Clayton Craddock

Clayton Craddock's drumming career spans decades and numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals. Clayton is currently the drummer of the Broadway Show Ain't Too Proud-The Life And Times Of the Temptations now playing at the Imperial Theatre. Heavily influenced by 70's soul and funk, Clayton learned from the best in the business about groove, feel, and consistency. Harvey Mason (Herbie Hancock), Jerome Brailey (P-Funk), Jonathan "Sugarfoot" Moffet (Michael Jackson), Larry Blackmon (Cameo), and Ed Greene (Barry White) were influenced his approach to the drums. Later, when he discovered rock, metal, fusion, and jazz, he drew inspiration for his playing style from drummers like Neil Peart, Stewart Copeland, John Bonham, and Tony Williams. Clayton attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. to study business, but fell in love with the marching band, eventually becoming the leader of the drum section of the Showtime Marching Band. After earning his bachelor's in business administration, Clayton stayed in the D.C. area, managing record stores by day and immersing himself in the local music scene by night as a drummer for blues and rock bands. In 1993, Clayton took a leap of faith and moved to New York City to pursue a career in music. He studied briefly with Tommy Campbell (Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie) and began to play with a variety of artists in the tri-state area. As his career progressed, Clayton appeared on shows such as The Colbert Report, The View, The Tonight Show, The CBS Early Show, the Today Show, and the 2010 TONY Awards at Radio City. He's shared the stage with legends such as The Delfonics, The Stylistics, Denise Williams, Chuck Berry, and Ben E. King. In the summer of 2000, Clayton joined a touring production of the Broadway musical Footloose. When he returned to New York a year later, he was asked to be the drummer on the Jonathan Larson musical, tick, tick... BOOM! From there, Clayton was invited to sub for Jeff Potter at Rent, which was his first experience playing a musical on Broadway. He went on to play in several Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals such as Motown, the Color Purple, Little Shop of Horrors, Evita, Cats, Avenue Q, and Spongebob Squarepants, the Musical. Clayton has held the drum chair and recorded the cast albums for the musicals Altar Boyz, tick, tick... BOOM!, Memphis the Musical and "Lady Day At Emerson's Bar And Grill" with Audra McDonald. Clayton is also an advocate for fatherhood and recently became the co-chair of the New York State Affiliate of The National Parents Organization, an advocacy organization for shared parenting. You can reach Clayton here: clayton@claytoncraddock.com