Famous guitarists who also play drums

Lots of famous guitar players started out behind a drum kit. Playing multiple instruments is a great way to broaden your horizons when it comes to musicianship – it can make you approach guitar completely differently! 

Here are some famous guitarists who are just as good with a pair of sticks as they are with a six-string: 

Dave Grohl 

Thomson200, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl famously played drums in Nirvana (1990 to 1994). Before that, he provided the drums for punk rock band Scream. 

Grohl started playing guitar at age 12, and switched to drums in high school. He said he taught himself how to play drums by listening to Rush and punk rock. “When I got 2112 when I was eight years old, it f—ing changed the direction of my life,” he told RTTNews in 2013.  “I heard the drums. It made me want to become a drummer.”

In 1994, after Kurt Cobain’s death and Nirvana’s subsequent dissolution, Grohl recorded a 15-track demo, in which he recorded all of the instruments himself. He briefly played drums for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, although he turned down an offer to join the band permanently. He also played drums with Pearl Jam a couple of time during this time period. 

The demo Grohl recorded was eventually remixed and released as The Foo Fighters’ debut album in 1995. He switched to lead vocals and guitar for Foo Fighters, but still plays drums on some Foo Fighter recordings. 

Frank Zappa 

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Avant-garde musician and artist Frank Zappa’s first instrument was the drums. He learned the basics of drums in a summer school course at the age of 12, where the students practiced on wooden planks rather than kits. He joined his first band in high school as a drummer. 

Chris Cornell 

Shayne Kaye, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Legendary Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell took piano and guitar lessons as a kid, but started his professional career with Soundgarden on drums. The band had another drummer come in a year after their inception to allow Cornell to focus on vocals and rhythm guitar. 

Danielle Haim 

Kim Metso, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

One-third of the pop-rock band Haim, Danielle Haim is both a talented guitar player and a drummer. She plays drums for Haim (which is made up of Danielle and her sisters Este and Alana Haim) in the studio and for some songs during live performances. 

Wolfgang Van Halen 

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Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang Van Halen has gotten plenty of attention for his guitar playing, but he got his start behind a kit.  “It was the only thing my dad actually sat down to teach me. He sat me down at a table with a couple of magazines,” WVH told Yahoo! Entertainment in 2023.  “He had me play eighth notes with my right hand, or quarter notes, I guess.”