The Invisible Hitmaker Behind the Soundtrack of Your Life

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The Invisible Hitmaker Behind the Soundtrack of Your Life"

Podcast: Pablo Torre Finds Out
Host: Pablo Torre (The Athletic)
Guest: Bernard "Pretty" Purdy
Date: November 14, 2025
Duration of Content: ~02:13 – 42:32

---

Overview

In this episode, Pablo Torre dives deep into the life and legacy of Bernard "Pretty" Purdy, the legendary but unsung session drummer whose precise grooves have powered thousands of iconic songs but whose name remains largely unknown outside of music circles. With a drum kit on set, Pablo explores Purdy's signature style, his role in music history, and the paradox of creative omnipresence coupled with near-invisibility.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Who Is Bernard Purdy?

• Session Musician Defined: Pablo explains that Purdy is one of the most prolific and influential session drummers ever—present on countless pop, soul, jazz, and rock hits, but typically in the background.
• Signature Contribution: Creator of the "Purdy Shuffle," a groove pattern adopted by artists across genres and cited as foundational to hip hop, among others.

2. The Soundtrack of Our Lives

• Prolific Collaborator:
  • "A minimum of 5,000 different artists around the world." (Bernard Purdy, 07:34)
  • Collaborated with Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Steely Dan, B.B. King, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, and many more.
  • Key songs include “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” (James Brown), “Rock Steady” (Aretha Franklin), “Home at Last” (Steely Dan), “Ooh Child” (The Five Stairsteps), and even “MMMBop” (Hanson).
• Invisible Giant:
  • "Purdy is at the forefront and in the shadows at the same time... yet he walks amongst us, mostly unrecognized. He made the soundtrack to our lives. The world is a fan, but the world doesn't know his name." (Joey Dosik, quoted by Pablo, 06:18)

3. Iconic Moments and Anecdotes

• The “Rock Steady” Drum Break:
  • One of music’s greatest drum moments was a happy accident. Aretha’s sheet music fell, the band kept playing, and the now-iconic break lasted 12 minutes while Aretha improvised. (08:18–09:53)
  • “You don’t stop when the boss don’t stop. It’s that simple.” (Bernard Purdy, 09:54)
• Origins of the Purdy Shuffle:
  • Purdy’s legendary rhythm was inspired by the sound of freight trains passing through his hometown of Elkton, Maryland. (13:35–16:12)
  • "The Purdy shuffle basically happened because of the train... As it slows down, you get—[imitates rhythm]—then it gets down to that point where it stops.” (Bernard Purdy, 13:35)
  • Halftime tempo is crucial: “Halftime is the only way to make the Purdy Shuffle last.” (18:54)

4. The Paradox of Session Musicianship

• Ego vs. Ensemble:
  • Purdy emphasizes that his job was always to serve the song and stabilize the band: “You serve the song first.” (Purdy, 27:04)
  • “Your job is to fit yourself around some of the biggest egos that have ever lived.” (Pablo, 19:59)
  • “For so many years, everybody wanted, but yet they didn’t ask for it because they didn’t know what to ask for. The Purdy Shuffle worked for 20 to 30 years before other people ... were playing it ... even though they didn’t understand it.” (Purdy, 20:15)
• Omnipresence Without Spotlight:
  • Purdy reflects on having no issue with being unheralded: “I was always happy because I was doing demos ... and these demos became hits, just like the big artists ... The beauty for me was I was there to do my job and they allowed me to do it.” (Purdy, 10:53)

5. Teaching, Legacy, and Joy

• A Life of Mentorship:
  • “Teaching is something that I’ve been doing all my life. And I didn’t know I was going to be a teacher. But as time went on, I started developing.” (Purdy, 33:26)
  • Musicians the world over, including superstar drummers, view him as the gold standard.
• Lasting True Happiness:
  • “You might wind up happier than all of the big egos and superstars that you played with.” (Pablo, 33:19)
  • “I am happy as a lark. I really am.... I enjoy what I do.” (Purdy, 37:22)
• Music is Movement:
  • “Learn what moves people. And I’m learning the people with the money that ... making things work for themselves are all looking for that little [feeling] to make them feel good.” (Purdy, 35:45)
  • “I learned how to move my body when I’m playing the groove. And it cracks me up because it’s automatic.” (Purdy, 36:50)

