The world knows Greg Upchurch as one of the best drummers on the planet.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk with Greg “the person” — the coffee maker, the son, the brother, and the all-around good guy from Kingston, Oklahoma.
The Eleven, Chris Cornell, Puddle of Mudd, and 3 Doors Down drummer agreed to a sit-down interview for our Unbreakable episode featuring Chet Roberts and his bandmates, which will be coming out later this summer (fingers crossed).
Behind the drums, Greg is, shall we say, violent.
He attacks his kit like the drums personally betrayed him.
I asked him about that.
He says it’s not pent-up anger.
It’s just pure passion for his craft.
Greg told me, “If I walk off the stage and I’m not sweating from head to toe, I didn’t do my job.”
There’s another aspect to it as well.
He says he goes that hard because he owes it to his bandmates.
He puts it this way:
“Drummers sit in the back. We aren’t out front like the rest of the band. I can’t feel the crowd like they can. I can set the tone for my brothers up front by the way I play behind them. The harder I play, the more they react, and the more the crowd feels all of us.”
Team player vibes, right?
During the course of our one-hour sit-down session over coffee and tea, we discussed it all:
Why coffee?
His favorite 3 Doors Down song to play
The Soundcheck Chicken
His favorite venue to play
His 3 Doors brothers
His sobriety
Brad
A possible tribute night
Any chance of a reunion
Does he miss being on stage?
All of it.
He held nothing back.
We’ll be releasing quotes, videos, and both episodes of Unbreakable that Greg will appear in soon.
Before and after the interview, we had the chance to meet Greg’s brothers, his soon-to-be 90-year-old mom, and the townsfolk who call Kingston home and treat Greg like a king.
They genuinely love him.
The drummer?
Yes.
The person?
Heck yes!
Everywhere you look in his shop, there’s memorabilia from his storied music past.
Platinum records.
Awards galore.
Familiar faces and friends from Chris Cornell to Brad Arnold, and so much more.
It’s kind of a music museum that serves incredible coffee.
As he walked in the door, a customer was sitting with her husband enjoying a cup of Greg’s Rockin’ Goat coffee. She was telling us it was the best cup of joe she’d ever had.
She wasn’t just being kind.
She meant it.
Greg heard her, thanked her, gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and kept walking to his next task.
That’s how it is in this one-stoplight town.
Everybody knows everybody, and everybody roots for everybody.
Greg told me, “This is the only place that truly feels like home.”
His staff behind the counter whipped us up a couple of lattes to die for.
I mean, WOW!
I had two cups plus a tall glass of his special organic healthy tea that should be on the shelves of every Whole Foods Market or Trader Joe’s in the country.
That might explain the caffeine buzz I felt throughout the day.
If only I’d had Greg’s drums to punish at the time.
After the interview, we went back to the room where the magic coffee is made.
His beans come directly from Bolivia.
Who’s his supplier?
A friend of Greg’s from Kingston, of course.
Without getting into the weeds, his buddy owns an organic bean farm in Bolivia (seriously).
The beans are delivered directly to Greg’s place in Kingston.
No middleman.
Clean.
As good as it gets.
Greg and his brother are master coffee makers.
They have studied the craft and perfected it.
He spends a significant amount of time several days a week in what amounts to a small roasting room just off the main coffee shop, roasting the whole beans, cooling them, then bagging them whole for freshness.
It’s a fine-tuned, precise process — ideal for a guy known for his precision on percussion.
Greg says he enjoys his time in that room and will occasionally break out his guitar and just jam.
While we were there, I asked him if he could play a 3 Doors Down song.
Without hesitation, he played “Kryptonite.”
Easy.
Amazing.
There was even a moment during our interview when he mentioned the drums in that song, and as he did, he started playing the drum parts with his hands on the table where we were sitting.
Gotta tell ya, watching Greg play the drums to that song with his hands while we talked was pretty darn special.
We talked about how recognizable the drums on that song are the second you hear them.
It’s very similar to how instantly recognizable the drums are in Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” and John Mellencamp’s “Jack & Diane.”
After we watched how the coffee was made, we made our way outside for some glamour shots and B-roll for our Unbreakable episode.
His definition of “unbreakable” was spot-on.
We’ll share that soon.
Finally, if you’re wondering why it’s called Greg’s Rockin’ Goat Coffee, it’s not what you might think.
While he may be one of the G.O.A.T.s (Greatest of All Time) on drums, that’s not what the name stands for.
He says the goat is just kind of associated with rock and roll.
It’s just a name.
I will point out, however, that goats often symbolize being wild or untamed.
Is there something to that?
Not for me to say.
I will say this, however:
Greg told me he’s celebrating nearly a decade of sobriety.
He says he would much rather spend time in a coffee shop than a bar.
In other words, though he desperately misses being on stage, he’s right where he wants to be — for now.
If you’d like to support Greg (and who doesn’t?), you can order his incredible coffee and tea, mugs, and other swag from his Shopify website:
https://gregsrockingoat.myshopify.com/
I HIGHLY recommend it and hope you do!
