The Invisible Hitmaker Behind the Soundtrack of Your Life
Pablo Torre Finds Out
Pablo Torre
4.7 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 14 November 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
He's played with Aretha, Steely Dan and thousands more. He's influenced Zeppelin, hip-hop and "MMMBop." He is your favorite musician's favorite musician — a role player with too many rings to count who's been helping you dance for decades. So it's about time you slowed down to appreciate legendary drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. Because at 83 years young, he's rock-steady as ever, with wisdom to burn on the meaning of perfection, consistency and how to keep it smooth in your own valley.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. |
| 0:01.9 | I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. |
| 0:23.5 | Right after this ad. How old are you right now? |
| 0:25.2 | I'm 83. |
| 0:27.3 | 83 years old. |
| 0:40.3 | I just need to introduce the premise of why we put a drum kit into the studio for the first time in our show's history and why I demanded that Bernard Purdy be the person to sit behind it. Well, the beauty for me is that part of the sound, so no matter what kind of drum kit did I get, |
| 0:52.3 | my drumsticks has the length and it has the capability of that. So I can hear that. |
| 1:06.3 | And that is all I ever want. The sound that you're making there is the sound that I think everybody who has ever listened |
| 1:15.3 | to music in America has on some level appreciated, even if they didn't quite know that |
| 1:21.0 | Bernard Purdy is the reason that they were moving in that way. |
| 1:25.4 | You're right. |
| 1:26.6 | But I also want to just make sure I clap on front of the microphone so we can just |
| 1:29.5 | because, well, first of all, I'll clap for having you here. |
| 1:34.5 | Thank you. |
| 1:35.1 | Bernard, could you clap as well, though, just for tape sink? |
| 1:37.3 | Could you mind just giving us a clap in front of the microphone? |
| 1:41.4 | There it is. |
| 1:48.5 | Even your claps are of course perfectly |
| 1:49.3 | on beat |
| 1:51.2 | just putting everybody to shame just putting everybody to shame who's ever stepped into this podcast studio and has had to take sync a clap. So if you're not watching on YouTube right now, what you should be aware of is that there is, in fact, a fully functioning drum kit in our studio. |
| 2:33.4 | Because our guest today, Elkton Maryland's own, |
| 2:36.0 | Bernard Pretty Purdy, is not just one of the most prolific |
... |
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