6. Memorable Quotes

• On the invisibility of his achievements:
  • "How is it that you made peace with that? The idea that invisibility was going to be the exchange for being omnipresent?" (Pablo, 21:13)
  • "So I could play with the stars. All of a sudden people started calling me because of what I was doing and what I wasn't doing—trying to take the credit." (Purdy, 21:24)
• On legacy:
  • “Whenever finally Bernard Purdy says, I'm going to hang it up. God's making me hang it up. You're still going to be in everyone's ears. We can't get rid of you.” (Pablo, 40:15)
  • “I can stay working and have a good time. Love what I'm doing and not hurting anybody. It's a wonderful feeling.” (Purdy, 41:05)

---

Notable Moments & Timestamps

• [02:13] Pablo introduces Bernard “Pretty” Purdy, the session legend.
• [03:14] Purdy’s first words about his relationship with drums.
• [06:18] Joey Dosik’s quote on Purdy’s invisible-yet-omnipresent influence.
• [07:34] Purdy has played with a minimum of 5,000 artists.
• [08:18–09:53] Anecdote of the accidental “Rock Steady” drum break.
• [13:35–15:32] Purdy explains the origins of his “shuffle” and its train inspiration.
• [18:54] Distinction of halftime groove essential to his style.
• [19:43] Pablo defines the “session musician’s” unobtrusive role.
• [27:04] Purdy's musical philosophy: "You serve the song first."
• [31:02] Playing Madison Square Garden in his 80s, moving wife Celia to tears.
• [33:26] Purdy reflects on teaching and influencing generations.
• [37:22] Purdy expresses his ongoing happiness in music.
• [40:15] Pablo on Purdy’s immortality through music: “We can't get rid of you.”
• [41:05] Purdy’s summary: “Love what I'm doing and not hurting anybody.”

---

Tone & Atmosphere

• Conversational, warm, and reverent; Pablo’s tone is both journalistic and deeply appreciative.
• Purdy is humble, funny, and candid—relishing in storytelling and music demonstration.
• The episode is laced with live drum examples, laughter, and moments of wonder, balancing technical music discussion with emotional storytelling and philosophical insight.

---

Conclusion

Bernard “Pretty” Purdy’s story is a celebration of the often invisible hands that shape the soundtracks of our lives. The episode offers both a technical and emotional window into Purdy’s genius, his philosophy of service, and the happiness found in purpose—even without the spotlight. His rhythms are woven into the fabric of American music history, and as this episode artfully reveals, his groove will always keep time for generations to come.

---

Selected Quotes

• Pablo Torre:
  “Your role on this planet may not be that of the superstar on a billboard. But you might wind up happier than all of the big egos and superstars that you played with.” (33:19)
• Bernard Purdy:
  “I'm happy as a lark. I really am. … I enjoy what I do.” (37:22)
  “I can stay working and have a good time. Love what I'm doing and not hurting anybody. It's a wonderful feeling." (41:05)

---

For anyone whose toes have ever tapped or whose heart has swelled to the groove of a pop or soul song—odds are, Bernard Purdy was keeping time in the background. Now, his story is front and center, and all the more joyful for it.

Transcript

[Pablo Torre]

Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre and today we're going to find out what this sound is right after this ad.

[Verizon Advertiser]

This holiday, Verizon is helping you bundle up incredible gifts and savings. You'll get the latest phone with a new line on my plan and a brand new smartwatch and tablet. No trade in needed even on our lowest price plan. That's two gifts for your family and one for you or two for you and one for someone else or three gifts for you and only you. Either way, you save big on three amazing gifts at Verizon, all on the best 5G network. Visit Verizon today. Rankings based on Root Metric Truth score report dated 1 2025. Your results may vary. Service plan required for watch and tablet. Additional terms apply.

[Xero Advertiser]

Take control of the numbers and supercharge your small business with Xero. That's Xero. With our easy to use accounting software with automation and reporting features, you'll spend less time on management manual tasks and more time understanding how your business is doing. 87% of surveyed US customers agree Xero helps improve financial visibility. Search Xero with an x or visit xero.comacast to start your 30 day free trial. Conditions apply.

[Pablo Torre]

G' Day America It's Tony and Ryan from the Tony and Ryan Podcast from Down Under.

[Bernard Purdy]

Today we want to talk to you about Boost Mobile, the newest 5G network.

