Tommy Mugs Cain

The drumming of Tommy "Mugs" Cain has provided the heartbeat for the best of American pop and rock music for over a decade. A song-conscious player with impeccable taste, Mugs has gigged his way up through the ranks, to play with a diverse selection of some of the biggest chart-topping names: Van Halen's Sammy Hagar, Grammy winner David Foster, Journey's Gregg Rollie and Jonathan Cain (Mugs' brother), the provocative Divinyls, songwriter supreme Eric Martin, and the eclectic Thompson Twins, among many others.

When then rising star Michael Bolton needed a drummer who could lay down classic R & B grooves with metronomic precision, or let loose and kick his all-star band through flat-out powerchording rock, Mugs was the obvious choice. "I grew up playing everything from the funky Stax classics to Led Zeppelin, so Michael's gig was very natural for me," he says.

Multi-platinum success with Bolton meant global tours, major television appearances, and a number of sessions for Mugs. Along the way he added his compositional and performance skills to soundtracks for the hit movies "If Looks Could Kill' and 'The Terminator". Recently, he has released a CD with his band The Railbirds and appears on 'Back to the Innocence', Jonathan Cain's debut solo disc.

An experienced programmer, Mugs also provides rhythm tracks for all types of music projects. "Any drummer expecting to survive in this business should realize that programming is a definite asset." Mugs' programming led him to create the D.M.I. (Drum Machine Index), a complete index and workbook for recording drum machine data.

Over the holidays, Mugs recorded another cd with his brother Jonathan. It will be available at Jonathan's website (www.JonathanCain.com). The new cd is a collection of Disney love themes done instrumentally on the piano with lush orchestral accompaniment titled "Fantasies In Love". Mugs has also played on three of Jonathan's other solo records, all of which are available at his site. The solo cd's are: "Windy City Breakdown", "Back To The Innocence" (U.S.& Europe), and "Anthology".