Purdie got his own toy drum set at the age of 6. He was drawn to the drums early, sitting on the stoop at 3 years old and listening to a neighbor practicing drums. His mother had passed away two years prior. When he was 13, his father was shot the day before Christmas 1952, dying from his wounds two days later. Purdie is known for his self-confidence and outspoken nature, having grown up in Elkton as one of 15 children and drumming as a teenager to help support his family. They didn't come and ask me anything about it," says Purdie, who now lives in New Jersey. "The only reason I didn't push myself to see it yet is that I'm a little jealous. King and more.Īnd while Brown is currently in the spotlight again thanks to "Get On Up" with actor Chadwick Boseman ("42") playing Brown, Purdie hasn't rushed out to see the film. In addition to being Aretha Franklin's musical director and drumming on some of her best albums ("Young, Gifted and Black," "Aretha Live at Fillmore West"), he was in the studio with a seemingly endless list of bold-face names over the years: Nina Simone, Dizzy Gillespie, John Lee Hooker, Louis Armstrong, King Curtis, Miles Davis, Cat Stevens, Hall & Oates, Steely Dan, B.B.
His keen ability to keep time, plus his funky (and famed) Purdie Shuffle groove made him a go-to session drummer for decades.Īlong with his own solo career, which found new life in later years through being sampled by everyone from Beck ( "Devils Haircut") to The Chemical Brothers ( "Block Rockin' Beats"), Purdie has drummed with some of music's biggest acts.
In fact, Purdie has his own boastful nickname: The World's Most Recorded Drummer.
The Hardest Working Man in Show Business is just one of a mind-boggling 2,200 artists that Purdie has recorded with over his 50-plus-year career, appearing on more than 3,000 albums. And just like some scenes depicted in the new biopic "Get On Up" that show Brown fining musicians for not playing exactly to his specifications, Purdie found Brown to be exacting.Īsk Purdie, 75, what Brown was like to work with and Purdie's answer comes almost before the question is finished being asked: "He was a pain. While in the studio with James Brown recording classic albums like "Say it Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" and "Get On the Good Foot," Elkton, Maryland-born drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie had a front-row seat to The Godfather of Soul at work.