Richie's Story (The Mountain Man)

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It all started when Richie's uncle Johnny gave him his classic WFL drum set. Richie lived with his drums night and day and slept with them at the foot of his bed and shined a flashlight on them as he drifted of to sleep dreaming of being a pro drummer some day.

Richie attended Pompano Beach High School and became a member of the Golden Tornado drumline. This is where he met his best friend, teacher and mentor Cedric Houston and learned all about discipline and developed his monster chops.

Five years out of high school Richie put his first all original band together with guitarist and song writer Niko De'Saint. Within the first year the band was signed to a small record label and traveled to Georgia to record there first album with world renown producer Eddie Offord. Eddie produced records for Emerson Lake and Palmer, Yes, Judas Priest, John Lennon and many others. Although the music they made was outstanding, the major labels weren't interested as the industry was changing and they were looking for bands with a hard rock/metal sound.

The band decided to not use keyboards anymore and go back to our hard rock roots and went back into the studio as a power trio with a power singer. They recorded a four song demo and sent it back out to the labels. 

Soon after that Niko received a call from our manager and told him it looks like you made the right decision to change the music because I just got a call from ATCO records saying they are interested in two bands, De'Saint and a band from Texas called Pantera. Long story short Pantera got the deal and went on to be one of the biggest bands in the world. After that Richie stayed with the band for a few years, but things slowly fell apart and that's when he decided to leave the band to begin a new venture and formed The Mountain Drum Company. 

This was a tough decision to make but Richie felt in his heart that he dedicated 10 years of his life to making this happen and it was time to try something else. 

Richie's first invention was a spring loaded drumstick holster called the Quik Stik. In this pic he is wearing a Quik Stik on his right hip while demonstrating his second US patent, The Ultimate Drummer Workout while attending the NAMM show in Nashville Tennessee.  

Pearl drums was interested in a license agreement for the Quik Stik but had to decline do to a concern for lawsuits if someone was injured or misused the product. Then Richie put all of his energy into The Ultimate Drummer Workout. The concept of this invention goes back to his marching band and drum corps days. It is based on resistance training in order to build muscle and chops. The kit included a dead action practice pad, a pair of Silver Fox XC marching drumsticks, 3 oz weights that attached to the sticks, and a two hour play along video. 

Richie built a rack system so he could start teaching drumlines and sell his product locally, but sadly he needed more financing, and considering this was way before the internet got popular, he decided to put this invention to rest.   

All together the workout wasn't a total failure and Richie got to meet his biggest inspiration in drumming Mitch Mitchell, (the drummer for Jimmy Hendrix), Mitch spent some time in Richie's booth at the NAMM show and really loved his workout. 

Richie took some time off from inventing and then he came up with his third US patent, Spice Drums...Enter Nicko Mcbrain.

Nicko and his partner Mitch Tanne said yes to the Spice Drums, they are sold at RocknRoll Ribs and available online at www.mountaindrumco.com.  

Hears my advice to inventors and entrepreneurs. Nothing happens over night. You will face the toughest and darkest times in your life. The most important thing you should do is to develop a relationship with all mighty God through His Son Jesus Christ. He made you, gave you your talents and abilities and He wants you to succeed, and the only way to do that is to put Him in total control of your life and trust Him.

Amen!!!!!!