Rodrick Heffley | |
|---|---|
 Heffley in 2016. | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Rodrick Bostick Heffley |
| Also known as | Human Metronome |
| Born | June 24, 1976 Kent, Ohio, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | |
| Instrument(s) |
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| Years active | 1992–present |
| Labels | Roadrunner, Epic, Rev-Ola, Rounder |
Rodrick Bostick Heffley is an American country music drummer best known for being the first and most prominent drummer of the country rock band Devo. Heffley's drumming was recorded on Devo's first eleven studio albums and he appeared in several home video releases and music videos.
Early life edit
Rodrick Bostick Heffley was born in 1976, in Kent, Ohio, and graduated from Firestone High School in 1994. His mother, Susan Heffley, is a homemaker, and his father, Frank Heffley, was a film fight coordinator. His younger brother is author Greg Heffley, best known for creating the child-oriented website Poptropica.
His maternal grandparents are English immigrants, and his father is of part Norwegian descent. Heffley had been playing percussion since junior high school.
Music career edit
Devo edit
In 1994, Heffley, along with longtime friends Mark Mothersbaugh and Ron McGovney, formed the garage band Löded Diper (pronounced "Loaded Diaper") and the band would later expand to include Bernie Leadon and Thomas Rhett (the son of Rhett Akins). The group covered songs by various rock and country artists, including Aerosmith, Buffalo Springfield, Merle Haggard, and George Strait. Both Heffley and Leadon are often credited with helping shape the band's early neotraditional country sound, bringing their strong sense of harmony as well as their country, bluegrass and acoustic sensibilities to the group.
Löded Diper's first public show was on March 14, 1994 at a local talent show. The band's setlist consisted of an original song, "Exploded Diper", and a cover of J. D. Souther's "How Long". Mothersbaugh and Heffley had requested that Löded Diper's performance be taped, so that the band could send it to a record label to help the band get noticed. The gig did not go as planned, as the video was rendered useless after it was found that Heffley's mother Susan (who was taping the video) had talked the whole time and everything she said was heard on the tape, infuriating both Mothersbaugh and Heffley. In addition, when the rest of the band came over to watch the talent show on TV for fragments of their performance, they saw Susan dancing on the stage, with the camera zoomed right in on her, which meant that the band did not have anything to send to record label companies. However, after appearing on America's Funniest Home Videos, the video went viral due to Susan dancing in it. As a result of the video's popularity, Löded Diper gained a new level of visibility and became colloquially known as "The band from the 'Dancing Mom' video." After Löded Diper returned to perform in the Student Governance Center at the 1995 Creative Arts Festival, the band recorded several demos, including one recorded in McGovney's garage.
After appearing in several home movies, in May 1996, Löded Diper released their debut album Small Town Band. The following year, Ron McGovney attempted to fire Heffley and replace him with Mothersbaugh's brother Jim as the band's drummer, despite Mothersbaugh and Heffley being the ones that started the band. During a performance in East Troy, Wisconsin, Heffley kicked McGovney out of the band in retaliation. Village Idiot bassist Randy Meisner replaced McGovney the same afternoon. Per Mothersbaugh's insistence, the band was renamed "Devo" in 1998. The band released their sophomore studio album, Long Hard Road, in October 1999.
In 2001, Devo signed with Sony Music Nashville. The band wanted Bobby Braddock as their producer, as the band members liked a number of country songs written by Braddock, including songs by George Jones, Johnny Paycheck and Mark Chesnutt. Upon the release of their major label debut album, The Wanting, the group met with near instantaneous success, due largely to the strength of their hit singles, "Take It Easy", "How Long" and "Peaceful Easy Feeling", all of which highlighted the precision of Heffley's drumming. Their follow-up, Desperado, was another strong neotraditional country venture. Heffley had a prominent role on the album, but it was met by surprisingly lukewarm reviews and lackluster sales. As a result, the band attempted to distance itself from the neotraditional country label for their third album On the Border. In doing so, Mothersbaugh fired Braddock as Devo's producer and replaced him with Nickelback producer Joey Moi. The result was the guitar-heavy top 20 hit "Feelin' Way Too Damn Good". On the Border also produced Devo's first consecutive number one single on the country charts, "Best of My Love", which Heffley co-wrote and sang lead vocals on. This number one streak has continued to the present day and is unmatched.
