About Me
This is particularly hard for me because I do not like to talk about myself but here we go! My name is William Russo, or just Will. I was born with a disability called arthrogryposis multiplex congenita or more simply known as arthrogryposis (it's hyperlinked if you'd like to know more). It's a disability that affects many in varying different ways and it has affected my right foot, shoulders, arms, wrists, and hands. I started playing drums at a very young age. My father used to sit me on his lap as a very young child and let me hit on his drums. He still tells stories of little me barely walking wanting to beat on his drums. By age 4 I was able to play beats and really start to play. Around age 5 or 6 I had my own little drum set, I can't recall the name. By age 8 or 9 I was learning full songs and getting good. My first full song was Plush by Stone Temple Pilots, why I chose that song I still don't know. I got my first professional kit on Christmas at age 12. It was a 5 piece Pearl Export kit and Zildjian ZBT Cymbals. I got a double bass pedal and started to learn to play double bass very quickly for someone who had not used their left foot for anything but the high hat. I wanted to join band in school but I feel like I was very much viewed as a waste of time being that I'm disabled. At age 13 I severely injured my right knee and still played drums even through wearing braces and casts. That year I met, Joe Townsend, who would become my best friend and I would be remiss not to tell this story. So, I used to ride the bus, as most kids who go to school do, and there was this little 5th grade redneck kid who stared at me every single day. By week 2 of this kid staring at me I got tired of it and said, "Do you have a staring problem?" He just kind of shrugged it off and started talking to me about drumming because I was in the beginner band and always had a pair of drumsticks with me. Turns out he was a drummer too and had wanted to talk to me about drumming, so we talked every day and he became my little drummer buddy. Beginner band was lame though, not much teaching and it weeded out the kids the band director didn't want for the main high school band or "symphonic band." Later that year I had fallen again and broken my right leg due to the knee brace I was wearing. I still continued to play drums, though I had to get creative with setup. That next year I had to have knee surgery and was off of playing drums for probably a good 4 to 6 months. If you take nothing from this long span of injuries, let me at least tell you to never give up and that you never have an excuse not to follow your passion. Fast forward to age 15, I was mostly recovered and getting back to playing a lot. I was learning a lot of ACDC, Ozzy, and Metallica; to be sure not the most popular type of music during the time, but that style was always my favorite. I was good friends with Joe Townsend at this point and he was more knowledgeable in rudiments and theory than I was due to taking lessons at one of the local music stores, so I would pick up a few things here and there from him. Age 16 I started to delve into heavier music like; Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot, to name a few. I still to this day credit Jimmy the REV Sullivan as being one of my biggest influences. As a kind of funny happenstance, I went to a Christian School and I remember it being so very cool that I could play the intro to Disturbed's Down With the Sickness. To speak about my schooling, I was good at getting by with the minimum effort. My grades were good, but I was a terrible student. The school held a Chapel day every Thursday right before lunch and one of the student bands would play. I always thought to myself I'd find a way to be part of it. Early in my 11th grade year I went with the school on it's Jr. Sr. retreat and the band from the year before happened to go too and was providing music every night for our small church we held at the end of the day. I sought to sit in with them because the drummer didn't happen to go and the guitar player was having to play drums. I knew I could do better. That sounds like I'm a jerk but really I was just looking for my way in. They told me not the first night but that they'd try me out the next day to see if we fit and me being pushy, I looked to see if anyone else wanted to form a band and shove them out. I had a friend say he'd get something going and I'd make my debut with him and his band. I showed up to first night's practice and the original band gave in and threw me a shot during practice. I did well and ended up playing that night with them instead of with my new band, which they were very disgruntled about. The next night I played with the new band and we did so well we got put into rotation for Thursday chapel at the school. That was my first band playing for a large group of people. The next year the school made "Praise Band" a class and I had to go through a tryout process. The band director that had made me feel like I was a lost cause was one of the judges and was more than impressed with the performance. He wanted to take me on as drummer for their Jazz band, little did he know I was the kid who couldn't read notes and didn't know any music theory because he refused to teach me. I told him that I couldn't join because I was a senior and I couldn't read. Life is full of funny little moments like that. I don't mean to badmouth or discredit the band director. He is a very nice guy just, at the time, seemed a bit misguided. I made it back into the praise band and everything was how it had been the year before, just with a lot of new faces.
