Gretsch Greatest Hits…and Hitters

Stefanie Eulinberg:  Rockin’ With The Kid

by Fred Gretsch

Stefanie Eulinberg is a contradiction in terms. On the one hand, she’s petite (just five feet tall), bubbly, smart, outspoken, funny, and sassy. On the other hand, she’s the hard-hitting drummer for Twisted Brown Trucker—the band behind the ultra-macho superstar known as Kid Rock.

Born on December 11, 1967, Stefanie grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. She displayed an early talent for music on a variety of instruments, including the trombone and the cornet. It wasn’t until she spent a summer at the Percussion Institute of Technology in Los Angeles that she gravitated to the drums.

Starting at the age of fifteen, Stefanie worked in cover bands all over the country. Playing different songs for a living was fun—but more importantly it gave her the opportunity to develop her drumming skills. Her influences included Jack DeJohnette, Dave Weckl, Tony Thompson, Chester Thompson, Neil Peart, Dennis Chambers, and Terry Bozzio. That’s quite an eclectic mix, and it helped her develop a slamming style that fuses Sly Stone funk with Bonham-esque heaviness.

After laboring for more than a decade in cover bands and less-than-successful “original” acts, Stefanie found herself in Milwaukee in 1998. That’s when she got a call from her friend DJ Swamp. He told her, “This Kid Rock guy in Detroit has a record out on Atlantic. He needs a drummer for his touring band…right now.” After playing phone tag for a while, Stefanie and the Kid finally connected. “We’ve narrowed it down to three drummers,” Rock told her. “You’re one of them.” (He hadn’t even heard her play yet.)

Stefanie shipped a tape overnight, and within days was the drummer in Twisted Brown Trucker. Kid Rock told her she got the job because she doesn’t play drums like a girl. (A classic understatement if ever there was one.)

In the early days, Kid Rock’s music was a testosterone-fueled brand of punk-meets-rap. In order to anchor the band, Stefanie had to make adjustments in her playing style—adapting from the fluid chops she’d used in cover bands to the rigidity of sequencer-and-click-based music. But over the ensuing years and million-selling albums, Kid Rock’s style has evolved dramatically. After fusing hip-hop and hard rock seamlessly on the 11-times platinum Devil Without A Cause in 1998, the self-described “Bullgod of trailer trash” went from rapper to country balladeer with his 2001 album Cocky. From there it’s been anything goes…and Stefanie has been going right along with it.

Kid Rock’s music now incorporates as much classic rock and country as R&B and rap. (The 2007 Grammy-nominated hit “All Summer Long” was an undisguised homage to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.”) In addition to powering the band from the drums, Stefanie also performs as a vocalist on live shows, and she adds her talents on several other instruments in the studio.

Here’s a bit of Stefanie Eulinberg trivia that you might not know: In addition to her skills as a drummer and multi-instrumentalist, Stefanie is also a vocal actress. Along with Kid Rock and other members of Twisted Brown Trucker, Stefanie voiced a character in the Farrelly Brothers’ 2001 animated movie Osmosis Jones. She also writes theme music for the Disney studios.

Video Clips

You can see and hear dozens of examples of Stefanie’s work by searching for “Kid Rock” on YouTube. In the meantime, though, here are two clips you might particularly enjoy:

Stefanie talks about Gretsch drums (while on tour with Kid Rock in 2008).

Here’s a great clip of Stefanie rocking with the Kid on “All Summer Long” from a music awards show in 2010.