Greatest Rock Drummers

Steve Gadd, without question. Rock, Jazz, you name it. Incredible range of great performances with many many performers.

Phil Selway of Radiohead. jazzy polyrhythmic madness. phenomenal drummer he is.

These 'best of' lists are tough and very subjective, which is why they attract so much attention on forums such as A'gon.  So many of you have terrific suggestions.
Best rock drummer doesn't mean much as rock music doesn't require a lot of drumming talent since there's not much need to play odd time signatures or complete 4-limb independence.  I appreciate drummers that have melodic fills that you remember like a great guitar riff. IMO, Mitch Mitchell had the most melodic and memorable fills I've heard and very difficult to replicate. Just listen to the catchy fills in the song, 'Wait til tomorrow', or the explosive back & forth exchanges with Jimi Hendrix on songs like 'Fire' and 'Manic Depression'.  Then there's the unbelievable solo style work near the end of 'If 6 was 9'.
Clearly Mitch's roots were jazz and not rock, which is likely the reason his pairing with Hendrix worked so well as Mitchell introduced an upbeat swing style approach that kept the music flowing.  IMO, drummers like Bonham or Baker would have failed miserably trying to keep up with Hendrix. Just listen to the quality of songs when Buddy Miles was paired with Hendrix.  Like Baker & Bonham, Miles was a great groove master, but lacked melodic feeling. What I'll never understand is that Mitchell was a terrible soloist.  He never had a theme to his solos, they just kind of meandered, which is completely opposite to his drumming style with Hendrix.
Another honorable mention is Ringo. He has to be considered as one of the all time best contributors to the band he was in.  Admittedly he lacks technical chops, but think of all the simple yet innovative & memorable drum rhythms he laid down on many Beatles songs. Brilliant.

Jon Hiseman can play anything from jazz to rock with breathtaking power and drive second to none, just listen the Colosseum albums and specially COLOSSEUM LIVE, 1971. His driving force as a band leader is something else.

Phil Collins plays just anything with great sense for nuances and rhythm, he´s technically brilliant as well, just listen to his work on early GENESIS albums. He is just sublime.

Carl Palmer is technically brilliant and very fast, he´s also very powerful and creative and never sloppy or dull. He´s still going strong, actually he is even better than in the early 70´s, as seen on many YT videos and some of those are just incredible. For example see this: https://youtu.be/VGz1yLeyS2M

And yes, Mitch Mitchell with Hendrix is magic, especially on "Ladyland"

William Bruford is the best of modern jazz/fusion drummers

Furio Chirico of Arti + Mestieri is another jazz virtuoso with huge power

And yes, Steve Gadd is brilliant indeed.

yes