The most popular drummer this past week wasn’t Mike Portnoy, Neil Peart or Gene Hoglan – it was a mysterious senior citizen that showed up at a local drum store in La Crosse, WI and kicked all kinds of ass on the drums. Thanks to some viewers of a local news channel, the mystery of who the lady is has been revealed. Her name is Mary Hvizda, and she’s no stranger to the drums. The 63 year-old picked them up when she was 15, and eventually joined the Chantells, the first all-female rock band in La Crosse. She played in a variety of other bands until 1990, when her band On the Road Again broke up. Selling her kit soon after, she’d been getting her fix by heading to Coalition Drum Shop and playing, and the owners finally recorded her, and not surprisingly, the video went viral.
Hvizda is happy about her newfound fame, even though she doesn’t have a computer. “It makes em proud to think that people still think I’m somewhat good and still think I’m still something they’re interested in watching,” she said. However, she’s not super psyched to be called “grandma drummer,” since she doesn’t have any children. The Coalition Drum Shop is rewarding her with a set of drums, which is a nice ending to this whole saga.
