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Ron Wikso – Austin, TX

Ron currently lives in the Austin, TX area with his son, Jesse. He currently divides his professional time between live touring gigs and session work. Besides the traditional studio scene, he does a lot of session work for clients from all over the world, at his own private studio.

He started playing drums at the age of 7 and studied privately with Larry Ramsden while growing up on Long Island. Along with his private studies, Ron played in several local bands and began playing his first professional gigs by the time he was 12. He also participated in as many of the school bands, orchestras and choirs as he could in an effort to learn as much as possible about music.

After studying at Berklee for a year, Ron found himself working quite a bit over the summer in various bands in New York so he decided to stay in New York and continue playing professionally rather than return to college. It didn’t take long before he found himself playing a 4 month engagement on the Caribbean Island of St. Maarten…a far cry from the cold winters of Boston and New York!

Upon returning from the Caribbean he continued his work in New York before again finding himself in the tropics…this time as the drummer in the house band on the Holland America Cruise Ship, SS Statendam. The cruise took him to various ports such as St. Thomas, St. John’s, St. Maarten (again), Aruba, Antigua, Curacao, Martinique, Guadaloupe, La Guaira/Caracas (Venezuela, South America) and Haiti to name a few. Following his stint on the cruise ship, he again returned to New York but this time he decided that the cold weather wasn’t for him so, after a few months, he chose to move out to Los Angeles, California.

Ron didn’t know too many people when he first moved out to Los Angeles so, in order to support himself, he took a job in retail for a few months while he set out to meet other musicians and find work as a musician. It didn’t take long before he found it and he has been a constant presence in the Los Angeles music community ever since.

After establishing himself on the LA music scene, Ron began to get called for various recording sessions and tours with some of the best musicians and well known entertainers in the world. Some of the people he’s worked with at various times include Cher, Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), Foreigner, David Lee Roth (Van Halen), The Storm, Gregg Rolie (Santana/Journey), Eddie Money, CCR (Creedence Clearwater Revisited), Player (featuring Ronn Moss & Peter Beckett),Randy Meisner (the Eagles), Denny Laine (Paul McCartney & Wings/The Moody Blues), Dave Amato (REO Speedwagon/Ted Nugent/Jimmy Barnes), Michael Monarch (Steppenwolf), Dave Meniketti (Y&T), George Burns, Sammy Davis Jr., Peggy Lee and many others. Some of the tours he’s been on with these artists have taken him all over the world to places in Europe, Asia, Australia and North, South and Central America and have featured other artists such as Bryan Adams, Peter Frampton, 10,000 Maniacs, Deep Purple, The Doobie Brothers, REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, Paul Rodgers and now Kathleen Blackwell!