Scott Ballew, 1972-2019 [Updated]

Update, April 8, 9 a.m.: A visitation has been scheduled from 3-4 p.m. on Saturday, April 13, at Community Church in Hendersonville, with a celebration of life to follow from 4-5 p.m. See the Spring Hill Funeral Home and Cemetery website for more details.

Original post:

Scott Ballew, the drummer for veteran Tennessee power pop band The Shazam, died Tuesday at his home in Nashville. He was 46, and had been with The Shazam since their inception in 1994. His death was confirmed by his mother, Mary Amos, of Hendersonville, Tenn.

Along with Shazam guitarist, singer and songwriter Hans Rotenberry, Ballew was a founding member of the well-known power pop group, which formed in Nashville and went on to release five critically acclaimed full-lengths that include their most recent 2009’s Meteor. A powerful drummer who played in the mode of The Who’s Keith Moon and Cheap Trick’s Bun E. Carlos, Ballew complemented Rotenberry’s power chords and finely tuned melodic sense with his dynamic, theatrical style. He was a natural musician who never shied away from the spotlight, and in live performance he was a focal point in The Shazam — a group that functioned both as a classic rock power trio and, at times, as a four-piece band that echoed the work of the great power-pop ensembles.

A charismatic, larger-than-life figure, Ballew was already an accomplished musician — and a star — by the time Rotenberry enlisted him to drum for The Shazam in early 1994. Rotenberry had moved to Nashville in 1990 from his home in Kingsport, Tenn., and had recorded a series of demos with producer Brad Jones at Jones’ Nashville studio, Alex the Great. The ambitious Rotenberry was anxious to play and record in the style of power poppers like Cheap Trick and The Move, but he lacked a drummer, which meant his demos were cut with a drum machine. 

Ballew had achieved fame as a member of The John Carter Cash Band, who performed with the 17-year-old Ballew on drums at a Farm Aid show in Indianapolis in 1990. It was, improbably, his first gig as a professional musician. Ballew made an impression at the show, performing shirtless with long blonde hair flowing over his shoulders. When Cash left the band, it evolved into Apache Underground, a popular group in Nashville in the early ’90s. Even then, Ballew carried himself like a rock ’n’ roll star, as Rotenberry recalls.

“When I first met Scott, he was 19 and had just gotten out of high school,” Rotenberry says. “He had hair down to his ass. He was just a wild boy, man — he was a Jim Morrison sort of guy. The first two or three times I met Scott, he never had a shirt on and was just playing like a motherfucker.” 

Rotenberry took Ballew to see a Cheap Trick concert in Nashville, an experience that turned the young drummer into a power pop fan, and in January 1994 they cut Rotenberry’s song “Florida” at Alex the Great with Jones playing bass. (The recording ended up on The Shazam’s first album, 1997’s The Shazam.) Later in 1994, bassist Mick Wilson joined the band, rounding out the lineup.

Scott Thomas Ballew was born in Washington, D.C., on July 17, 1972. He moved with his family to Hendersonville in 1984, and graduated from Hendersonville High School. He took drum lessons while he was in high school, and displayed a prodigious technique. As you can hear on The Shazam and subsequent albums like 1999’s Godspeed The Shazam and 2003’s Tomorrow the World, Ballew was a master of British Invasion drumming. His roots in metal made him an uncommonly powerful drummer, but he had a feel for song form that meshed perfectly with Rotenberry’s slashing Pete-Townshend-derived power chords and Wilson’s melodic bass. The essence of Ballew’s style was controlled unpredictability — which was also a feature of his compelling personality.

“He had a magnetic attraction about him,” says Amos. “He was extremely funny, and he always made people smile. People were drawn to him, and he had a need to make people feel good.”

The Shazam achieved a measure of success in the late 1990s, and the British Invasion obsessives played a series of well-received shows in England in 2000. They performed with former Move members Carl Wayne and Bev Bevan, who sang and played percussion with the band on versions of some of the The Move’s classic material. 

As Rotenberry remembers, Ballew was in his element during The Shazam’s time in London. The Shazam had played a show at now-vanished venue Earl’s Court, and the other three members — including future second guitarist Jeremy Asbrock, who would also go on to co-found Thee Rock N’ Roll Residency — had returned to their lodgings. But there was no Scott Ballew. The others became concerned, since Ballew didn’t know the address of the house. After about an hour, a police car pulled up outside.

“We were, like, ‘Oh, God,’ ” Rotenberry remembers. “The door opens, and Scott gets out of the police car, cocktail in hand, and he’s signing autographs for the cops. The cops were just charmed that the rock star asked for a ride, and they didn’t make him get rid of his drink.” 

In later years, The Shazam continued to tour and record, releasing the excellent 2009 album Meteor, cut with famed Queen and Black Sabbath producer Reinhold Mack. Ballew’s contributions to the band’s music helped define their sound, and he made his mark as one of the greatest drummers in the history of Nashville music — and, I think, in the history of American rock. Ballew had finesse, verve and an unerring sense of what worked in the context of song form.

I saw The Shazam in January at a Nashville show that was dominated by Ballew’s high-energy performance. It was a superb set, and afterwards I talked to him about his current projects, which included installing a first-rate recording studio in his house. He excitedly told me about The Shazam’s plans to finish their long-awaited album Doomsday Hotel at his home studio. Rotenberry says Ballew had been working on streamlining and perfecting the album during the last months of his life. Whether or not The Shazam will continue remains unclear. As Rotenberry says, “Scott Ballew is irreplaceable. You can quote me on that.”  

Ballew is survived by his mother, Mary Amos, and his brother, Steve Ballew, both of Hendersonville. Plans for a celebration of life for Scott Ballew were not final at press time.