----------------------------------------------------- December 10, 2000 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: Eastside Journal http://www.eastsidejournal.com/sited/retr_story.pl/36388 Lennon's beat goes on with local man By Diana Hefley BELLEVUE -- Alan White hung up on John Lennon the first time the Beatle asked the Bellevue man to play drums for him. ``I thought it was a friend of mine joking with me. I put the phone down on him,'' White, 51, said yesterday at Donn Bennett's Drum Studio in Bellevue. As it turned out, Lennon was serious. He had seen White playing at a small club and wanted to work with him. The next day White flew to Toronto for a live performance with Lennon, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton and Klaus Voorman. Two years later, White found himself side by side with Lennon making the ``Imagine'' album. Yesterday, a day after the 20th anniversary of Lennon's death, the British Broadcasting Corp. invaded the drum studio to talk with White about those eight days of music history. ``(Lennon) took me under his wing. He had a lot of trust in me,'' the drummer said. ``I was very young at the time. It was only years later I realized that I had been part of history.'' But it's not as though White isn't familiar with fame. He has been the drummer for the band Yes for almost 30 years. Yes was recently named one of VH1's top 100 most influential rock bands. White, the father of two Newport High students, will be featured on a documentary about the piano Lennon used to record ``Imagine.'' The BBC is filming a series of documentaries entitled ``Relics'' that looks at objects made famous by their owners. ``It's looking at a famous person through the eyes of an object,'' BBC director Anna Gravelle said. ``People pay crazy prices because of the association with a famous person. Take John Lennon's piano -- it's just a crappy old piano. The guy who sold it didn't even know who it belonged to until he saw it in a documentary,'' she said. Pop star George Michael recently bought the battered Steinway for an estimated $2 million. Other segments, set to air this spring, will feature Marilyn Monroe's stiletto heels, Jimi Hendrix's pants, Bruce Lee's nunchucks and Princess Diana's and James Dean's cars. ``These things can take on a life of their own,'' Gravelle said. Donn Bennett agrees. Bennett's studio, a mecca for aspiring drummers, is lined with drums that once belonged to people like Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and Who drummer Keith Moon. ``It's like having a piece of that music,'' Bennett said. ``If drums are the heart of any piece of music, having the drum is like having the heart of the music I love. There's just something cool about it.'' Bennett and White met a couple of years ago when the Yes drummer agreed to do a workshop at the studio. ``He also had a drum I really wanted. It was given to him by Keith Moon. One day he just brought it down. I had to buy two cases of Girl Scout cookies from him as part of the deal,'' Bennett said, laughing. From there, the studio owner and White struck up a friendship. Bennett is restoring the drum set White played on ``Imagine.'' Despite the astounding price Lennon's piano fetched, don't expect White to part with his drums anytime soon. ``I don't even want to go there,'' White said. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com