Tell us a bit about your background - where you grew up, where you are today

I grew up in New Jersey until the age if 13 and then moved to the Chicago suburbs just before starting Jr High School. It almost killed me. I didn't know anyone and had no friends so I got a drum set. I now live with my wife and 2 kids in the North Suburbs.

When did you begin playing the drums and what was the inspiration to play the drums?

I took my first drum lesson 40 years ago when I was 8 years old at Victor's House Of Music in Ridgewood New Jersey. I had seen Keith Moon blow up his drums on the Smothers Brothers show. I think that was pretty motivating for a kid who wanted to hit things...before blowing them up.

Can you share a bit about you played with when you first began performing?

I played with some bands in High School in Lake Forest IL. I played in two very weird bands in college in Wisconsin- a fusion jazz group and a punk rock band. I loved them both. But the punk band got more gigs...and taught me more

Who were your influences when you started out and are they the same today?

I love a lot of drummers but I think I'm more influenced by songwriters and composers. I went through an AM radio phase, a Led Zeppelin/Deep Purple phase,  a British art rock phase, and then a really really long Frank Zappa phase that never really ended, and a sort of punk rock phase. These days I feel as inspired musically by singers like Gillian Welch, who's music has no drumming, as I do by drummers. I am continuously stunned by the talent of Paul McCartney and Nick Lowe.

How did you meet Michael and how long did you play with him? Any plans to join him again?

He called me out of the blue in 1993 and asked me to play with him. I had just finished a stint with a pretty popular Chicago hard rock band called Phantom Helmsmen. I think he saw me with them once. I only knew one of his songs: A Wall I Must Climb, because it had been on the radio in Chicago a lot.. When I met Michael I told him that I hadn't exactly been sitting around listening to his music, and to his credit, I think he felt that that was OK. I think he wanted someone who would bring something new to his sound. I played in the band recording and touring for 9 years - until 2002. I learned a lot. I think It was pretty new for me to play music in which the song lyrics are paramount- that's what the audience was there to hear, not a guitar solo or a lot of bluster from the drummer. I also got the chance to tour from LA to New York, do the Conan O'Brien Show in 1997 and play at Ravinia. I met some....interesting people... It was almost all fun.  Michael still has my number. I ain't  hidin'....

Favorite McDermott song to play?

Hard to say....Forgotten was always fun to play. I came up with the way that song ends live. We used to do a pretty rave-up song called Burning At The Stake that was really cool. I also liked playing hand percussion on songs like Rhythm Of The River. I have to say, and it may surprise you, that Michael was always willing to make changes to new songs for the purpose of playing them live. He almost never brought in a song that was written in stone. I'm pretty sure that more than once he cut an entire verse from a song. I never felt like it would be stepping on his toes to suggest changes to songs to make them work better live.

T

Well, as you can imagine, in 9 years I played a heck of a lot of shows. I seem to remember a really great show at the Mercury Lounge in New York...I never felt I played well at Metro in Chicago, though those were some of the biggest shows we did....playing on the Conan show was a riot. I think our strongest performances in Chicago were always the Schuba's shows- the audience was always able to give us so much energy there. I also remember playing at a really crappy Chicago sports bar one time and standing in the basement with Michael writing the set list...I think we both felt like it was a stupid gig...and we were probably both tired and hung over...I was trying to help him remember what songs we might play...he wrote maybe two song titles and then wrote Wall...and as he wrote it down he just said...."Wall....Wall...Wall...Wall...." like he was sooo tired of doing it, or even saying it.  We went on stage that night and when we got to Wall I Must Climb he skipped it, I'm not sure exactly why, but we ended up never playing it. That was the only McDermott gig I did in the 9 years I was in the band where we didn't play that song, which was fine with me. I'm not sure how he still manages to give that song any life these days. He's got plenty of better songs.

What's on Jack's IPOD or in the CD Player?

There are 3400 songs on my iPod...including Don't Pull Your Love by Hamilton Joe Frank and Reynolds, Danse Macabre by Camille Saint Saens, Strange Kind Of Woman by Deep Purple,  Yankee Go Home by Richard Thompson, Rubber Shirt by Frank Zappa, and the Theme from the original 1950's version of The Blob. I recommend all of them. Go listen to all of them. NOW.

What is Jack up to these days?

I play with an amazing rock band called Tomorrow The Moon with my old comrade Steve Gerlach. I write a few songs for the band as well. It's a bit math-rock...sort of King Crimson meets David Bowie. Melodic mayhem. 

Who's going to win the World Series?

Me.