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Tico Torres

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Tico Torres
Torres in 2009
Torres in 2009
Background information
Birth nameHector Samuel Juan Torres
Also known asTico, The Hitman
Born (1953-10-07) October 7, 1953 (age 71)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres
Occupations
  • Musician
  • drummer
  • painter
Instruments
  • Drums
  • percussion
  • vocals
Years active1969–present

Hector Samuel Juan "Tico" Torres (born October 7, 1953) is an American musician, artist, and entrepreneur, best known as the drummer, percussionist, and a songwriter for American rock band Bon Jovi. In 2018, Torres was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Bon Jovi.[1]

Childhood

Hector Juan Samuel Torres was born on October 7, 1953, in New York, and brought up in the Colonia section of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. His parents, Emma and Héctor, emigrated from Cuba in 1948.[2] Torres attended John F. Kennedy Memorial High School in Iselin.

Music career

Torres live with Bon Jovi on November 14, 2007 in Montreal.

Torres was a jazz fan as a youth and studied music with Joe Morello. In 1969, he played drums for the psychedelic rock band Six Feet Under. Before joining Bon Jovi in 1983, Torres had already played live with Joe Cerisano's R-Band aka Silver Condor in the New Jersey Rock circuit, and in the studio with Franke and the Knockouts, Pat Benatar, Chuck Berry, Cher, Alice Cooper and Stevie Nicks, recording a total of 26 albums with these artists. Torres was also one of the drummers auditioned by Kiss in 1980 after original drummer Peter Criss left the band.

Torres was the original drummer for the glam rock band T. Roth and Another Pretty Face and played on their 1980 album Face Facts.[3]

Bon Jovi

Main article: Bon Jovi

Torres met Alec John Such while playing with a band called Phantom's Opera and it was this friendship which led to him joining Bon Jovi. When Jon Bon Jovi, the lead singer of the band, approached Torres, he was put off by the fact that Jon was 9 years younger than himself. He said it was Jon's charismatic appearance and watching him perform that attracted him to join the band.

Torres is primarily a drummer and percussionist, but he sang lead vocals on a song on the box set 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong, as well as backing vocals on a couple of the early Bon Jovi tracks, notably "Born to Be My Baby" and "Love for Sale".

Endorsements

After a long endorsement deal with Pearl drums and hardware since 1984, after Richie Sambora's last show with Bon Jovi in April 2013, Torres changed from Pearl drums to DW, after DW made a custom kit out of cherry wood to Torres' specifications.[4] Along with DW, Torres also endorses Paiste cymbals, Remo drumheads, his signature Easton Ahead drumsticks and their griptape and gloves, LP percussion and Beato drum bags. Torres used DW pedals for most of his career but not hardware or drums until 2013.

Equipment

2018-present

Drums: DW Collector’s series drums with maple shells, custom finish, and black nickel hardware

  • 22x18" kick drums x2
  • 14x6.5" snare drum
  • 12x9" rack tom
  • 13x10" rack tom
  • 16x16" floor tom
  • 18x16" floor tom

Cymbals: Paiste signature series (from left to right)

  • 16" Power crash
  • 10" splash
  • 14" Heavy hi-hats
  • 18" Power crash
  • 16" Power crash
  • 20" Power crash
  • 22" Power ride
  • 20" 2002 China
  • 18" Power crash

Hardware: DW, including 9000 series pedals; all stands in custom translucent black finish

Heads: Remo, including Emperor X coated snare batter and Ambassador hazy snare side, Emperor Vintage coated tom batters and Ambassador ebony resonants, Powerstroke 3 clear bass drum batter

Percussion: LP bar chimes in custom black finish, jam blocks (2), and mounted brass tambourines (2)

Sticks: Ahead Tico Torres signature model

Art

Known as "The Hitman," Torres discovered another talent: painting. He has exhibited his art since 1994. The successful first show was at the Ambassador Galleries in Soho, New York. Torres is a self-taught painter, who paints expressive pictures which show scenes from everyday life and his life with the band.

His painting talent was shown in one of the three videos made for the single "Who Says You Can't Go Home." There is a scene in one of the videos showing Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and David Bryan painting a wall of a house a solid color, while Tico is at the other end of the room, painting an extravagant picture of a house surrounded by a multi-colored heart on the same wall. His art can be found at http://www.walnutst.com/.

Torres also owns a fashion line for babies called Rock Star Baby (selling baby clothing, strollers, soft toys, jewelry and furniture, etc.), which is viewable at http://www.rockstarbaby.com

Personal life

Torres and his first wife divorced soon after the formation of Bon Jovi in 1983. In 1996, Torres married Czech-born model Eva Herzigová in Sea Bright, New Jersey. The ceremony was attended by their closest friends and family including Donald Trump and the members of Bon Jovi. The band serenaded Eva and her husband with the hit single "Always" during the dance. Their marriage ended two years later. Torres married Maria Alejandra in September 2001, his third marriage. They have a son, Hector Alexander, born on January 9, 2004.[5] Torres is an avid golfer who frequently participates in the Alfred Dunhill Links Pro-Am in St. Andrews, UK, often playing in a foursome with fellow musician and good friend Huey Lewis. In 2013 Torres was rushed to the hospital for a second time with severe pain in his abdomen. The 59-year old drummer underwent emergency gall bladder surgery, according to the band's website.

Discography

Bon Jovi

Main article: Bon Jovi discography

Richie Sambora

Studio albums

T. Roth and Another Pretty Face

See also

References

[1]

  1. ^ "Bon Jovi". Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  2. ^ "BON JOVI DRUMMER BEATS OUT EMOTION ON CANVAS". The Palm Beach Post. March 20, 1996.
  3. ^ "Face Facts". AllMusic.
  4. ^ Modern Drummer Magazine (June 20, 2013). "Bon Jovi's Tico Torres visits Modern Drummer Online (Interview Part 1)" – via YouTube.
  5. ^ "BBC - Beds Herts and Bucks - Entertainment - Everything changes for Take That!". www.bbc.co.uk.
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