Lamb Of God’s Art Cruz Praises Carlos Santana

Lamb Of God‘s Art Cruz has revealed that Carlos Santana is one of his favorite drummers. As part of Johnathan’s Montenegro‘s My 3 Questions To series, Cruz said, “It’s a tough one. Honestly, I always have to say my first inspiration — I just got finished, actually, watching a video of Woodstock — Carlos Santana. He’s not a drummer. However, to me, the entire entity of Santana and his music is very percussion backed — it’s very percussion. So, as a kid, that’s what I first listened to, it’s what I first saw, it’s what I first was around my entire childhood. So that’s what got me into drums. So I stuck with that. So Santana — I have to classify him as one of my favorite drummers. Weird, but it’s the truth.”

He continued, “After that, I would have to say most definitely Mike Portnoy DREAM THEATER. A huge part of my career. Good friend now — thank God. He influenced me to really think outside the box and get creative and have that Portnoy factor in my playing. And I’m sure, if you are a drummer, you can hear that in my playing.”

He added, “And then my third… That’s really hard, man — top three’s hard. But I will probably have to say… David Garibaldi, the drummer from TOWER OF POWER. I’m a very funky dude.”