Tico Torres

Tico Torres
Torres in 2009
Background information
Birth name Hector Juan Samuel Torres
Also known as Tico, The Hitman
Born (1953-10-07) October 7, 1953
New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • drummer
  • painter
Instruments
  • Drums
  • percussion
  • guitar
Years active 1969–present
Associated acts

Hector Juan Samuel "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, immigrated 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

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 until 2013.

Equipment

Late 2013 to present

Drums: DW Collector series custom kit

  • 5.5x14 snare
  • 9x12 tom
  • 10x13 tom
  • 16x16 floor tom
  • 16x18 floor tom
  • 18x22 bass drums x2

Cymbals: Paiste Signature series in custom finish (from left to right)

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

Hardware: DW 9000 series hardware and bass drum pedals, DW 5000 hi hat stand and a Roc-N-Soc non-hydraulic throne.

Heads: Remo Emperor X snare batter and clear Ambassador bottom, coated Emperor tom batters and clear Ambassador bottoms, and clear Powerstroke 3 bass drum batters.

Percussion: Latin Percussion Mini Everything Rack, bar chimes, Jam Block with Sliding Bass Drum Percussion Mount, and mountable tambourine with brass jingles.

Sticks: Ahead signature Tico Torres sticks

April to July 2013

Drums: DW Collector series (black sparkle finish with black nickel hardware)

  • 6.5x14 DW maple snare
  • 9x12 tom
  • 10x13 tom
  • 16x16 floor tom
  • 16x18 floor tom
  • 18x22 bass drums x2

Cymbals: Paiste Signature series in custom finish (from left to right)

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

Hardware: DW 9000 series hardware and bass drum pedals, DW 5000 hi hat stand and a Roc-N-Soc non-hydraulic throne.

Heads: Remo Emperor X snare batter and clear Ambassador bottom, coated Emperor tom batters and clear Ambassador bottoms, and clear Powerstroke 3 bass drum batters.

Percussion: Latin Percussion Mini Everything Rack, bar chimes, Jam Block with Sliding Bass Drum Percussion Mount, and mountable tambourine with brass jingles.

Sticks: Ahead signature Tico Torres sticks

2008 to March 2013[5]

Drums: Pearl Reference Series

  • 6x14 snare
  • 9x12 tom
  • 9x13 tom
  • 16x16 floor tom
  • 16x18 floor tom
  • 18x22 bass drums x2

Cymbals: Paiste Signature series in custom finish (from left to right)

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

Hardware: Pearl drum and cymbal stands, 2 DW 9000 bass drum pedals and DW 9500 two-leg hi-hat stand, and a Roc-N-Soc non-hydraulic throne.

Heads: Remo Emperor X snare batter and clear Ambassador bottom, coated Emperor tom batters and clear Ambassador bottoms, and coated Powerstroke 3 bass drum batters.

Percussion: Latin Percussion Mini Everything Rack, bar chimes, Jam Block with Sliding Bass Drum Percussion Mount, and mountable tambourine with brass jingles.

Sticks: Ahead signature Tico Torres sticks

Tico Torres formerly used Pro-mark and Vic Firth drumsticks before moving to AHEAD in 1995.

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.[6]

Discography

Bon Jovi

Richie Sambora

Studio albums

T. Roth and Another Pretty Face

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Bon Jovi". Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  2. ↑ "BON JOVI DRUMMER BEATS OUT EMOTION ON CANVAS". The Palm Beach Post. March 20, 1996.
  3. ↑ "Face Facts". AllMusic.
  4. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSChFozahbU
  5. ↑ "Gearing Up" (PDF). Modern Drummer. April 2011. Retrieved August 20, 2017.
  6. ↑ BBC – Beds Herts and Bucks – Entertainment – Everything changes for Take That!
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