[Xero Advertiser]

In the country offering reliable nationwide coverage backed by a 30 day money back guarantee.

[Pablo Torre]

Love your service or get your money back. No question questions asked. Boost Mobile's Unlimited plan started just $25.

[Bernard Purdy]

A month and will never increase in price.

[Pablo Torre]

The Boost Mobile network, together with their roaming partners, covers 99% of the US population. 5G speeds not available in all areas. Visit the nearest Boost Mobile or Boost Mobile.com after 30 gigabytes. Speeds may slow $25 per month with.

[Xero Advertiser]

Active Boost Unlimited plan.

[Pablo Torre]

Cancel within 30 days for a refund.

[Xero Advertiser]

Of service fees, activation and phone payments.

[Pablo Torre]

Not refunded how old are you right now?

[Bernard Purdy]

I'm 83.

[Pablo Torre]

83 years old. I just need to introduce the premise of why we put a drum kit into the studio for the first time in our show's history and why I demanded that Bernard Purdy be the person to sit behind it.

[Bernard Purdy]

Well, the beauty for me is that part of the sound. So no matter what kind of drum kit that I get, my drumsticks has the length and it has the capability of that. So I can hear that and that is all I ever want.

[Pablo Torre]

The sound that you're making there is the sound That I think everybody who has ever listened to music in America has, on some level, appreciated, even if they didn't quite know, that Bernard Purdy is the reason that they were moving in that way.

[Bernard Purdy]

You're right.

[Pablo Torre]

But I also want to just make sure I clap in front of the microphone so we can just. Because. Well, first off, I'll clap for having you here. Thank you, Bernard. Could you clap as well, though, just for tape sync? Would you mind just giving us a clap in front of the microphone? There it is. Even your claps are, of course, perfectly on beat, putting everybody to shame who's ever stepped into this podcast studio and has had to take sink a clap? So if you're not watching on YouTube right now, what you should be aware of is that there is, in fact, a fully functioning drum kit in our studio, because our guest today, Elkton, Maryland's own Bernard Pretty Purdy, is not just one of the most prolific and underrated figures in the history of recorded music. Bernard Purdy is a teacher. And if you're like me, until fairly recently, you had never been taught the name Bernard Purdy before, because another term for Bernard's job is session musician, meaning that Bernard gets hired to take his customized, precisely measured drumsticks and improve the music of everyone from Aretha Franklin to James Brown to, allegedly, the Beatles, pretty much all of whom wanted a signature groove Bernard invented called the Purdy Shuffle, which has inspired everybody from John Bonham and Led Zeppelin to the genre of hip hop itself.

[Bernard Purdy]

Mmm. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

What a diva. You're a real diva, Bernard. Demanding your special sticks.

[Bernard Purdy]

Listen, when I talk with people about something, there is a reason for it, because everything that I do, everything represents.

[Pablo Torre]

My sound, your sound, the way you've calibrated over 60 plus years. I do need to explain why and how I'm obsessed with especially artists who are omnipresent but can sometimes feel invisible.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

And you. I want to quote our mutual friend Joey Dosik from the band Wolf Pack, one of the great bands that I love, but I just want to quote him here because he gives you, I think, the scouting report that people need to hear. Joey says, quote, purdy is at the.

[Bernard Purdy]

Forefront and in the shadows at the same time. He's on the radio at every moment, every day, everywhere, yet he walks amongst us, mostly unrecognized. He made the soundtrack to our lives. The world is a fan, but the world doesn't know his name.

[Pablo Torre]

And it's remarkable, man, to look into your life and know that Joey's kind of underselling You.

[Bernard Purdy]

Well, a lot of people have, but they've done it because they've asked me to come to them around the world. And I have already. I've been teaching for 60 plus years. Almost 70. Let's just say it's closer to 70.

[Pablo Torre]

I wasn't gonna carry the one there, but I think you're right. What Rolling Stone said about you, Bernard Purdy, is that quote, the question isn't who pretty Purdy played with, it's who he hasn't. And so just to give us the numbers here, how many artists would you say you've worked with in total?

[Bernard Purdy]

A minimum of 5,000 different artists around the world.

[Pablo Torre]

James Brown.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

It's a Man's Man's Man's World. If you listen to that. 1966. There you are, Steely Dan.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

Home at last. 1977. Guess who? Aretha Franklin. I'm thinking of Rocksteady.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

In 71, the owner of one of the great drum breaks ever.