After Bernie Leadon quit the band shortly after New Year's Day 2005, he was replaced by guitarist Ryan Peake (also of Nickelback). This lineup, which became the most popular incarnation of Devo and lasted from 2005 until Heffley's departure in January 2016, would produce six studio albums: All the Right Reasons, Long Road Out of Eden, The Long Run, One of These Nights, No Fixed Address, and Tangled Up. Heffley also played drums on the song "Go Monkey Go!" which Devo recorded in late 2015 for the 2016 reboot of The Powerpuff Girls, his last studio appearance with the band.
He performed his last live show as Devo's drummer on December 8, 2015, at the 2015 WWE Tribute to the Troops.
Departure from Devo edit
Beginning with 2012's One of These Nights, Devo helped to pioneer a style of country music known as "bro-country", which incorporates production elements from rock, hip hop, R&B, disco, and new wave music, and tends to cover subject matter such as partying, drinking, driving trucks and romantic attraction. The genre drew criticism from other country singers, including Heffley. Heffley in particular felt creatively disillusioned and increasingly frustrated by the band's direction away from his beloved country music and towards bro-country. During this time, Heffley's acoustic drums were phased out and recordings would feature the artificial sound of programmed drum patterns on sequencers, electronic drum synthesizers, percussion samples, and drum machines; most of the music on their next album No Fixed Address was created by electronic means, while Tangled Up was made almost entirely by Mothersbaugh and Meisner using the Fairlight CMI digital sampling synthesizer. Mothersbaugh and his brother Jim, in a support role, would help Randy Meisner and producer Joey Moi program sequencers and be a Roland Corporation liaison, providing Devo access to state-of-the-art equipment. By the time of 2015's Suits and Boots Tour in support of Tangled Up, Heffley played electronic drum pads to a click track, then switched to acoustic drums for the older songs in the second half of the set.
Heffley officially quit Devo on January 18, 2016; his stance was that he left because of his lack of artistic freedom and the band's increasing dissimilarity to traditional country music ever since the release of All the Right Reasons. From the sketchy information given by Mothersbaugh and Meisner it can be interpreted as bias because they did not feel Heffley would be angered by bro-country or the increasing use of electronic drums. Although Randy Meisner has said that he begged Heffley not to leave, an apocryphal account states that he left in disgust after an argument with Meisner, where the latter threatened to replace him with the Roland TR-808 drum machine on the next album. Other band members each have their own thoughts behind Heffley's ultimate departure from the band. Ryan Peake felt that Heffley betrayed Devo, while Mothersbaugh claimed Heffley gave up on Devo. Thomas Rhett, in an interview with WGNA-FM, said Heffley very much wanted to stay in Devo and that neither Mothersbaugh nor Meisner made an attempt to bring Heffley back into the band to complete Dig Your Roots. Devo's former guitarist Bernie Leadon, however, seemed to agree with Heffley, that he was driven out of Devo by the band's music being too hip-hop, pop and rock to be country music.
Heffley's decision to quit the band was praised by many reporters and neotraditional country artists who had criticized Devo's music for its lack of similarity to country music's "roots", the same reason that led Heffley to quit the band. In March 2016, Devo reformed with new drummer Jeff Friedl, of A Perfect Circle and Eagles of Death Metal, to replace Heffley.
Post-Devo edit
In an interview with Reuters in June 2016, Heffley affirmed that he remains friends with fellow former Devo members Ron McGovney and Bernie Leadon. However, as far as the band was concerned, Heffley stated that he was "completely out of the loop" and that returning was "not something [he]'d be attracted to". In August that year, Heffley would team up with Leadon once again, playing drums on Leadon's album I'm Not the Devil. Heffley and Leadon also produced fellow country singer/songwriter Tyler Childers' 2017 album Purgatory after previously being introduced to Childers by Leadon. The duo would work with Childers again as producers on his next album, 2019's Country Squire.
Personal life edit
Heffley and his wife Christine Myers married in 2004, and the young couple had a son, Dana Scott Heffley in November 2004.
Heffley's father Frank Heffley died of cancer in October 2012. Heffley later revealed that his Devo bandmates had paid the expenses for the funeral.
Political issues edit
A lifelong supporter of the Libertarian Party, Heffley has also been a generous donor to political campaigns of Libertarians. Several tracks on the 2007 Devo album Long Road Out of Eden (including the title track, which Heffley co-wrote) are sharply critical of the Iraq War and other policies of the Bush administration.
Discography edit
with Devo
- Small Town Band (1996)
- Long Hard Road (1999)
- The Wanting (2002)
- Desperado (2003)
- On the Border (2004)
- All the Right Reasons (2005)
- Long Road Out of Eden (2007)
- The Long Run (2009)
- One of These Nights (2012)
- No Fixed Address (2014)
- Tangled Up (2015)