TaRon Lockett (And His "Life Coach") on Humility, Creativity, Erykah Badu, and Hard-Won Lessons

TaRon Lockett, who was Prince’ last drummer, who cut his teeth with Erykah Badu, and who was a key member of a scene that spawned Robert “Sput” Searight, Cleon Edwards and Mike Mitchell among others…

…showed up to our interview in character as his own life coach.

And from that point I knew this wasn’t going to be an “average” podcast episode.

It’s perfectly in-keeping with TaRon’s entire approach to music and creativity, though. There’s the dedication to “the bit”, evidenced by TaRon’s philosophy to dedicate himself 100% to assuming the character necessary to perform at his best for any gig he’s agreed to.

There’s the fearlessness that helped TaRon “not look back” when he left a college degree program to pursue music full-time after getting some high-profile gigs.

There’s the respect for age-old wisdom and the hard-won lessons of playing in church and learning by “respectful hard knocks”, and the dead seriousness of one’s dedication to their art.

Then there’s the duality itself, between irreverence, rebelliousness, and independence on one hand, and respect for the tradition and the aforementioned willingness to conform to perform his best on the gig.

In any case, if you’re patient, there are lessons, both humorous and serious to be gleaned both from TaRon-as-his-life-coach, and Taron-as-himself.

I hope you enjoy this fascinating the surprising conversation with one of the most underrated drummers around.

(And if you want to check out TaRon more, I recommend his instagram, starting with this clip.)

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Chapters

0:45 - how did TaRon develop his unique voice  2:30 - early teachers and musical influences  4:51 - how much was talent and how much was hard work 7:09 - memorable hard knocks lessons  9:59 - how much time should drummers allot to technique vs music  16:07 - being a musical chameleon  17:33 - the limits of hard knocks  24:09 - advice for someone who wonders if they have what it takes  28:15 - what drew TaRon to LA 33:54 - how has his practice changed over the years 36:18 - the origins of the "floor tom thingy" 40:41 - his relationship with the practice pad 42:50 - biggest takeaway from playing with Erykah Badu 45:08 - biggest takeaway from playing with Prince