Brooks Wackerman

Brooks Wackerman (born February 15, 1977) is an American musician, currently the drummer for the American heavy metal bands Avenged Sevenfold and Mass Mental, also known as the former drummer for Bad Religion, and is the younger brother of John Wackerman and Chad Wackerman (formerly a member of Frank Zappa's band). He is the son of Chuck Wackerman, an educator in the Los Alamitos California Unified School District. Brooks is also a former student of Murray Spivack and Chuck Flores. After Wackerman's departure from Bad Religion, it was announced on November 4, 2015 that Wackerman would replace Arin Ilejay as the drummer for Avenged Sevenfold.

By the time he left Bad Religion in 2015, Wackerman was their all-time longest-standing drummer, surpassing Bobby Schayer, who was in the band for ten years. He was also the youngest member of the band, with all of the other members being at least ten years his senior.

Career

Brooks Wackerman started his musical career as a teen with a group called Bad4Good in 1991. Under Steve Vai's guidance, the band released one album in 1992 called Refugee, produced by Vai himself. However, the band disbanded shortly after. From 1993 to 2000, Wackerman was a member of Infectious Grooves, playing drums on the albums Groove Family Cyco (1994) and Mas Borracho (2000) and touring with the band.