THE SPORT COUNT

Luke (right) in rockier days.

The interest of serious music fans and basketball heads was piqued by a quick mention of Luke Ridnour in our recent ‘did you know?’ feature. Specifically, that the current Milwaukee Bucks point guard was the original drummer for the smash hit gothrock group 30 Seconds To Mars. Many wanted the full story.

So we caught up with Luke in his hometown of Blaine, in Washington, where he was getting ready to carve up a really big turkey for Thanksgiving.

The Count: 30 Seconds To Mars are a really popular band. Why haven’t we heard of your tenure with the group before?

Luke Ridnour: I joined when it was still pretty small, just Jared [Leto] and his brother, Shannon. I’d met Jared when I was this kind of coffee-fetching kid on The Thin Red Line — my parents were good friends with Terrence Malick. Jared saw me kind of hitting the coffee tins, pounding away with the spoons, and was, like, ‘dude, do you play?’ I said ‘yeah.’ Even though I didn’t [laughs].

You hit it off.

Yeah, like, he was older than me, but we hung out on set, and he’d play guitar or whatever. One day he told me about this whole, like, German rock band thing he had going. I remember John Cusack laughing when he heard about it, and I was, like, John Cusack is an asshole.

How’d you join 30 Seconds?

He invited me to join straight after the movie. It was just electric being in that band, dude. Like, Jared Leto, the dude from How To Make An American Quilt, and here he was just belting out these huge tracks. Hollywood had no idea what he could do.

He would write these huge melodies, and I would be rapping the beats over the top, y’know, drumming in the air, and the guys — Shannon, and Matt [Wachter, keyboardist] — would be like ‘woah, don’t stop him, man, he’s like feeling this, he’s doing this.’ And I would be in the zone, just slamming my arms in the air, just playing the drums.

Jared seems to have been the creative force.

Yeah, I guess. But sometimes I’d come with these killer beats, and, y’know, say them to Jared, like ‘hey, what about this? Bomm-da-da-da-da-doom-dom-bom-dom,’ y’know, and like be pretending to drum, and Jared was always like ‘that is so killer man, I love that.’

Luke practices the drums, circa 2001.

You were young at the time, 19 or so. How did you find time for drumming and basketball?

Man, it was easy. I was killing it at [the University of] Oregon. Jared was supporting me. He’d even try to get me into acting, like, ‘yo, you can act, Luke, man, you can.’ And I would have to say ‘hey, y’know, Jared, playing the drums and playing basketball is enough for any guy’. Y’know? [Sigh]. He loved my Chris Rock impressions.

The band hadn’t taken off, so the idea of acting must have been at least a little appealing.

Yeah, a little. I mean, I met Clare Danes — I did. She was cool, y’know, it was just great to be around Jared’s friends and get an insight into that world. Sometimes I’d just be like ‘man, this is crazy. Claire Danes.’

When did you realise you’d have to choose between basketball and 30 Seconds To Mars?

Man, when Seattle drafted me… given it’s the home of grunge, I was psyched. I was, like, yeah, this is coming together. But one day Jared and the guys drove up to rehearse with me, but [then Seattle coach] Nate [McMillan] was all ‘you need to work on your shooting with Kevin [Ollie].’ It was kind of, hey, you’re not my dad. But Jared was, like, ‘dude, he kind of is your dad. You have to choose.’

And you chose basketball?

It wasn’t easy. I talked to Luke Jackson a lot. He was heaps into all that German rock stuff, so I figured if anyone would know what to do, it’d be L-Jack.

Any regrets?

Nah. When I see the guys at the MTV Video Music Awards or whatever, I’m just so happy. I’m in a great place right now, and I have nothing but love for Jared and the guys and seeing them doing what they do makes me smile.

Do you still drum?

Oh, man. Basketball is all rhythm. I drum every time I’m on the court. Just boom boom boom up and down, passing and shit. I mean, that’s music.

Posted By: Anton, Alex & James