Chris Ryan and Matt Bonner sat down with the man who created the Rock n Roll drumming sound, Sun Records drummer JM Van Eaton who played with Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins. This interview took place inside Sam Phillips Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. JM gives lots of background about the record business in the 50s and 60s.
As a drummer, JM Van Eaton was mostly self-taught. He played in the marching band at his high school and had a scholarship to Memphis University. However, he never used it because he had landed such a good job with Sun Records. When he was playing with Jerry Lee Lewis, JM says that he was just trying to keep up and give it some bottom. The goal was to have a rhythm and tempo that people could dance to. “Great Balls of Fire” isn’t JM’s favorite Lewis hit due to a limited amount of drumming. He prefers “Breathless” and “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On” because he had bigger drum parts on those songs. JM described working with Jerry Lee Lewis. Most people are amazed that Jerry Lee Lewis, despite his destructive life style has outlived so many of his contemporaries.
In the interview, JM Van Eaton described being friends with Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison, the life in Memphis when it was the epicenter of the music world, and working with legends like Charlie Rich and Conway Twitty. To JM Van Eaton, the common thread which connects all of these rock and roll pioneers was that they all had similar backgrounds–poor southerners who were desperate to have a hit record with Sun records.
