Toss Panos
| Toss Panos | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Anastasios Panos |
| Born |
February 14, 1964 Athens, Greece |
| Genres | Progressive rock, jazz fusion, pop, rock |
| Instruments | Drums |
| Years active | 1983–present |
Anastasios (Toss) Panos is a Greek-American drummer who has played or recorded with Dweezil Zappa, Sting, Steven Stills, Paul Rodgers, Michael Landau, Robben Ford, Toy Matinee, Jude Cole, Mike Keneally, John Goodsall, Steve Vai, Mark Hart, Mel Torme, Peter Himmelman, Andy Summers, Cliff Richard, Vonda Sheppard and Eric Burdon. He is also the owner of Tossimos Recording Studio.
Panos was born in Athens, Greece. He moved to San Diego, California at age two. At age seven, Toss started learning the drums by playing along to songs that he heard on the radio. He grew up listening to The Ohio Players, James Brown, Elton John and Joni Mitchell. His early influences included Mitch Mitchell and Eric Burdon and The Animals. By age ten Toss was playing gigs at Greek nightclubs on the weekends.
At age 19 he left San Diego and began studying at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles where Joe Porcaro would be one of his first teachers. After his graduation, Toss was offered a teaching position there which he accepted.
His early gigs included working with bassist Ike Willis, a long time member of Frank Zappa's band, until he was invited to audition for Toy Matinee's touring band in the early 90s. He brought a tape of him playing with The Fire Merchants to the audition and immediately got the gig. After Toy Matinee ended, he would continue working with Kevin Gilbert live and in the studio where he played drums on his cover version of "Kashmir". In 1994 Kevin would produce Fire Merchant's "Landlords of Atlantis" album.
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