Pat Petrillo grew up in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and came up through drum corps, marching with the Garfield Cadets and the Bridgemen in the 1970s and ’80s. He earned a music degree from Morehead State University and spent a brief stretch at the University of Miami before heading to New York, where he studied at Drummers Collective and began working professionally.
His first real taste of the business was touring with Patti LaBelle, including a run to Moscow. Years with Gloria Gaynor followed and took him to Bali, Vietnam and Italy. In the studio and on stage he has backed Nile Rodgers, Oz Noy, Chieli Minucci, Debbie Gibson, Glen Burtnik, Blake Aaron and Will Donato, and his pit credits run from A Chorus Line and Grease to Footloose, Newsies and the national tour of Dreamgirls.
Since 2019 his main outlet has been the Pat Petrillo Big Rhythm Band, a group of New York players he leads. The Abbey Road Sessions was cut partly at Abbey Road Studio Two and leans on Beatles material; The Power Station Sessions followed with Nile Rodgers, John Popper, Lenny Pickett, Felicia Collins and Oz Noy sitting in; and Contemporaneous arrived on Innervision Records in 2025. He was on the cover of Modern Drummer in February 2023.
Teaching has run alongside all of it. Pat taught for many years at Drummers Collective in New York and has given clinics and master classes at PASIC, Musicians Institute, Berklee and drum shops around the world. His book and DVD Hands, Grooves & Fills came out on Hudson Music, and his video lessons for Drumeo have reached a very large audience. He also designs gear: the Zildjian 21-inch K Custom Organic Ride, the Drumeo P4 practice pad and the Rack-N-Roll cymbal cart are all his. He plays Ludwig drums, Zildjian cymbals and Vic Firth sticks.
A longtime New Jersey player, Pat is in the process of moving to Los Angeles.
