Music / Visual art
Johnny “Bee” Badanjek
· drummer, singer, songwriter, painter
Detroit drummer whose break on Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels' “Devil with a Blue Dress On” is legendary, later co-founder of the Rockets and a drummer on Alice Cooper's Detroit Stories.
- Birth name
- John Badanjek
- Also known as
- Johnny Bee
- Detroit years
- 1960s–present
- Field
- Music, Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
At 16 Johnny Badanjek was the drummer of Billy Lee and the Rivieras, the Detroit band that became Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. His explosive playing drove their mid-1960s hits, and critic Dave Marsh later called him an “unknown genius” for the drum break on “Devil with a Blue Dress On.” After the Wheels split in 1967 he toured and recorded with Edgar Winter, Alice Cooper, Dr. John, Bob Seger, Ronnie Montrose and Nils Lofgren. In 1972 he co-founded the Rockets with guitarist Jim McCarty, writing their radio singles “Can't Sleep,” “Turn Up the Radio” and “Takin' It Back.” He played the 1985 Guitar Army benefit concert in Detroit with Mark Farner, later toured with the Romantics, and in 2021 drummed on Alice Cooper's Detroit Stories while releasing his first solo album with Johnny Bee and the Murder Hornets. He is also a self-taught painter.
Highlights
- Drummer of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels from age 16
- Co-founded the Rockets (1972) and wrote “Turn Up the Radio”
- Pictured on the cover of Max Weinberg's book The Big Beat (1984)
- Drums on Alice Cooper's Detroit Stories (2021)
- Solo album Arc of the Sweeping Sky, with cover art by Stanley Mouse