Emulation has never been a bad thing to me or for me.

One of my favorite musicians in the world is my father. Another one is Steve Gadd. Also, Buddy Rich, Max Roach, Dennis Chambers, Gerry Brown, Dave Weckl, and Vinnie Colaiuta. My father and Steve Gadd have always been at the top of that list. You can hear a lot of emulation of them in my playing because I admire them. I’ve learned certain things on the drums simply by emulating specific individuals who exemplify those skills. That’s a very positive and clear thing that I have needed and utilized.

Emulation gets convoluted and takes on an unhelpful tone when we lose our identity within the emulation. This has happened with many of my peers. Unlike the people I was looking up to, my peers did not have the same gap in age or known accomplishments with me that I did with the people I admire. In defense of my peers, because of this level of familiarity, they may feel I simply influenced them as any friend would. But in many cases, it went beyond influence and became severe when others adopted my identity traits, musical approaches, and business approaches to an extent that was unreasonable and without understanding where that influence stopped and their character began.

Most people say they would love to be so admired. That was not my experience. I’ve never felt so important as to be emulated, so to me, the pattern I saw in others…