Ex-Winnipegger the right Fitz to drum in Alice Cooper’s band

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This article was published 16/11/2006 (6910 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WHEN Winnipegger Brent Fitz was 10 years old, he learned to play drums by listening to Alice Cooper records.

In July, the 36-year-old got to put his knowledge of the shock-rock godfather’s catalogue to good use when he was invited to sit in on a dozen dates with Cooper on a tour through the Midwestern United States.

“Before my first show the stage manager said, ‘Alice is going to throw you his top hat during School’s Out and you’ve got to catch it or else. Don’t drop it.’ I think I started to hyperventilate, but I never missed the hat. I figured I couldn’t let them down,” Fitz says over the phone from Toronto last week.

Fitz’s main gig is as timekeeper is with Vancouver post-grunge group Theory of a Deadman, but when Cooper’s drummer Eric Singer left his seat to tour Australia with his other band — a small-time outfit known as KISS — he recommended Fitz as his replacement.

The John Taylor Collegiate graduate watched some DVDs of Cooper’s current tour and learned the set in two weeks. Since both TOAD and Cooper were touring, he didn’t even get to practise with the band until two days before his debut and didn’t perform with the legendary frontman until the first concert.

“They assumed I was professional enough to come in and just do the gig,” he says. “I also had to do a drum solo during one of Alice’s costume changes, which I had never done in my life. I’d always been fearful of them because I used to think A) it was time for people to take a (bathroom break); or B) filler, so I spent a lot of time working on making it entertaining and rhythmic. After the first night everyone gave me a pat on the back, and after a couple of shows Alice came out of wardrobe and gave the thumbs-up, so that felt good.”

The story of how Fitz got the call to drum for Cooper begins a decade ago when he left Winnipeg to try his luck making a living in Los Angeles.

Through some Winnipeg connections, including vocalist Lenita Erickson, Fitz landed work backing Gilby Clarke from Guns N’ Roses before hooking up with ex-Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick and future Mötley Crüe vocalist John Corabi to form the band Union, which released three albums between 1998 and 2000.

As the group was nearing the end of its run, Fitz received a call from original Mötley Crüe vocalist Vince Neil’s management to join the singer for a two-week string of dates.

The short stint turned into four years and led to Fitz’s relocation to Las Vegas, where he has been living since 2003 and where he plays hockey with former Winnipeg Jets goalie Wade (Pokey) Reddick on Celine Dion’s crew’s team.

The drummer’s association with Neil led to other one-off gigs, including a tour of Japan with New York guitarist Karl Cochrane, a two-week run in Taiwan with a rhythmic dance musical, Caution, Men at Work, and a recent string of American dates with aboriginal blues band Indigenous.

When Neil left solo shows behind to reunite with Mötley Crüe two years ago, Fitz got in touch with TOAD’s manager, who had approached him earlier about joining the band.

TOAD has been touring almost non-stop since the release of the album Gasoline last year and will appear at the MTS Centre tonight with Three Days Grace, The Trews and Mobile (tickets are $19.97 at Ticketmaster).

Two of the thousands of people at the concert will be Fitz’s proud parents, who still live in St. James.

“I don’t think my parents ever thought I was serious when I told them I wanted to make a living playing drums — and here we are 20 years later and I’ve never held a day job,” he says.

“My parents were the same as any other parents would be: they were supportive but they were hoping I’d have something to fall back on.

“They never held me back, though. When I was 10 they got me a drum kit and when I was 15 playing bars, they never said no. They put my drums in the car and drove me there.”

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca