Jimmy Destri

Jimmy’s obsession with music began when he saw his uncle, who was a drummer in Joey Dee and the Starlighter (who had a hit record in the early sixties with “Peppermint Twist”) performing on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. After which he taught himself to play drums, bass and piano. His uncle would later discourage him from going into music industry, but he pursued it anyway

Jimmy was completely self taught on keyboards, but cites learning parts off of Beatles and Stones records as being a big help.

Jimmy joined Blondie in 1975, and primarily used the Farfisa organ early on, eventually adding synthesizers as the group progressed

A very fine songwriter, Destri wrote several tunes for Blondie, and had hit records with “Atomic” and “Maria”

After he left Blondie, he went into the construction business but also stayed active doing production and songwriting work for other artists like Prince and INXS

Jimmy takes a solo around the 2:18 mark