[Bernard Purdy]

That drum break was an accident.

[Pablo Torre]

Please explain.

[Bernard Purdy]

Okay, the drum break was an accident because Aretha was also keyboardist and vocalist and the young man who was the arranger and the writer for her, Arif Martin, we had to listen to what she was doing. So what happened? Almost halfway through the song, the sheet music fell off the piano. And we didn't stop at Aretha was stopped singing, but not stop singing, and she kept saying, Rock Steady Rock. She did that for approximately 12 minutes. And Arif, who saw what was happening, he was also the producer, the guy who was in charge of Atlantic Records and all that, finally came out and picked it up, put it back on the piano. Mind you, we were still doing the break, right?

[Pablo Torre]

You were still playing, still recording.

[Bernard Purdy]

We were still playing the Rock Steady, you know, and she's doing this and waving Rock Steady hello will never stop. You don't stop when the boss don't stop. It's that simple. Didn't bother me. I just did my job.

[Pablo Torre]

This is the part about you, right? So you're a legend. And again, I'll keep on listing the artists, right?

[Bernard Purdy]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Hall and Oates, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. B.B. king, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Cat Stevens, Nina Simone, Herbie Hancock, Gil Scott Heron, Louis Armstrong, Al Green, Quincy Jones. I mean, this. You're walking hall of fame.

[Bernard Purdy]

Well, thank you. I never looked at them. Yeah, but thank you.

[Pablo Torre]

Is there a song that you're most proud of that you think back and like, oh, that's actually my personal favorite.

[Bernard Purdy]

I really didn't. I was happy to be there. And I was always happy because I was doing demos. I was doing demos at that time. And these demos became hits, just like the big artists became hit. I had Ray Charles, I had everybody. I played for everybody. The beauty for me was I was there to do my job and they allowed me to do it.

[Pablo Torre]

But the one that our friend Joey points out, he says the song that best demonstrates your. Your strength, your power is Ooh, Child. So this is 1970. It's the five stair steps.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

Could you play a little bit of what you did on that song for us? Just for people who don't know what I mean when I say you make that song what it became?

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes. Oh, boy.

[Pablo Torre]

Wait, hold on. Were you just. You're just like, wait, that guy's good. Is that the reaction you just had?

[Bernard Purdy]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Bernard Purdy in 1970 was. Was.

[Bernard Purdy]

Was pretty good at this, what I was doing. I kept the time going. And everything that I did was time, time, time, and picking up, allowing it to happen. Let it flow. Stay out of the way of the vocal, but let it flow. And the figures, all that I was singing, all these things, I was singing them, and I didn't realize that I was even singing it. You know, I was playing it. But it was a job.

[Pablo Torre]

The job you did, though, has been imitated, sampled by so many more, thousands of people that you did not personally even play with. Okay, so we gotta explain why hip hop as a genre owes you something.

[Bernard Purdy]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

How do you explain the Purdy shuffle?

[Bernard Purdy]

Now that we've got the 124 and the 12 8, I'm gonna explain to you. Remember that word called explain? Not explain, but I'm explain to you what the Purdy Shuffle is all about. It's gonna surprise you. It's porters, it's eights. The Purdy shuffle basically happened because of the train. The actual railroad that went by my house in Elkton, Maryland, the train that stopped in Elkton had its own. Didn't know that, did you? The slow down of the train. Because when the train is moving, it's so fast, you know, you don't really hear where time is or anything else. All you know is, is that as it slows down, you get. And then it gets down to that point where it stops. And it's the same thing. When it starts up going out, you got shoom. And it just gets up to a certain point that it disappears. It actually disappears. And you don't hear that shoo.

[Pablo Torre]

You.

[Bernard Purdy]

You know, you feel it. You feel the train. You feel it when you're on the train, you feel it. It's just something that I picked up and I realized that I had something going, that's all. And I used to play it because I was only going a block away.

[Pablo Torre]

So you sampled a locomotive is what happened.

[Bernard Purdy]

I sampled the locomotive. The train that was stopping in Elkton, Maryland. It was the marriage capital of the world for a hundred years.

[Pablo Torre]

What does that mean?

[Bernard Purdy]

People stopped into Elkton to get married and leave. And that's how Elkton became known.

