WINDHAM — “Sonny Rock Have Drums Will Travel” is the inscription on a brick that was laid last May on the Blue’s Foundation’s Walk of Fame in Memphis, Tennessee. But who is Sonny Rock?
Sonny Rock grew up on the mountaintop in Windham. His grandparents were the proprietors of a well known restaurant on Main Street called “The Blue Moon” that burned down in February of 1975. It stands today as the Main Street Italian Market after it was rebuilt in 1979. His grandmother Anne Kurz, would let him stay up late to watch the Johnny Carson Show where he would sit mesmerized by the drum stylings of Buddy Rich. “By age five or six my grandmother knew I was gonna be a musician” begins Sonny while explaining how his journey to become a professional drummer got started. When Sonny was 12 years old he received his first drum set that he would practice on in an apartment above the Blue Moon. “I would play in local marching bands and some neighborhood cover bands too” Sonny continues. “Learned some guitar, learned some piano, but the drums are what I always came back to.”
After High School, Sonny would move to Los Angeles to gain more experience in the heavy metal scene that was the backdrop to Sunset Boulevard in 1983. Sonny began playing at some coffee houses and even had a main spot to play at a popular venue of the time “The Music Machine”, where he also worked at the door. Sonny also made a wage by working as a scenic artist on films for Local 729 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. He has helped develop sets for films such as 1999’s “Stuart Little” and the 2001 horror/mystery “Jeepers Creepers”. Building connections like these helped Sonny introduce his drumming into the soundtracks for early 2000’s tv shows like “Malcolm In The Middle” or “The Bernie Mac Show.” “I was the drummer for the 877-Kars For Kids Jingle” Sonny admits.
By the time Sonny returned to the East coast nearly thirty years later, his talent and experiences had grown exponentially after playing shows with legendary names like Tom Jones, Slash of Gun N Roses, KISS, and touring with Iron Maiden!
Sonny and Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain, even sprung for a wild ride of disorder through the city of Casper in Wyoming one night while in town for the tour.
When Sonny arrived back in New York, he wasted no time getting involved with local musical artists performing in the area. Currently Sonny is working alongside other artists in the Hudson Valley like the classic rock players Lex Grey and her Urban Pioneers, the country band Whiskey Cross, and the in house Blues band at McGeary’s Irish Pub in Albany for the Capital Region Blues Network’s weekly shows These are only a few of the bands he currently plays with when not working on other up and coming projects. Sonny had also worked for four different local radio stations including RIP 97.9 in Windham for over ten years.
“I am also working down on Long Island with a program called “Road Recovery”, which tries to help troubled teenagers in schools through a music program backed by Billy Joel and the Department of Justice” Sonny explains.
But now Sonny is planning on publishing three books he himself has written to launch in this upcoming March that act as different looks back on a lifetime of triumphs and failures out on the open road amongst the music circuits of America.
The first of his books is going to be his autobiography “Safety First (Lions and Hearts)”.
“This one’s gonna be in more of a humorous light to balance out the tragedies” Sonny says.
“It's got rock and roll, it's got sex, it's got drugs, it's got motorcycle clubs, and then eventually me getting myself sober.”
The second one Sonny describes as a “coffee table book” filled with pictures Sonny was taking while touring the deep South with musical group Tas Cru from 2012 to 2020. The book itself lacks a working title so far but will feature a collection of photographs of cotton fields, gin mills, old juke joints, fellow musicians and more, with follow up captions that explain where and when Sonny is and why he is there.
The third volume is going to be a short 70-page reflection on the early relationship between Sonny and his dad entitled “Life Is Good”. “This one will look more at how my father didn't kill a long haired drummer he was raising while moving from Long Island into the Catskills,” Sonny adds humorously.
Juggling all this can seem pretty heavy, especially when splitting your time between Windham and Long Island, but Sonny always leaves room for his girl Victoria and his stepson Andres who he affectionately calls “The Dude”.
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