Ronnie Tutt, Drummer for Elvis Presley and the Jerry Garcia Band, Dead at 83 - Rolling Stone

Ronnie Tutt, drummer and original member of Elvis Presley’s TCB Band and the Jerry Garcia Band and a famed session musician who performed alongside Billy Joel, Buckingham Nicks and more, has died at the age of 83.

Elvis Presley Enterprises announced Tutt’s death Saturday, writing on the Graceland website, “All of us with Elvis Presley Enterprises were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Ronnie Tutt.

The Dallas-born drummer joined Presley’s famed TCB Band (short for Takin’ Care of Business) following the singer’s 1968 comeback special, with Tutt serving as drummer for Presley’s 1969 Las Vegas opening and his subsequent residencies; Tutt remained with the group through Presley’s death in 1977, and continued to perform with the TCB Band in the decades that followed

Beginning the mid-Seventies — while still in the employ of Presley — Tutt became an in-demand touring and session drummer, spending two years in the first incarnation of the Jerry Garcia Band — including playing on heir 1978 debut LP Cats Under the Stars and Garcia’s solo albums Reflections and Run for the Roses, as well as the group’s live gigs

Tutt also notably toured with Neil Diamond and played drums on a pair of Billy Joel albums — 1973’s The Piano Man and 1974’s Streetlife Serenade — appearing on the hits “Piano Man,” “The Ballad of Billy the Kid” and “The Entertainer.” Other credits include playing on the lone Buckingham Nicks album in 1973, Gram Parsons’ GP and Grievous Angel, Elvis Costello’s King of America and Johnny Cash’s John R Cash

Billy Joel, Elvis Presley, Jerry Garcia, obit, Obituary