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William "Bill" Kreutzmann, Jr. (born May 7, 1946) is an American drummer who played with the rock band the Grateful Dead for their entire thirty-year career. He also plays with his own bands BK3, 7 Walkers and Billy & the Kids.
Kreutzmann was born in Palo Alto, California, the son of Janice Beryl (née Shaughnessy) and William Kreutzmann, Sr. His maternal grandfather was football coach and innovator Clark Shaughnessy. He is of part German descent. Kreutzmann started playing drums at the age of 13. As a teenager, he met Aldous Huxley at his high school, who encouraged him in his drumming despite having been told by his sixth grade music teacher that he could not keep a beat.
At the end of 1964 he co-founded the band The Warlocks, along with Phil Lesh, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. Their first real gig was May 5, 1965, two days before Kreutzmann's nineteenth birthday. During the band's early days, Kreutzmann sometimes used a fake draft card with the name "Bill Sommers" to be admitted to bars where the band was playing, since he was underage. In November 1965, the Warlocks became the Grateful Dead.
Meeting fellow percussionist Mickey Hart in the fall of 1967 had a big impact on Kreutzmann's career. Hart soon joined the Dead, making it one of the first (and few) rock bands to feature two drummers. The two percussionists' remarkable cohesion, synchronicity, and driving power became a hallmark of the Grateful Dead sound, and earned them the nickname "the Rhythm Devils". Their lengthy drum duets were a feature of nearly every show from 1978–1995, and are documented in a number of recordings by the band.
Kreutzmann remained with the Grateful Dead until its dissolution after the death of Garcia in 1995, making him one of four members to play at every one of the band's 2,300 shows, along with Garcia, Weir and Lesh.
In 1994, Kreutzmann and the other members of the Grateful Dead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2007, they won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
source: wikipedia
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