Slim Jim Phantom

James McDonnell, known by the stage name Slim Jim Phantom, is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band Stray Cats. Alongside bandmates Brian Setzer and Lee Rocker, he is considered a pioneer of the neo-rockabilly movement of the early 1980s.

Phantom plays in the band Kat Men with former Imelda May guitarist Darrel Higham and is the host of the weekly radio show "Rockabilly Rave-up" on the satellite radio station Underground Garage.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Massapequa, New York, Phantom grew up listening to his parents' jazz and rock records and began playing drums by the age of ten. He took lessons with Mousie Alexander, who played with Benny Goodman, studying jazz and working through books by Jim Chapin and Ted Reed. Phantom has stated that discovering Elvis Presley's recordings from the Sun Records studio sessions was when he "felt that rock and roll changed my life."

By the late 1970s, Phantom was playing in bands with his childhood friend, bassist Lee Rocker. They soon joined forces with guitarist Brian Setzer to form Stray Cats. When performing with Stray Cats, Phantom did not sit behind a standard drum kit like most drummers, but instead opted to play in a standing position with a minimalist set-up of bass drum, snare drum, hi-hat, and crash cymbal.

During downtime from Stray Cats, Phantom played in swing, rockabilly, and jump blues combo Swing Cats with Rocker and ex-Polecats guitarist Danny B. Harvey, as well as rockabilly and glam rock project Phantom, Rocker & Slick with Rocker and guitarist Earl Slick. In 1985, he appeared with Carl Perkins and a host of other musicians including Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Dave Edmunds and Rosanne Cash for Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session in London, England. Phantom also played with Jerry Lee Lewis.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.