Clayton Cameron, Longtime Tony Bennett Drummer, Recalls Playing ‘MTV Unplugged’ (And Tennis) With the Late Legend

“Right here is Clayton Cameron on the drums … he’s gonna show you how [to swing]…”

That was Tony Bennett, the legendary performer who died at the age of 96 on Friday (July 21), during his 1994 MTV Unplugged performance of Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” The man he was introducing, Clayton Cameron, had only been playing drums in his band for a couple years — after nearly a decade spent backing iconic Rat Packer Sammy Davis Jr. — and Bennett was cuing him on the biggest spotlight moment of his career to that point: a nearly two-minute drum solo in the middle of the song.

The showcase included a switch from sticks to brushes, and a move from a sitting drum set to a standing solo drum, with Cameron frequently flipping between the two ends of each brush while playing — all with circus performer-like dexterity and fluidity. Each member of the Ralph Sharon Trio backing Bennett that night was given individual moments to shine, but none was quite as show-stopping (in both senses) as Cameron’s jaw-dropping “Swing” display, lighting up the special’s penultimate performance without disrupting the casual-hang vibe that the four performers had worked hard to establish to that point.

The Unplugged special was an immediate success, as part of Bennett’s successful mid-’90s rebranding as an artist accessible to the MTV generation, and its accompanying soundtrack would go on to be certified platinum by the RIAA and win two awards, including album of the year, at the 1995 Grammys. (MTV re-ran the special, along with its 2021 sequel alongside Lady Gaga, after Bennett’s passing on July 21.) Its popularity also brought newfound exposure to Cameron, then in his mid-30s.

“I was living in New York at the time, and I knew that something was up when I was crossing the street — I think like Sixth Avenue or something — and this fireman was yelling at me,” he recalls. “I realized he was saying my name, and then I realized he was a Tony Bennett fan. And he had seen me on [MTV] … that was something very very different for me, very new.”

Cameron would ultimately drum with Bennett for a total of 13 years and 13 albums — the longest artistic partnership for Cameron in a career that also included work alongside such icons as Frank Sinatra, Mariah Carey and James Taylor, and even a one-off gig conducting the UCLA Bruins Marching Band and playing drums on BTS’ 2020 hit single “On.” (“It gave me credibility with my daughter and her friends,” Cameron laughs about the last one.) He currently works as a continuing lecturer at UCLA, does sideman gigs and plays with his own band The Du U Project, and remembers his time working with Bennett and his orbit of collaborators as “very special.”

“I enjoyed being in the studio with him so much,” he says. “He just always really knew what he wanted, and how to do it. And then just following him, he was just … I had to keep reminding myself, ‘OK, you’re a part of this – you’re not a bystander. You’re with Tony Bennett.’” 

Below, Cameron reminisces to Billboard about his time with the late Bennett, his memories of working with him on the classic Unplugged special, and how tennis helped bring the two together both years before they ever properly collaborated and for many years after. (The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

Can you tell me a little bit about your early career, and the path that took you to working with Tony?

I was born and raised here in Los Angeles, California, and I grew up playing behind some of the local people like Ernie Andrews and Teddy Edwards. And I ended up playing for Gerald Wilson’s band, which included people like Ernie Watts and Jerome Richardson, Gerald Wiggins, Oscar Brashear, who recently passed. These were all great jazz musicians who were in L.A. And so playing with Gerald would actually lead me later on to playing with Sammy Davis Jr., after I graduated from college. 

I was Sammy’s last drummer, from ‘82 until he passed away in 1990. And during that period, I would do the Rat Pack Tour with Sinatra and Dean [Martin] and Sammy. And later on, Dean would drop out and Liza Minnelli would come on. Sammy passed away in 1990, and so I did a few things around L.A., and then I just moved to New York. So when I got to New York, I was playing with a lot of great people – playing with the Mingus band, doing some stuff with Barry Harris, and I even worked with Kenny Burrell while I was there.

And so I was really happy, just kinda being on the scene. Then I got a call, saying that Tony was looking for a drummer and that I had been recommended. They said, “Why don’t you give it a try and we’ll see if Tony likes what you’re doing and you like the gig?” And so I started April 1 of 1992, with Tony.

