Steve Rucker

the Bee Gees drummer
American drummer

Stephen Rucker (born 2 March 1954) is an American musician and drummer who served as a drummer with many artists. His biggest and well known act was the Bee Gees. With the Bee Gees band, he appeared on The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and a Royal Variety Performance. Rucker appears on the Bee Gees' One Night Only recording and DVD. He is currently the Drumset Studies director of the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.

Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, Rucker attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, and holds an Undergraduate Degree in Studio Music and Jazz and a master's degree in Jazz Performance from the University of Miami Frost School of Music. From September 1974 until May 1975, Rucker toured with the Charlotte based band Sugarcreek. During this period he became the musical arranger for the seven piece horn band, and wrote and recorded their first single, "Runnin' Out of Time".

Rucker moved to Miami, Florida in 1976. Soon after, he was voted "Best Jazz Performer" and "Most Versatile Artist" in South Florida polls. In the early 1980s, Rucker was a member of the Ross Levine band, a jazz fusion group. In addition to numerous appearances with them, he recorded "That Summer Something" and "Humidity".

In 1997, Rucker appeared on a Bee Gees concert at the MGM Grand Las Vegas which was shown on pay per view television, HBO, and was released as a live album selling over 5 million copies. Rucker completed an album in 2013 entitled Conversions with singer/pianist Hal Roland, in a live jazz quartet configuration. In 2015, in collaboration with former student Jonathan Joseph, Rucker wrote and published Exercises in African American Funk, which contains a set of exercises for developing a fusion of African and American funk drumming elements.