Appetite for Distortion · Appetite For Distortion

Carmine Appice, Cactus | Ep. 558

April 8, 2026·52 min·4 clips

Host Brando mispronounces Carmine Appice's name as Carmen, sparking a candid and funny exchange about identity and sleep deprivation.

The name gets mangled immediately. Brando brings Carmine Appice back on, accidentally says Carmen, and the interview slips into a funny pronunciation detour before anyone can pretend this is polished. Nobody hides the stumble. Appice explains that people miss both ends of his name, from Carmen to Apice or Peace, and Brando owns the sleep-deprived mistake. That sets the room temperature. The conversation has the loose Appetite for Distortion feel, where a mistake, a family aside, and a name correction can all sit in the same chair. Appice sounds relaxed about it. He has heard every version by now, and he answers like someone more interested in moving on than sanding the moment smooth. Then Brando finds the bigger lane. Appice talks about being copied by other drummers after he pushed the oversized drum setup, less as a complaint than as old road-life fact. He is still here. That line sticks because he starts naming the drummers he sees as real influences: Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell, Keith Moon, himself, and Dino Denali. Most of them are gone. Brando, turning 43 later this year and raising a kid about to be three, gets tugged into the life-clock part of the conversation instead of just asking gear questions. Appice is in his 80th year. The milestone gets practical fast, because he wonders about an 80th birthday release, maybe through a reissued wah-wah snare idea from Morley. The gear talk stays personal. He still has the wah-wah snare, even if he does not use it, and bringing it back sounds half business plan, half birthday bit. Then comes the drum book. Appice remembers getting a $500 advance in 1970 and only later realizing the copyright was the real prize. That part lands quietly. The book made lots of money, picked up endorsements from Kenny Arnoff, Chad Smith, Greg Bisonette, Dave Weckel, and Ian Pace, and became proof that the old deal had more future in it than he knew. Brando closes in his usual messy orbit. He points people to Patreon clips, mentions the break between shows, complains about social media while using it daily for Guns N' Roses talk, and signs off with an Axl Rose Chinese Democracy callback.

As heard by us

A loose veteran drumming hang with enough history and personality to stick.

This episode works best as a loose, self-aware hangout built around Carmine Appice correcting the name and then settling in. From there, it moves through drums, influence, longevity, and the blunt fact of still being here, with a few sharp lines about things taken from him and…

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Why you'd press play

You want a drum legend who answers in stories, not slogans.

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