[Pablo Torre]

The elopement capital of the United States became known for truly, I would say one of the most lasting vows in American cultural history. Which is if we got a record and we need a drummer, we gotta go get Bernard, Led Zeppelin, fool in the Rain.

[Bernard Purdy]

And Led Zeppelin. His wife. His wife called me. She called me. When he was on his deathbed, she called me and she wanted me to know how much she felt and he felt about me. And I was stunned. I was stunned.

[Pablo Torre]

But what you did, the shuffle, which I hope you can show us a little bit here, it's a fingerprint. It's a unique, magnificent fingerprint. The world dances is what our friend Joey said. Laughs and cries to his beat without even knowing it's him. He influenced everything after him.

[Bernard Purdy]

Now, the difference is that when you do the drums live, there's more space that actually works even more so that it just. It just. Just keeps going.

[Pablo Torre]

This is the never duplicated part.

[Bernard Purdy]

Ow. This bean. It only works when it's half time. Halftime is the only way to make the Purdy Shuffle last. Where it can bring in. Everybody can come in and do their things and Purdy Shuffle can stay on. But you gotta remember it only works slower.

[Pablo Torre]

That part. I wanna explain that in the context of a term that I think people may have heard, but I didn't really think about until I started thinking about you. Which is the session musician.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

Which is to say that you get brought in almost to help the star and to be that what you just did that time keeping texture that everybody knows they want, even if they don't want to admit that they want it.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And your job is to fit yourself around some of the biggest egos that have ever lived.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

And to make sure that they and the band around you get to be the best version of themselves.

[Bernard Purdy]

Exactly. For so many years, everybody wanted, but yet they didn't ask for it because they didn't know what to ask for. The Purdy shuffle worked for 20 to 30 years before other people and other bands, drummers were playing it and they were doing it the best that they could, even though they didn't understand it.

[Pablo Torre]

Right, right.

[Bernard Purdy]

And I was fortunate traveling around the world at that time. I was going around the world in the 70s.

[Pablo Torre]

You were fixing music one session at a time.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Telling people to slow down. Yeah. This groove is not going to work. If you, if you try to. By the way, if you as the drummer, try to make yourself the star.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yeah. No.

[Pablo Torre]

How is it that you made peace with that? The idea that invisibility was going to be the exchange for being omnipresent just.

[Bernard Purdy]

So I could play with the stars. All of a sudden people started calling me because of what I was doing and what I wasn't doing. Trying to take the credit.

[Pablo Torre]

Right.

[Bernard Purdy]

For everything. Hit record is a hit record, no matter how you look at it. And those hit records still go, oh my God, they've been going now for 50, 60, 70 years. That ain't going to stop.

[Pablo Torre]

Feeling safe in your home is one of the most important things in life. You might be scared of fire or burglary or, you know, maybe there are just three active concurrent federal investigations related to your reporting. Whatever it is that keeps you up at night, simply safe is there to help you sleep better. Like it has for me. And here's the way I look at it. If you could actually stop someone from breaking into your home before they got inside, why wouldn't you want to? While traditional security systems respond after someone breaks in, Simplisafe is designed to stop crime before it happens. They utilize AI powered cameras that detect threats while they are still outside your house and they alert real security agents. That is a game changer and it's why I trust them to keep my family secure 24 7. With SimpliSafe's monitoring agents, I don't have to rely on my phone for alerts that someone is at my door. I have real people who have my back and will let intruder know that they are being watched and that the police are already on their way. But don't just take my word for it. Simplisafe has been named best home security system by the US News and World Report five years running. And with a 60 day money back guarantee, you can try it and see the difference for yourself with no financial risk involved. And right now, PTFO listeners get exclusive early access to Simplisafe's Black Friday sale where you can save 60% on any new system. This is the biggest deal of the year. AKA there will never be a better time to get real security for your home. So go to simplisafe.com pablo that's s I m p l dash I s a f e dot com pablo to get your system today and take advantage of their biggest sale of the year.

[Verizon Advertiser]

This holiday, Verizon is helping you bundle up incredible gifts and savings. You'll get the latest phone with a new line on my plan and a brand new smartwatch and tablet. No trade in needed even on our lowest price plan. That's two gifts for your family and one for you. Or two for you and one for someone else. Or three gifts for you and only you. Either way, you save big on three amazing gifts at Verizon. All on the best 5G network. Visit Verizon today. Rankings based on RootMetric Truth Score Report dated 1 2025. Your results may vary. Service plan required for watch and tablet. Additional terms apply.

