usual the drummer got a solo spot during the set. But the sheer magnitude of the crowd made this night very different: Attendance that year set a record of 75,000 concertgoers. “That show I’ll never forget,” Marple says. More than just hearing a crowd of that size, says Marple, he actually felt it: “It’s almost like a subwoofer.”
“To finish a drum solo and hear that roar,” he continues, “I stood up and just about started crying. I was like, this is insane. I never thought I would be here.”
He Learned a Lesson in Kindness From Neil Peart
A decade before his Stagecoach moment, Marple experienced another unbelievable career highlight at the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert in New York City. At the invitation of Guitar Center and Rich’s daughter, Cathy Rich, he played a solo—and received a standing ovation—in a program packed with drumming titans: Neil Peart, Terry Bozzio, Chad Smith, Tommy Igoe, John Blackwell, Peter Erskine and others.
“You just never know how you’re going to impact someone.”
Marple recalls that when he first got to the venue, the Hammerstein Ballroom, he said hello to Cathy Rich, the concert’s host. “I can’t believe I’m going to share a stage with Neil Peart from Rush,” he told her.
“Oh, he’s standing right there behind you,” she replied.
“And I turn around and it’s Neil,” Marple remembers. The late Peart, who was well over 6 feet tall, looked down at the barely twentysomething drummer from West Virginia and said, “Hi, Donny, looking forward to hearing you play. It was a pleasure to meet you.”
“I thought I was dreaming,” says Marple. “Neil already knows my name without me introducing myself. And it made me realize, these people that are here care; it doesn’t matter who you are or what level you’re at. It really inspired me to have that same approach to young fans and people coming up. You just never know how you’re going to impact someone.”
He’s a Dave Weckl Superfan
One of Marple’s most formative experiences was seeing footage of the original Buddy Rich Memorial Concert, held in 1989. In particular, he was struck by the hard-hitting groove-fest featuring Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta and Dave Weckl.
Weckl, the great drummer and clinician best known as a solo artist and for his work with Chick Corea, has been a powerful influence throughout Marple’s journey. Marple caught a tour date by Weckl’s band in Maryland in 2003, and the impact was seismic: He went home and set up his kit like Weckl’s; he started playing Sabian cymbals like Weckl; he dug deep into Weckl’s then-current album Live (and Very Plugged In).
More than technique, though, Marple took from Weckl pure inspiration—to learn, to grow, to become great. “I want to make people feel the way I’m feeling about him,” Marple recalls thinking after that Weckl concert. “Inspiration is the biggest thing,” he says, “because I don’t think it’s healthy to force yourself to practice. If you have that hunger through inspiration, I think that’s a huge key to success.”
Shop the brands that Donnie Marple plays: Ludwig Drums, Sabian Cymbals, PROMARK Sticks, EVANS Drumheads, Gibraltar Hardware and Roland USA.
