@wolf_garcia: Amen, brother! Another cat I love is Roger Hawkins (of Muscle Shoals’ The Swampers fame). And Al Jackson (Booker T & The MG’s), Jim Gordon (Derek & The Dominos, All Things Must Pass), Keltner, of course. Kenny Buttrey (Nashville studios, Neil Young’s Harvest) and Harry Stinson (Nashville, Marty Stuart’s great band The Fabulous Superlatives). Jeff Porcaro was insanely great (I met him in L.A., and he was as nice as could be), as is Gadd, who may be the best all-around drummer working today..
And then there is the master, Earl Palmer (the inventor of Rock ’n’ Roll drumming. Bonham copped Palmer’s intro to Little Richard’s "Keep A Knockin’" for his identical intro to Zeppelin’s "Rock And Roll"). In his later years Palmer’s 3-pc Jazz combo played at Chadney’s Steak House in Burbank (now shuttered), directly across the street from the NBC studios. Drummers came from all over the world to sit at the feet of the master. I had only to walk the two blocks from my house to watch him work. A free master’s class!