Tosh Peterson | The drummer everyone calls

Some drummers spend a career building a CV. Tosh Peterson assembled one before turning twenty-five that most touring musicians would take thirty years to match.

Fall Out Boy. Lady Gaga. Jung Kook. Machine Gun Kelly. The Kid LAROI. Troye Sivan. jxdn.

He has been touring since he was sixteen, and the reason the phone keeps ringing is a specific and slightly unfashionable skill: he can play anything, immediately, and be pleasant company on a bus.

Who is Tosh Peterson?

Tosh Peterson — professionally Tosh The Drummer — is an American drummer who has been working on the road since around sixteen.

His break into wider visibility came with a viral fill-in performance for Fall Out Boy in 2023, which is a specific and terrifying kind of gig: stepping into an established band’s show, at short notice, in front of an audience that knows every fill.

He was 22 at the time. Drumeo’s panel gave him the Tony Williams Award for Breakout Year that year.

The list

Fall Out Boy, Lady Gaga, Machine Gun Kelly, The Kid LAROI, Jung Kook of BTS, Troye Sivan, jxdn, Filter, and his own band Damnage.

Look at that list again: pop-punk, stadium pop, hip-hop-rock, K-pop, industrial rock. Almost nobody covers that range, and certainly not at that age.

What Tosh Peterson actually does

He is a genuine chameleon. Not “can play in different styles” — actually idiomatic in each. The Jung Kook gig and the Filter gig do not resemble each other in any way.

He hits hard and plays clean. The pop-punk and MGK end of his work requires real physical weight; the pop end requires precision. He does both without compromising either.

He learns fast. Depping into someone else’s show at short notice is a skill in itself: charts, in-ears, cues, arrangements, and no rehearsal to speak of.

He is a hybrid player. Yamaha electronics in the rig, triggers and pads for the programmed elements every one of those artists uses.

He is visible. Social media, playthroughs, rig rundowns. For a modern touring drummer that is now part of how the work arrives.

Tosh Peterson’s drum kit

A very professional, very roadworthy setup.

• Drums — Pearl, where he is a listed artist.
• Cymbals — Zildjian.
• Sticks — Vic Firth.
• Heads — Aquarian.
• Electronics — Yamaha. Pads and triggers for the programmed material.
• Cases — Humes & Berg, and JH Audio in-ears. Both unglamorous, both the mark of somebody who actually lives on a bus.

Every era, with buy links, is on Tosh Peterson’s Rig Vault page.

Want the sound without the rig?

The lesson from a career like this is not about drums at all.

Learn other people’s parts, exactly. The dep gig — walking into an existing band and playing the record — is where a huge proportion of professional work actually is, and it rewards accuracy over creativity.

Then get your in-ears and your triggers sorted. Every gig on that list runs to tracks. A drummer who cannot work with a click and a cue mix is not employable at this level, and that is a solvable problem: our electronic drum kit guide covers the hybrid side.

And be easy to be around. Genuinely the most under-discussed professional skill in music. The Gear Guru can spec your kit; it cannot do this bit.

Where to start listening

• The Fall Out Boy fill-in (2023). The one that made his name.
• Lady Gaga live footage. Precision, at the largest scale there is.
• Jung Kook live. A completely different discipline again.
• Damnage. His own band, and the loudest version of him.

Final thoughts

The Tony Williams Award is for a breakout year, and 2023 was certainly that. What is more interesting is what came after: rather than settling into one big gig, he has kept doing all of them.

That is a deliberate career choice and a slightly old-fashioned one — the jobbing professional who can walk into any room. It also happens to be the most durable career available to a drummer, and he worked it out remarkably early.

See Tosh Peterson’s full rig in the Rig Vault, or read about Shane Hawkins and Nandi Bushell — two more winners of the same breakout award.