Craig Krampf remembered as a quietly influential Nashville session drummer

Craig Krampf spent a career doing the work that keeps pop records alive after the spotlight moves on. He died on April 16, 2026, at age 80, and the scale of his footprint is easiest to hear in the songs that never needed his name on the cover: Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” and “Crazy in the Night,” Steve Perry’s “Oh Sherrie,” Nick Gilder’s “Hot Child in the City,” The Motels’ “Only the Lonely,” and Melissa Etheridge’s “Bring Me Some Water.”

That kind of résumé made Krampf a Nashville essential. His credits in Music City stretched across Tanya Tucker, Patty Loveless, Alabama, Dan Seals, The Remingtons, Townes Van Zandt, Radney Foster, Pam Tillis, Ty Herndon, LeAnn Rimes, Jack Ingram, The Randy Rogers Band, The Kinleys, Billy Burnette, and Burrito Deluxe. He also played on Dolly Parton’s 1987 Rainbow album, and he was a mainstay on Alabama sessions, appearing on Southern Star, Pass It On Down, American Pride, Cheap Seats, and In Pictures.

Krampf’s reach began long before Nashville. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and raised in a music-filled home where his father, a railroad engineer, brought home records almost every paycheck. He got his first drum set at age 8, a $40 Sears kit, and played his first gig at 9, a communion party of polkas and waltzes. Later, after moving to California in the 1960s, he found an early breakthrough when The Robbs won a battle-of-the-bands contest that led to an appearance in front of Dick Clark at the Teen Worlds Fair in Chicago. The Robbs were signed to Mercury Records and later served as the house band on Dick Clark’s 1965-67 ABC-TV series Where the Action Is.

The West Coast years opened the door to a run that put Krampf in rooms with Joan Armatrading, Flo & Eddie, Art Garfunkel, Santana, Warren Zevon, Alice Cooper, Cher, Lita Ford, and Paul Stanley. He later migrated to Nashville and became both a session drummer and a producer, working on Ashley Cleveland’s Big Town in 1991, Bus Named Desire in 1993, and Disappear Fear’s 1994 album. He also co-produced Melissa Etheridge’s self-titled debut, the record that carried “Bring Me Some Water.”

Krampf’s biggest songwriting hit was “Oh Sherrie,” which reached No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart in 1984. He also co-wrote Perry’s “Strung Out,” which reached No. 40, and “I’ll Be Here Where the Heart Is” from the Flashdance soundtrack album. He and Perry were also members of the short-lived group Alien Project.

Beyond the credits, Krampf was a union leader and a believer in the discipline of the craft. He served as Secretary-Treasurer of Nashville Local 257 of the American Federation of Musicians, and a 2009 U.S. Department of Labor audit identified him in that role. In the Nashville Musicians Association profile, Krampf said musicians should give 100 percent every moment on stage or in the studio, a simple credo that fits a player who helped shape so many records from behind the kit.