If you happen to enjoy prog metal, chances are you had a moment with Pink Floyd and their eclectic discography. It is no secret that Floyd are my absolute favorite band and there was a time in college where I was obsessed with learning everything about them.
But one thing I had no idea about was a young, fresh-faced Jordan Rudess, famous of course for being Dream Theater's keyboardist, almost played on one of the band's most popular albums, The Wall.
Rudess revealed how he almost got involved to U.K.'s Prog magazine stating:
“Many years ago I had a friend by the slightly unusual name of Blue Ocean,” recalls the Dream Theater keyboard maestro. “He was a very good drummer; I believe he had been one of the studio drummers for The Monkees, playing with them behind the scenes. Anyway, Blue got the job of assembling a marching band that would appear on the song Bring The Boys Back Home.
“I was hanging out at Blue’s home one day and he said, ‘Come on man, come to the studio and watch the recording of the track. You could even be a part of it’. Well, I wasn’t a drummer – by that point I’d have been around 18 years old and had long since decided that keyboards would be my life – but I’d played some very basic snare drum when I was in Third Grade.
“So I went with him to the session. I walked in, someone gave me a drum and some sticks. I’m playing along and having a really good time but as I’m doing so I become aware that Bob Ezrin [producer] is looking at me across the room, eyebrow slightly askew and finally he says: ‘I don’t think so’.
“After he’d picked me out I went and sat in the control room and long before anyone else we got to hear a playback of that track, though of course we had no idea of what it meant or where it would fit in the overall puzzle of Pink Floyd’s album.
“I was fine with Bob’s decision. I was a very poor drummer. But there’s a part of me that still wishes I’d been able to appear on The Wall. That would’ve been very cool indeed.”
We share that in common, a part of me wishes I'd be able to appear on The Wall too, but it came out a year before I was born.
[via Blabbermouth]
