Jamey Haddad and Paul McCartney
percussion, clave’s and maracas, and sometimes the
performed everything back at him that he played for
oud. The dancing was intense, and for a four year-old
me.
who was free to wander around with so many family
I was terribly dyslexic as a kid, and in early
on hand, I found myself always hanging around the
grade school I started to stutter as well. Drumming
drummers. When my dad asked me what I wanted for
and music were the only things that made any sense
my birthday that summer, I remember clearly
at all.
standing in the kitchen telling him that if he got me
That winter at Christmas my grandfather, Fred
one of those drums that I could play it. He laughed at
Thomas, gave me a simple drum set. I started taking
my serious commitment and said OK. My uncle Dave
lesson from a gentleman named Howard Brush
Morad, who was a wonderful drummer in both
who had just come off the road from playing with
Western and Arabic, came to give me my first lesson.
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. He had heard me
After that first meeting he told my dad that I had
play around and liked me, but he also saw how I
struggled with reading. In one lesson he asked me if