John Steel (drummer)

John Steel
Steel during a concert of The Animals in Bielsko-Biala, Poland, 2016
Background information
Born	(1941-02-04) 4 February 1941 (age 76) Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England
Genres	Rock, R&B
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Drums
Associated acts	The Animals

John Steel (born 4 February 1941) is an English musician well known for being the drummer for the band, the Animals. Having served as the band's drummer at its inception in 1963, he is the only original bandmember playing in the current incarnation of The Animals. His tenures with the band are 1963–1966, 1975–1976, 1983 and 1992 – present.

John Steel was the youngest of four children. He attended Gateshead Grammar School. As a child, he and his siblings took piano lessons, though only Steel would go on to have a career in music. Growing up, Steel was exposed to records from Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, Fats Waller and Sid Phillips.

Steel's first instrument was the trumpet. In the first group where he and Burdon played together he was playing the trumpets instead of drums. His musical influences initially came from traditional jazz, but he later drew influence from modern jazz. When he transitioned to drums, Steel admired jazz drummers such as Elvin Jones and Art Blakey.

When I played drums rather than trumpet I never felt really confident enough, because the people I was influenced by and admired were jazz drummers [...] There was no way I was going to be that good so I never considered myself good enough to aspire to that kind of thing. But somehow I just accidentally fell into Rock 'n' Roll and R&B.

Steel started his career as a musician while still in school around 1957. Steel met the future lead singer of the Animals, Eric Burdon, while they were studying together at the Newcastle College of Art and Industrial Design. They switched from jazz to embrace the new rock 'n' roll explosion.