So we’re on a plane going to… up north, just past the Bay Area. Tony and I were talking on the plane, and I reminded him that we had met back in the ‘80s on the tennis court, in Atlantic City. Tony,’s youngest daughter was taking a tennis lesson — she must have been 10 years old, or something like that. There was only one tennis club in Atlantic City, and so the pro there knew me. And he said, “Hey, can you hit with Tony Bennett while his daughter takes a lesson?” And so Tony and I hit some tennis balls. And it was fun, it was kinda cool. 

So I reminded him of it while we’re on the plane, and he says, “Oh, OK.” We get off the plane — instead of going to the gig, he takes me to the San Francisco Tennis Club. And that was the first thing I did with Tony once I got hired. I kinda became the tennis valet after that. 

Did you get to see much of his game? How was he as a tennis player?

He could hold his own. I guess we would call him maybe like a 3.0 player in tennis terms. Which means – all the tennis players out there will know – you have maybe one shot that you could really do well, and you had to work on the other ones. But he had a good forehand. So it was a lot of fun. For a lot of years we would play together, before he stopped playing. 

Were you already versed in his catalogue before performing with him? What kind of level of knowledge did you have in his stuff?

Oh well certainly, the Bill Evans stuff I knew really well. And I knew his couple of hits that he had when I was growing up. So I was aware of him, I just hadn’t heard a lot about him in recent years — y’know, ‘80s into the ‘90s. And so that’s why it was kind of a surprise to me when I got the call. Even though I’d seen him in Atlantic City, that sort of thing. It was the same thing kinda with Sammy Davis, Jr., when I joined him — he wasn’t recording, but he was doing a lot of gigs and stuff. But he wasn’t necessarily doing a lot of television, things like that. 

Was the style that he wanted you to play for him something that you were comfortable with? Did he push you into new territories, or did he want you in your pocket?

There wasn’t really much discussion on what to do. We just did it. There was never really much discussion, just swinging and grooving. The big thing with Tony is his dynamics – I learned a lot in that sense. Especially in the studio, just really being able to play with that quiet intensity — so that he didn’t have to compromise what he wanted to do. 

Maybe one time, he gave me one real directive. And that was, we were in the studio, and I think we were recording – it must have been a ballad, I can’t remember the tune. Tony was not in a booth, we were pretty much all in the same room most of the time. And so that way, he would really get a feel of the band. And so one take was one take — if you did it again, everybody did it again.

So I remember one time, we were playing, and so Tony says, “Hey Clayton, the brushes are too loud.” I said, “Oh, OK, no problem.” And so I adjusted, and I did something that I had never done before. Usually when you’re playing brushes, you kinda have these broad strokes. And so I made the strokes very minuscule. But you’re in the studio, so the mic is picking it up. After we finished the track, Tony came over and he thanked me – he said, “Thank you Clayton, I wanted to whisper the lyric.” I said “Oh wow, it makes so much sense.” 

What did you know about MTV Unplugged as a series before doing it? Did you have a vision about how Tony’s set would translate to it?

Well, I was aware of it. MTV Unplugged was fairly new. And we had done the record Steppin’ Out [in 1993], and then Danny Bennett, Tony’s son and manager, said, “Hey, we’re gonna do this MTV thing, Unplugged, and it may become a record.” So that was it. We just went on and we did our show – there was no directives or anything, we just played. And I think that’s how it comes off — where we’re just having a good time and just doing a concert.

So the show that you guys played on Unplugged – was that fairly standard in terms of both the setlist and the arrangements that you normally would have played at a show around that time period? Or did you have to rehearse it differently?

No, there was no rehearsal. I mean, I was still fairly new in the band, and so things were developing. And that’s why it’s kinda nice for me to look back on it, because it was still early in the process of me playing with Tony. So the fact that he would feature me with a drum solo, I thought was just quite generous. It really told me that, here was a guy that just really knew what he wanted, and was very secure in what he was doing — to allow me to go off and do a drum solo and come back. 

Is that something that he would frequently do at concerts? Because over the course of the special, he really gives all three of you a pretty specific time to shine individually. 

Yeah, absolutely. It was – I did that for 13 years. Get featured, and all of that. 

I’ve heard stories about the Unplugged tapings that sometimes they drag on for seven-eight hours, and everybody’s exhausted by the end, you end up doing these retakes and retakes. Was it like that for you guys, or was it more get in-get out, you do your set and move on?

