On Monday night fans of acclaimed drummer Jimmy Chamberlin were in for a surprise. At SKYWAW's live début, Jimmy was playing a DW branded drum kit and not one of his usual unique Yamaha custom kits. Further, he had changed his set-up, which has been his standard for over 20 years. Some suspected that it was simply a hired kit, myself included, and there was nothing else to it than that. Following a volley of tweets, announcing he was going to announce something, Jimmy issued this statement, which confirmed what many fans had been thinking:"Friends and fans, some of you have noticed that I used a DW kit on Monday night. I would like to briefly explain why I have chosen to switch from Yamaha at this point in my career. On hearing the most recent Smashing Pumpkins track 'Lightning Strikes', I was struck by how closely the sound of the drums resembled my own; the snare sounded like my signature snare, there were two low toms panned left and right just like with my own set-up and even some of the fills themselves sounded like they were from my palette. It was sort of like I was playing, but only much... much better.
I have been really inspired by their drummer and had an epiphany of sorts; from now on I am going to strive to sound just like him! Hence, this change of my manufacturer to the one he uses. However, I am saddened to have to concede that as it sounds like he's now playing my old unique kit configuration even more creatively and with so much more facility than I could ever hope to achieve; I feel that, in this respect, I am left with but no choice other than to try something new. Else, I would simply end up being a pale imitation of someone imitating me. That is something JC can not resonate with.
I trust you understand"
