Herman Matthews
American drummer and composer
Herman Matthews (born December 28, 1960) is an American drummer and composer. Matthews works as a session and touring musician, most notably for Tower of Power, Kenny Loggins and toured with Tom Jones for more than 7 years. He began playing drums at the age of seven and has been the backbone of world-class pop, rock, jazz, soul, R&B and funk bands for nearly thirty years.
Career
Matthews has worked with such artists as Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion, Elton John, Sheryl Crow, Herbie Hancock, Carole King, John Mayall, Spencer Davis, Edgar Winter, Luther Vandross, Rebekah, Bob James, Bobby Kimball, KINA, George Duke, Kirk Whalum, Eric Burdon & The Animals, David Foster, Michael McDonald, Michael Bolton, Patti Austin, Teresa James & the Rhythm Tramps, Robin Thicke, Angela Winbush, The Isley Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal and Richard Marx. Matthews's work appears on movie and television soundtracks, he was a house-band member for the hit television show, In Living Color.
Matthews released his first solo CD Home At Last in 2007. The title track was featured in an episode of the Fox Broadcasting Company crime/drama K-VILLE starring Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser.
Matthews replaced drummer, Jay Bellerose, for the Hugh Laurie 2013–2014 World Tour. Matthews's first gig with the Copper Bottom Band was for the PBS, "Live On The Queen Mary", broadcast on August 3, 2013. Laurie's 2013 album, Didn't It Rain, peaked Billboard Magazine's, Billboard 200 at #21 and was #1 on Billboard's Top Blues Albums.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Herman Matthews” as american drummer and composer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american drummer and composer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5740032. VIAF identifies the subject as 170200352. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 2007, 2013 and 2014.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Herman Matthews”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Herman Matthews primary sources, Herman Matthews archive and Herman research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Herman Matthews” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.