Carmine Appice ( , born December 15, 1946) is an American rock drummer. He is best known for his associations with Vanilla Fudge; Cactus; the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice; Rod Stewart; King Kobra; and Blue Murder. He is also Vinny Appice's older brother. Appice was inducted into the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2014. He is credited with influencing later rock drummers including Iron Maiden's Nicko McBrain, Aerosmith's Joey Kramer, Roger Taylor of Queen, Phil Collins of Genesis, Rush's Neil Peart, Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Richard Christy, , David Kinkade, Ray Mehlbaum, Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, Ian Paice of Deep Purple, Anvil's Robb Reiner and Eric Singer of Kiss. His best-selling drum instruction book The Realistic Rock Drum Method. was first published in 1972 and has since been revised and republished as The Ultimate Realistic Rock Drum Method. It covers the basic subjects of rock rhythms and polyrhythms, linear rudiments and groupings, shuffle rhythms, hi-hat and double bass drum exercises. Career Appice received classical music training, and was influenced early on by the work of jazz drummers Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa. Appice first came to prominence as the drummer with the late 1960s psychedelic band Vanilla Fudge. He contributed distinctive background harmonies with bassist Tim Bogert. After five albums, the pair left Vanilla Fudge to form the blues rock quartet Cactus, with vocalist Rusty Day and guitarist Jim McCarty. Appice and Bogert then left Cactus to join Jeff Beck in the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice. Appice joined Rod Stewart's backing band in 1976 co-writing songs such as "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and "Young Turks". He also played drums on a track on Paul Stanley's eponymous solo album (1978). He was a member of KGB, which featured Ray Kennedy, Ric Grech, Mike Bloomfield and Barry Goldberg. Appice has recorded with artists such as Stanley Clarke, Ted Nugent and Pink Floyd. He has also played with King Kobra and (alongside John Sykes) in Blue Murder. On May 23, 1981, Tom Bradley, the then Mayor of Los Angeles, proclaimed that day as Carmine Appice Day in the city, in recognition of the drummer's charitable and educational work. In late 1983 Appice toured with Ozzy Osbourne in support of his Gold-selling Bark at the Moon album, but shortly afterward was fired from the backing group.