Stephen Martin "Steve" Price is an American drummer and percussionist, best known as a founding member of the

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

smooth rock band Pablo Cruise. In his first year of

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, Price ventured into the band room after having no interest in

woodwork Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first mater ...

or metal work. The teacher instructed him to sit behind a

snare drum The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used ...

, due to requiring a drummer and this would change his life forever. Following a brief stint in his high school marching band, he was recruited to play drums for the school's band. He then worked as a roadie for the band of his high school friend, keyboardist Cory Lerios, but when the drummer quit, Price became the new drummer. The pair then played in a band called Together and were recruited to play in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

band Stoneground, which turned out to be a big break. Stoneground also performed in the 1972 horror film '' Dracula A.D. 1972'' (starring

Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultim ...

). Alongside guitarist Dave Jenkins, Lerios and bassist

Bud Cockrell James Ray "Bud" Cockrell (March 28, 1950 – March 6, 2010) was an American musician and singer-songwriter, best known as the original bassist and one of the lead vocalists for the San Francisco-based California rock band Pablo Cruise. Cockr ...

, Price was a member of Pablo Cruise at its conception in 1973 and stayed until early 1981. In 2004, Price and Lerios rejoined Pablo Cruise and Cockrell left the group. Price joined a Sacramento side project, Mr. December, in 2008. During his time away from Pablo Cruise, Price went on to become a leading figure in providing

E-learning Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

and also formed his own aerial photography company. At one stage, Price was virtually the in-house drummer and percussionist at

The Record Plant The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blon ...

Sausalito Sausalito (Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge. Sausalito's ...

. He now lives in

Loomis, California Loomis (formerly, Pine, Pino, Smithville, and Placer) is an incorporated town in Placer County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento– Arden-Arcade– Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town's population was ...

with his wife Nancy. In a 1981 live performance with Pablo Cruise, Price augmented his drum kit with temple blocks,

cowbells The cowbell is an idiophone hand percussion instrument used in various styles of music, such as Latin and rock. It is named after the similar bell used by herdsmen to keep track of the whereabouts of cows. The instrument initially and tradit ...

agogo bells Agogo may refer to *Agogo, Ghana *Agogô An agogô ( Yoruba: ''agogo'', meaning bell) is a single or a multiple bell now used throughout the world but with origins in traditional Yoruba and Edo music and also in the samba '' baterias'' (percussi ...

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico ...

crotales Crotales (, ), sometimes called antique cymbals, are percussion instruments consisting of small, tuned bronze or brass disks. Each is about in diameter with a flat top surface and a nipple on the base. They are commonly played by being struck ...

bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...

triangles A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non-collinear ...

, mark tree and Syndrums.

Discography

* Pablo Cruise – Pablo Cruise * Pablo Cruise – Lifeline * Pablo Cruise – A Place in the Sun * Pablo Cruise – Worlds Away * Pablo Cruise –

Part of the Game ''Part of the Game'' is the fifth album by the California soft rock group Pablo Cruise. The album marked a decline in the band's popularity, as it managed only to reach #39 in the United States. One single was released from the album: "I Want You ...

* Pablo Cruise –

Reflector Reflector may refer to: Science * Reflector, a device that causes reflection (for example, a mirror or a retroreflector) * Reflector (photography), used to control lighting contrast * Reflecting telescope * Reflector (antenna), the part of an ...

Rick James James Ambrose Johnson Jr. (February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004), better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in ...

– Street Songs *

Grace Slick Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, ...

– Garden of Man

References

External links

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Grammy Award winners American rock drummers American rock percussionists American male songwriters Musicians from San Francisco Timbaleros Triangle players Tambourine players Castanets players Bongo players Conga players Maracas players Pablo Cruise members {{US-drummer-stub