Oh yeah, the latter. Yeah, I’m shocked to hear that people were doing all those takes. You have to realize that — people of Tony’s era, of Sammy Davis’ era, Frank Sinatra’s era — they know how to perform. It’s not like, you gotta tell them what to do. They know how to perform. All those guys had at least 10,000 hours on the road, if you’re gonna do the Gladwell, 10,000-hours-makes-you-a-pro kinda thing. Those guys had 100,000 hours doing shows.

So it’s not like you have to tell them. And then if you’ve got a good band, you don’t have to tell them either! What tunes are we gonna do? And then do it. You don’t have to rehearse a bunch of tunes. If you’ve got consummate musicians, and you’ve got a consummate performer like Tony Bennett or Sammy? Man, they could do 10 shows without rehearsing. 

Did the Unplugged change your career at all? There’s such a focus on you, and Tony says your name over and over again – were you getting more gig requests? Were people asking you to do the thing with the brushes on their album or their stage? 

Yeah, that actually did happen. I certainly got a lot of attention because of Tony. I didn’t have time to do a lot, though, because during the time with him, we were so busy… everyone from Sting, James Taylor were reaching out to me, just these different people, maybe little things here and there. But I didn’t have time. Because we were on the road like 200 days a year. I mean, doing the television and concerts and all of that. But I did do some things, yeah. 

Did you have any moments from the special that stick out to you as particularly memorable? 

What I remember most is… what I learned about Tony at that concert is just how gracious he was. He just did his thing and didn’t blink. Tony just did his show. There wasn’t anything different than what we would ordinarily do. But I tell you – watching him, when I look back on it, it was like he had done it the first time. Like everything was fresh. Even though we had done like 20,000 shows or whatever. It was still fresh! There was not any, like, “Oh, I gotta do this again…” 

And he would tell you that, too. “You’re sinning against your talents” is one of the things he used to say. If you’re gonna not show up, y’know. “You’re sinning against your talents.”

You mentioned Danny Bennett taking him in that MTV-oriented direction over the course of the ‘90s. Was that something that you were surprised by – that he was able to connect with the younger audiences the way that he was? What was it about him that allowed him to reach audiences that were, at that point, almost two generations his junior? 

Well one, the music was good. And Tony was charismatic, period. And so when we were doing a lot of these – like, going between Smashing Pumpkins and all these different groups – when we play, we gonna swing, and we gonna groove, and it doesn’t really matter whether you’re a grunge or this or that. The groove is there. And then Tony comes out, and he’s doing his thing? I mean, come on… it’s infectious. 

But the thing about what Danny and Tony did, is that they took Tony’s thing into those young people’s arenas. They didn’t have to go to Carnegie Hall to see Tony. Naw, Tony went to them and said, “Hey, check this out!” And so it was amazing. It really was. I don’t know if anyone could’ve really predicted how much of an effect it really would have.

Did you go to the Grammys when he was nominated? 

[Laughs.] Oh man, yeah. I was there. It was in L.A. I mean, we weren’t really expecting – I wasn’t really expecting — that it was gonna win. I’m just kinda lounging up in Tony’s dressing room at the Grammys, backstage. And then they say, “Tony Bennett!” And I was like, “Whoa!” I mean, it was mind-boggling.

But I’m so happy that Tony won. Because that was historic, really. It really created a whole ‘nother energy for Tony himself. And he just rode the wave, but he didn’t have to change anything. He didn’t do anything differently, other to be himself, which was great.  

Did you stay in touch with Tony over the years, after you stopped touring and recording with him?

Oh yeah. We talked — usually when the U.S. Open was on, or Wimbledon, I would get a call, or I would call him. “Did you see Federer?” “Did you see Agassi?” That sort of thing. So we absolutely stayed in contact. 

There have been some pretty amazing remembrances of Tony since his passing – just what an incredible life he lived, and what a great person he was. But is there anything about Tony that you think gets underappreciated, either as a performer or a man?

There’s a couple things. We did a session one time for 2001’s Playin’ With My Friends – it was the blues record – and we were waiting for Stevie Wonder to come in to do a duet. I think it was “Everyday (I Have the Blues).” And so Stevie comes in, and immediately says, “You know, Tony, I want to thank you for marching in the Civil Rights Movement.” And I think that’s one of the big things — Tony was a humanist, he was a pacifist, in terms of war. Because he was a veteran as well. 

And the last thing I want to say is, I remember being at South by Southwest, and he was giving a little talk. And he was in tears, just telling the kids on how to hone your craft, and how to be true to yourself. And so he was very, very interested in the welfare of other people, and the welfare of young people.