In an early-1920s vaudeville theater, an 18-month-old in a sailor suit played snare and bass drum to The Stars and Stripes Forever, then tap danced for the finale. By 15 he was earning $1,000 a week, the second-highest-paid child entertainer in the world behind Jackie Coogan. This episode explores how Buddy Rich, billed as Baby Traps the Drum Wonder, grew into one of the most technically gifted drummers who ever lived, and why a childhood of roaring applause produced a man who refused to be subordinate to any bandleader.

We cover his clash with Artie Shaw, his fistfights and lifelong bond with Frank Sinatra, and the baffling fact that he never learned to read sheet music, instead mapping entire arrangements by ear after a single listen. We dig into his contrasting dynamics and grip switching, the 1942 rudiments book he co-authored with Henry Adler despite claiming to hate practice, the infamous bus tapes, the West Side Story medley, his Johnny Carson and Muppet Show appearances, a devastating IRS tax lien, and the brain tumor that ended his life at 69 in 1987.

• How auditory mapping let him learn complex big band charts like a chess grandmaster reads a board
• Traditional grip versus matched grip and why he switched between them
• Why his temper was an allergic reaction to perceived lack of effort rather than pure malice
• Surviving the rock era by turning the drum kit into a television spectacle
• Influence on Queen, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Phil Collins, and the film Whiplash