Wow what an honor that is! I was taught by Russ Miller and Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden...Russ before he was a really heavy hired gun and Nicko when he was doing down time from Maiden in Boca Raton...used to get lessons from both at Drum Design which was in Coral Springs.
Those days are long long gone.
At the time he was giving lessons at a Dorn&Kircshner shop in Union NJ. This was around ‘83. He was a great guy. He told me I should’ve had more confidence in myself because he felt I was a good drummer but was holding myself back. Guess he was right, I didn’t stick with it. I saw him with his band in NY a couple of times. He once did the drum solo from “Take Five’’ for me in the D&K studio, just for me! Awesome doesn’t begin to describe it! He was a funny guy too. Blind as he was he always loved flirting with the girlfriend I had at the time, a beautiful blond. But he was always a gentleman about it.