Liberty DeVitto

Liberty DeVitto
Liberty DeVitto plays at a Camp Jam session in the Atlanta area. February 2007
Background information
Born	(1950-08-08) August 8, 1950 (age 66) New York City, New York
Origin	Brooklyn, New York City, New York U.S.A.
Genres	Pop, pop rock, rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, drummer
Instruments	drums, percussion
Years active	1968–present
Associated acts	Billy Joel Karen Carpenter Stevie Nicks The Beach Boys Meat Loaf Rick Wakeman Elton John Carly Simon Mick Jones John Babcock NYC Hit Squad Billy J. Kramer Mitch Ryder Richie Supa Topper Mylon LeFevre The Slim Kings The Lords of 52nd Street

Liberty DeVitto (born August 8, 1950) is an American rock drummer. He is best known for his work as a drummer for New York singer-songwriter Billy Joel's recording and touring band, but he has also played with the NYC Hit Squad and has been a session drummer on recordings of other artists.

DeVitto was born in New York City, of Italian ancestry, where his father was a police officer at the New York Police Department. He taught himself to play the drums after seeing The Beatles on their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964. He was also influenced as a teenager by rock drummer Dino Danelli.

DeVitto got his big break in the music business when he was hired to play drums for Billy Joel in the mid-1970s. In an online interview, DeVitto describes how Joel's classic late 1970s-early 1980s band first came together:

Billy and I used to play the same club in Plainview, Long Island, called "My House." He was 17 and in a band called The Hassles and I was 16 and in a band called The New Rock Workshop. We would watch each other play and acknowledge each other in passing. In 1974, he was living in Los Angeles and had already released Piano Man and Streetlife Serenade. He used studio musicians for the recording and different guys out on the road. I was playing in a band called Topper with Doug Stegmeyer and he got the gig to play bass with Billy on the "Streetlife" tour. He told Doug that he wanted to move back to New York and find a permanent band he could record and tour with on a regular basis. Doug recommended me because Billy was looking for a New York-type drummer, aggressive and hard hitting, and the rest is history. The three of us recorded the basic tracks for Turnstiles and we both recommended Russell Javors and Howie Emerson, who played guitars in Topper and with the addition of Richie Cannata on saxophone, the "Billy Joel Band" was born.