[Xero Advertiser]

Take control of the numbers and supercharge your small business with Xero. That's X E R O. With our easy to use accounting software with automation and reporting features, you'll spend less time on manual tasks and more time understanding how your business is doing. 87% of surveyed US customers agree Xero helps improve financial visibility. Search Xero with an x or visit xero.comacast to start your 30 day free trial. Conditions apply.

[Pablo Torre]

Who is the hardest person to work with? Because you're the easiest person to work with. Okay. Who is the hardest person you had to work with?

[Bernard Purdy]

Aretha was close.

[Pablo Torre]

Morning Rain.

[Xero Advertiser]

I used to feel.

[Pablo Torre]

The original diva.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes, I was also when I became the musical director, it made it even nicer for me. But I had Quincy Jones. I had run ins with a lot of people, all because I was doing something that nobody else was.

[Pablo Torre]

Right.

[Bernard Purdy]

I loved what I was doing. They didn't understand what I was doing until I showed them.

[Pablo Torre]

Well, hold on. So, Steely Dan, what they say about you, right? This is what Walter Becker once said about you. All right. Walter says quote, bernard always did some unique stylistic thing that you'd never imagine in advance that nobody else would do. Which is to say that even though your job, as you saw it, was to stay out of the way, you also needed to impress upon everybody else the best version of how to do this. And so there is leadership from a role playing position.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

And I think of sports.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

I Everybody knows Michael Jordan. Everybody knows the guy on the poster, in the commercials, on all the billboards. But there are some athletes whose careers are full of championship rings and they do it at multiple places. And that is its own special thing.

[Bernard Purdy]

That's what my job Was because my job also. So many demos became hit records.

[Pablo Torre]

You serve the song first.

[Bernard Purdy]

Thank you. That's my whole life. Because as a kid, what I was playing as a kid, I didn't quite understand what I was doing, but it was working because it was out of the way. It didn't bother anybody. You know, I'm four years old when I was playing drums and I knew I was going to be a drummer. I heard it from Mr. Haywood, who, the one who actually ended up being my teacher. He was the next block down, next street open. I was getting attention by the time I was 10, 11, and 12 because I had something and I didn't know what it was. I just knew that I liked these songs. I liked what I was doing and I liked what I was hearing, and it was working.

[Pablo Torre]

Do you remember the moment, and this could be any point in your career, in your 70 years playing music professionally, it seems like. Do you remember the moment when you thought to yourself, I am doing exactly what I should be doing on this planet?

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes, I knew that by the time I was 10 and 11. Yes, I knew that. I had a band by then.

[Pablo Torre]

What was your band's name?

[Bernard Purdy]

Bugsy. Bugsy Purdy.

[Pablo Torre]

Was Bugsy Purdy shuffling back then?

[Bernard Purdy]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But the point is, is that, you know, it was just called a shuffle. You know, that's what people. Everybody. This.

[Pablo Torre]

I can say this with clarity, having studied this in terms of researching this episode. Every drummer. I've seen so many articles, so many videos. I've talked to so many of them. They worship you. You are your favorite musician. If you're listening out there, Bernard Purdy is your favorite musician's favorite drummer. And the way I encountered you is. Is, of course, relatively late in life, because I'm not a musician. I'm just a guy who likes music. And I went to see Wolfpack at Madison Square Garden.

[Bernard Purdy]

All right, I won't fool around when we move this.

[Pablo Torre]

And I was just talking to your lovely wife Celia, who is sitting outside on the side of this class right now, because we were both, it turns out, having this experience of seeing you in your 80s in front of Madison Square Garden and what I said to Joey that night and what I'll say to you here, it was just one of the most fun times that I've had listening to music, let alone being in what is often a cursed building on account of how the Knicks have been doing in the course of my life. But that performance.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

I mean, you've played those intimate sessions as well, as the grandest arenas. And I was sort of stunned to hear Celia talk about how moving it was for her emotionally, like tearing up to see her husband in 2025, teaching an entire arena of people how to keep time.

[Bernard Purdy]

That's why everything continued for so long, for so many years. But the beauty for me was I didn't have to go through the changes anymore. It took me 20 to 30 years to be able to give something. And it stayed and it stayed and it stayed.