During High School I had befriended, Omar Hart, a teacher who gave me a few lessons and really got the ball rolling for me as far as theory and rudiments are concerned. After I graduated he introduced me to local venues and really set the way for me to begin playing in the professional setting. Out of one of the first introductions I met my current lead singer, P-Nut. I started going to local open mic nights and one specifically being the blues jam at The Beal Street Bottle Club and P-Nut helped host the jam. Everyone I met there played a huge role in making me a better professional. There was people from every walk of life; from younger than me to, been playing professionally for 20 plus years, one of them being Joe Fingas. Chronologically I'm age 19 at this point. I was going to college, very reluctantly may I add. The Blues jam was on Wednesday night and I had classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Going to the Blues jam as a predominantly metal drummer was a bit of a challenge. Luckily for me I was well versed in 6/8 timing but the blues shuffle was a whole new challenge. Over time ages 19 to 21 I went to the jam off and on and kept learning more about Blues. I also took on a drum instructor, named Fred Domulot, at Northwest Florida State College during that time. I learned to read and began learning to solo and push my skill on a more advanced level instead of a rudimentary level. At age 21 the Blue jam had 3 young jammers; Josh Carter age 16, Jesse Johnson age 15, and myself. I was the oldest. One day we started talking of forming a band out of the jam so we could play shows outside of Beal Street. So we formed a band, but we needed a name and a singer. At the time the Geico commercial with the Humpday camel was a huge thing and the band forming out of the Wednesday night jams so, P-Nut pitched the idea that we're the Humpday band. We loved it and stuck with Humpday. At this point we still needed a lead singer and looked to one of the older jammers to fill the spot. We recruited Lionel C. "The Show Stopper" to join us. That man has a crazy good voice and still to this day I have no clue why he never tried to be huge. Humpday only lasted a year but we all grew immensely in skill and gained a lot of new friends over that year. We played bars, was a house band to Sweetwater Blues Café, and even played a local festival. A lot happened in the scene that year too. The Beal Street Bottle Club went through a change in management and eventually closed taking the Blues jam with it. During Humpday's time, there was a venue trying to open called The Green Door. The owner had saw us play and wanted to promote us in exchange for their own promotion, a quid pro quo kind of deal. We helped build the venue, Josh doing most of the grunt work. We booked shows there playing for free and The Green Door kept a Humpday flier in the door. Josh went on to join P-Nut and Joe Fingas in Finga FAYA. I don't really remember how it came about but I ended up being the back-up drummer for Finga FAYA that year too. Jesse just kind of went his own way, stopping back in from time to time to say hello. The Blues jam went on to be held at a local studio till they could find a more permanent location. In the fall of 2016 Warren, the drummer of Finga FAYA, quit and I was made the main drummer. In 2017 Josh left the band and Ron Stanley, the bass player, sort of faded out later that year. The current lineup as it has stood from 2018 to now, March 2019, is; Joe Fingas on keys and vocals, P-nut Pina on vocals, Glenn Jensen (aka Papa G) on lead guitar, Chris Reid on bass, and Will Russo (aka Willasaurus) on drums. I have seen countless shows with these guys and have reached heights I never knew possible. The one thing I can tell you is that Florida summers plus drumming outside is a type of hell I do not wish on my worst enemy, but it has made me stronger over the past few years and I'm excited to start back up again for this coming 2019 season.
Why "Willasaurus"? I was told in school that I looked like a cross between a praying mantis and a T-Rex and then the name Willasaurus caught on as a joke and at the time it was embarrassing and was a constant reminder that I was different than everyone else, despite being known for drumming. In college I found people having a hard time approaching the topic of my disability so I turned to sarcasm and jokes to make people laugh, relieving the pressure people felt about the situation. As i kept doing that I thought of Willasaurus again and people really seemed to take to it well and it stuck. So, thanks to my haters, I suppose?