Playback - Winter 2008 - (Page 18) RETAIL Billy Cuthrell • Progressive Music Center • Raleigh, N.C. Industry Innovator: Passionate about Playing FoR BIllY CUThREll, oWNER oF ThE PRoGRESSIVE MUSIC CENTER IN RAlEIGh, N.C., DRUMS DIDN’T START oUT AS A WAY oF lIFE —ThEY hElPED SAVE hIS lIFE. “I didn’t start playing drums until I was 13 or 14 years old,” says Billy Cuthrell. “I was hanging out with a bad crowd, failed ninth grade miserably, just had no direction. Then one day my band director, Miles Huggins, said, ‘Wake up, kid. What are you going to do with your life?’ I told him I wanted to play drums.” Cuthrell was influenced from a young age by his father’s love of music. “We had a juke box and a black and white TV,” he says. “We would sit around and listen to music; I loved the Blues Brothers. My dad and my band director gave me that outlet.” Once Cuthrell’s parents bought him a drum set, his life changed for the better. “It really saved my life,” he says. “My grades came up, I graduated on time and it gave me purpose.” When he was 16, he decided he was either going to be the next Buddy Rich or work on the business side of the music industry. He decided that the NAMM Show was his ticket into the profession and searched for a way to attend the show. He created a newsletter called Drummer’s Jargon, applied for a media badge and received one. “I drove all night to Nashville and bumped into Jim Capaldi, the original drummer for Traffic,” he explains. “I said then, ‘By God, I’ve made it!’ All my heroes were at that show.” The event introduced Cuthrell to a number of lifelong friends, including Pat Brown of Pro Mark and the Percussion Marketing Council (PMC). After much persuading, Cuthrell talked Brown into letting him join the PMC. “I was the first non-retailer, nonmanufacturer member at the time. I just got involved and listened and helped where I could.” Cuthrell was influenced from a young age by his father’s love of music. 18 PLAYback
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