[Pablo Torre]

And the thing that I marvel at now that we've been talking for this long is how much you still enjoy it.

[Bernard Purdy]

Oh, that's the whole point. That is one of the main reasons why I still work. Because I love what I'm doing. And I'm so thankful that the man upstairs has given me this opportunity all of these years. But I had to learn how to do it and do it right. Once I learned how to do it and to do it right, there was no fighting anymore. There was no more fighting. And nobody can take it away from me. And I didn't know until I started going back. Not only James Brown. Oh, you name him, Bernard.

[Pablo Torre]

The band Hanson Bop. Yeah, that's you, too.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

The band that had their photo in my older sister's locker also owes a debt to the guy sitting in the studio right now.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

Your role on this planet may not be that of the superstar on a billboard.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yeah, it's not.

[Pablo Torre]

But you might wind up happier than all of the big egos and superstars that you played with.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes. That's why I'm comfortable in my own valley here, and I really am. Because teaching is something that I've been doing all my life. And I didn't know I was going to be a teacher. But as time went on, I started developing. I became friends with the biggest name drummers in the world. I wasn't in competition. I was just consistent with what I was doing. I never got out of the way of not wanting to play my part. But I sit down sometimes, you know? You know, I used to do that when I was teaching. No, let's kept the time and people. You could see this. You can see other people outside the door looking and listening. Oh, my God, that's that shuffle. That's that Purdy shuffle. I was grinning from ear to ear because I created something.

[Pablo Torre]

There's something about being a drummer again, as I'm not a musician of any kind. I tapped out at piano lessons when I was in grade school. But there's something about a drummer and the philosophy of being a drummer, that's different from. I mean, look. Because the drum solo is a thing. Yeah, right. But you explained to me that when you're doing one of the great drum breaks in recorded musical history in 1971, for Rocksteady, that was an accident. But when I think about guitarists and the guitar solo, there's just something different. Well, what would you explain is different in terms of how you think a drummer as a profession ought to behave in a group?

[Bernard Purdy]

Any drummer, if he's smart. The one thing that you do, you learn what moves people, what moves people. And I'm learning the people with the money that people who making things work for themselves are all looking for that little to make them feel good.

[Pablo Torre]

I just realized this. Right. So you're from the wedding capital of America, wedding capital of the world. And you, a product of that, are also responsible for so many people dancing at wedding receptions.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

There is something that does feel like you're in this flow state where. Where people are, are following your lead and it feels natural. And they suddenly, they feel like they're better. They feel like they're better at dancing than they are.

[Bernard Purdy]

I learned how, I really learned how to move my body when I'm playing the groove. And it cracks me up because it's automatic. It goes on automatic.

[Pablo Torre]

I've been noticing.

[Bernard Purdy]

It just goes on automatically.

[Pablo Torre]

If you're not watching on YouTube, you've missed Bernard Purdy really enjoying his own work.

[Bernard Purdy]

I'm happy. I am happy as a lark. I really am. And it's been, I talk about it to young people, I talk about it to old people. It doesn't matter. I enjoy what I do. When you want to work and you don't want to be putting on the side when you can't do it because you so mad or you're upset and just that you're not going to work. It's that simple. You're not going to work. But when you got that camaraderie with the rest of the band and the band looking over at you and smiling and grinning, you got your job. Foreign.

[Verizon Advertiser]

This holiday, Verizon is helping you bundle up incredible gifts and savings. You'll get the latest phone with a new line on my plan and a brand new smartwatch and tablet. No trade in needed. Even on our lowest price plan. That's two gifts for your family and one for you. Or two for you and one for someone else or three gifts for you and only you. Either way, you save big on three amazing gifts at Verizon, all on the best 5G network. Visit Verizon today. Rankings based on rootmetric Truth score report dated 1 each 2025. Your results may vary. Service plan required for watch and tablet. Additional terms apply.

[Pablo Torre]

When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A game, you bring your AI game. Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money and agents so you can transform tomorrow. Workday moving business business forever forward.

