Jim Handley

Jim was a little young to be one of the “Ringo rock drummers” who decided to be a musician after seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.  Jim’s first memory of wanting to play drums came from seeing jazz great Buddy Rich “playing the stage” on the Muppet Show! 

After getting out of school, Jim went to work as a drum instructor, and became the “drum guy” at the local music store.  A series of local bands ensued, moving our hero up the “musical ladder” of the Connecticut shore.  Aris, King Hop, Arrival, Teezn’, Boku all brought Jim around to some interesting shows and built a strong network of friends.

“Teacher’s Pet” was the first band that showed Jim the “larger scale” of the music industry, resulting in his eventual move to Nashville. 

Once in Nashville, things started moving quickly.  Jim found work on Music Row taking care of drums for some of the top recording musicians in the industry.  It wasn’t long before the call of the road was too much to resist. 

Jim went out on the road with Peter Frampton, and was lucky enough to work 2001’s triple bill of John Waite, Peter Frampton, and Journey.  This led to the Journey drummer Deen Castronovo hiring Jim as his drum tech. 

It was while working with Journey in 2002, Jim met Rocko Reedy.  As the Journey production team changed and kept touring, the crew realized that they had an opportunity to have some fun playing during the day before the band arrived… and from these beginnings come the band now known as……Rocko and the Devils.