DRUM! Magazine – Issue 15-4, Pg. 41-44

Ray Luzier had one of the sweetest gigs in rock. For eight years, the Pennsylvania farm boy kept time behind childhood idol David Lee Roth. It was a cushy gig. Most any drummer would jump at the chance to play, travel the world, and shoot the breeze over a refreshing beverage with Diamond Dave. “It was such a great thing. I’ve been a fan of his since I was ten,” says Luzier. “He’s been hanging on my walls in Pittsburgh, and to get to play with a guy like that every night was just great.”

Ostensibly, the hardest part of the gig was merely replicating a couple of traditional Alex Van Halen parts. The rest was jamming and having some plain fun. “He let me do my thing. Some licks have to be there, like the beginning of ‘Jump’ and ‘Dance The Night Away.’ There are some signature drum things that you have to do, but he let me play like Ray. A lot of rock stars, especially icons like David Lee Roth, usually are, ‘Stick to the record and make the fans think they’re listening to the record.’ Dave said, ‘This is the band. We want you to kick ass and put in your own flavor.’ That was an awesome thing. I think that’s what kept me in the band for so many years, because I had offers to go to other bands and I always stuck with Dave.”

Eventually, those other offers began to test his loyalty to Diamond Dave. At the Sabian Live party during Winter NAMM 2005, Luzier jammed with bassist Billy Sheehan and guitarist Toshi Hiketa, blissfully unaware that his life was going to change soon. Former Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo and his guitarist twin-brother Dean were playing with Steve Ferrone that same night, and they decided to check out Luzier’s soundcheck. A huge Stone Temple Pilots fan, he nervously jammed his set as the brothers watched. “Those guys are such amazing musicians. They’re my favorite songwriters of the ’90s,” he adds. Afterward, the DeLeos approached him and asked if he’d want to play in their new band, Army Of Anyone. “I was surprised because I’m nothing like [original Pilots drummer] Eric Kretz. They’ve been used to him for the last 12 years. He’s an amazing drummer; we have way different playing styles, but they said they wanted this kind of energy and chops.”

About four months after that chance meeting, Luzier somehow managed to find some time to audition for Army Of Anyone, which featured Filter ex-singer Richard Patrick behind the mike. At that point, Luzier was playing with his instrumental side band, Hideous Sun Demons, and touring with Roth. “They called me and I went down and auditioned out of about 12 guys.”

Luzier and the DeLeos jammed for hours and touched on everything from Led Zeppelin to Latin tunes. By the time they finished, they had finalized the Army Of Anyone lineup. “They literally asked me that day to join, and I still had 12 to 15 David Lee Roth shows and another Japanese tour booked. They kicked me out of the room for five minutes and had a little pow-wow. I came back in, and they said, ‘Let’s do this. This is the band. We feel it. It feels great.’ Pretty much, I left everything to join Army Of Anyone.”

By joining the Army, Luzier left the drum throne he had grown accustomed to for nearly a decade. His decision seemed sudden, but he wanted to be a full-fledged bandmember instead of a backing musician. It turns out that Roth already had a hunch that Luzier would fly the coop. “He had known for a while. I love Dave to death. He’s really my bro. Living in a tour bus with a guy and being in a band with him for all these years, he kind of knew that I was looking for a band that I wanted to be a member of. I got to do two records with him, but I was always a hired gun for everything, and I was really looking to be a bandmember. That’s the great thing about Army Of Anyone. They said, ‘We don’t want you to be a hired gun anymore. We want you to stay focused and be a leader of all that.’”

With an exciting new opportunity on one side and a stagnating gig on the other, the time was right to leave, and Luzier left Diamond Dave’s band in June 2005. “I knew he had this radio show coming up. I knew when that kicked in we wouldn’t have much time to play live and to do a new record. I think it was a great time to get out of that situation. I got in the band around late ’97, and it was a great run. We got to do a lot of great things.”

Though he was finally a fullfledged bandmember, Luzier still wondered if the DeLeo brothers would eventually want him to play like Kretz. Once he realized that they wanted his touch and nothing else, he settled into a comfort zone and added his signature to the sound. “The songs were beautiful. They had a drum machine programmed on the demos. The engineer wiped all the drums off there, laid down a click track on all the demos, and I went in and practiced. When we got together for preproduction, I got to come up with all my parts. They’ve always been used to one drummer for all those years, and they really let me play on this record like me. I thought I’d just be holding it down and anchoring the time, and I did do a lot of grooves, but they let me play like Ray.”

Even if his new bandmates had asked him to play like Kretz, Luzier is not sure he would’ve been able to pull off the relaxed drummer’s style. “It’s great because I have the utmost respect for that guy. I can’t play as laid back as him. I’m a lot more hyper. I really respect his playing because he’s a great guy and he has a laid back approach. They liked the fire and energy that I added to it.”

The energy and passion Luzier exudes about his new band is not exaggerated. With two prolific songwriters, a talented singer, and a powerhouse drummer, Army Of Anyone is a veritable all-star band. With those genes, the musical offspring will undoubtedly turn some heads. “It’s great,” Luzier agrees. “Robert and Dean were the writers in STP, so of course it has elements of that. Fans will really be pleased with this band. At the same time, it’s [Patrick's] voice so it has elements of Filter. Rich really outdid himself on this record. He has such an amazing voice, and there are all kinds of textures on here. There are heavier barnburners and lighter ballads that are really beautiful.”

To make the record even more powerful and dynamic, the Army employed the producing talents of legendary Bob Ezrin, who also worked on such powerhouse albums like Pink Floyd’s The Wall and KISS’ Destroyer. “We recorded it at the Village in West L.A. in the Fleetwood Mac room. We had Andy Wallace of Nirvana mix it. He’s done a million bands up to this point.”

Though not an egotistical man by any means, Luzier managed to momentarily set aside his modesty to describe the new album. “It’s a great time for this music to come out,” he gushes. “I told my buddy that if I wasn’t in this band I couldn’t wait for this record to come out because it’s so refreshing. I think a lot of the soul and emotion has left modern music. This album is definitely full of that. It’s got every element – aggressiveness, emotion, and all our  personalities really come out in the music.”

On the surface, it would seem like a small miracle that four distinct and successful personalities could easily blend together to create new music, but egos are nowhere to be found in this Army. Once things got rolling, Luzier was surprised to find out that his rock star mates were even-keeled, normal guys who wanted nothing more than to make great music. “They’re all complete sweethearts. For selling 21 million records – and Filter sold 4.5 million – you think they’d have big rock star egos, but they have not an ounce. They’re completely levelheaded. It’s a warm feeling.”