[Superhuman Advertiser]

The world is buzzing with AI tools, but instead of making things easier, they've made your workflow overwhelming. You're stuck copying and pasting context, switching and juggling too many apps. There's now a better way that outsmarts the work chaos. Meet Superhuman, the AI productivity suite that gives you superpowers everywhere you work with Grammarly, mail and coda working together, you get proactive help across your workflow, from writing to preparing for meetings, presentations, and so much more. Think of Superhuman as your AI dream team, proactively helping you go from to do to done faster. Superhuman knows what you might need and offers suggestions. Whether you're drafting emails, creating documents, or more, it guides you in the moment so you sound like your best self and stay focused on what matters. There are even specialized agents designed to collaborate seamlessly and amplify your impact. Unleash your Superhuman potential today. Learn [e-mail] podcast that's superhuman.com podcast.

[Pablo Torre]

As you put it. You've been doing this for basically 70 years. You're in your 80s. And what's so clear to me, and I wonder if you think about this, is that whenever finally Bernard Purdy says, I'm going to hang it up. God's making me hang it up. You're still going to be in everyone's ears. We can't get rid of you.

[Bernard Purdy]

Exactly. Exactly. Yes. And that's why the beauty of it, and when I started going back and remembering all of these other folks that I hadn't played with for 15 to.

[Pablo Torre]

20 years, well, the list is longer. I just gave you a sample of, like, the names. It goes on and on.

[Bernard Purdy]

Oh, believe me, believe me, there's thousands.

[Pablo Torre]

That could be an entire episode, just me saying names that Bernard Purdy has played with.

[Bernard Purdy]

Yeah. Because I have done that many recordings. Yes. I've done that many recordings with so many different artists. Songs that have now they live on. These people became, you know. Yeah, they became rich. They became very wealthy. But the thing is, is that I can stay working. All right, I'm not wealthy, but I can stay working and have a good time. Love what I'm doing and not hurting anybody. And it's a wonderful feeling. It's a wonderful feeling.

[Pablo Torre]

Bernard Purdy, the man who has kept time for the United States for 70 years, who has been our soundtrack even though we didn't fully appreciate everything that he has done. I am very glad to find out at the end here that much like you did for Aretha Franklin in 1971, you're just going to keep playing.

[Bernard Purdy]

I love it. I absolutely love it.

[Pablo Torre]

Would you mind playing us out?

[Bernard Purdy]

Sure. Sa Sam it. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Hey man.

[Pablo Torre]

Bernard Purdy as our control room is clapping so loudly we can hear it through the glass. Thank you for making this weird show the coolest it has ever been.

[Bernard Purdy]

Thank you very much.

[Pablo Torre]

Pablo Torre finds out is produced by Walter Averoma, Maxwell Carney, Ryan Cortez, Juan Galindo, Patrick Kim, neely Loman, Rob McRae, Matt Sullivan, Claire Taylor and Chris Tuminello. Our studio engineering by RG Systems, sound design by Andrew Bersick and NGW Post Theme song as always by John Bravo and we will talk to you next time.

[Verizon Advertiser]

This holiday, Verizon is helping you bundle up incredible gifts and savings. You'll get the latest phone with a new line on MyPlan and a brand new smartwatch and tablet. No trade in needed even on our lowest price plan. That's two gifts for your family and one for you or two for you and one for someone else or three gifts for you and only you. Either way, you save big on three amazing gifts at Verizon, all on the best 5G network. Visit Verizon today. Rankings based on root metric Truth score report dated 1 2025. Your results may vary. Service plan required for watch and tablet. Additional terms apply.

[Pablo Torre]

When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A game, you bring your AI game. Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money and agents so you can transform tomorrow. Workday moving business forever forward.

[Superhuman Advertiser]

The world is buzzing with AI tools, but instead of making things easier, they've made your workflow overwhelming. You're stuck copying and pasting context switching and juggling too many apps. There's now a better way that outsmarts the work chaos. Meet Superhuman, the AI productivity suite that gives you superpowers everywhere. You work with Grammarly, mail and coda. Working together, you get proactive help across your workflow, from writing to preparing for meetings, presentations and so much more. Think of Superhuman as your AI dream team, proactively helping you go from to do to done faster. Superhuman knows what you might need and offers suggestions. Whether you're drafting emails, creating documents, or more. It guides you in the moment so you sound like your best self and stay focused on what matters. There are even specialized agents designed to collaborate seamlessly and amplify your impact. Unleash your superhuman potential today. Learn [e-mail] podcast that's superhuman.com podcast.