Sam McCandless was born in sunny Jacksonville, Florida January 18th 1971 only to become a bad ass drummer to rock this world.His skills are simply amazing fans say playing his Star Classic Tama drum kits. Sam's first band he had been in were Diablo and Grundig, which included Cold's front man Scooter, Bassist Jeremy Marshall and local Jacksonville guitar player Sean Lay. Only later on would Sam join one of the worlds biggest hard rock bands, Cold.
A hard rock band based on emotion and everything they wanted the band to be. Which included hardcore rocker Scooter Ward, the shredding Kelly Hayes and the thundering bassist Jeremy Marshall.His powerful,yet intricate, and tribal drumming, which permeates Cold albums a great deal, on albums such as 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage and Year of the Spider.
The band had thousands of dedicated fans that would listen to every word they had to say. The band was very much in tune with their fans also listening to everything, which song writer/vocalist Scooter Ward based most of his writing on.
Cold's last album A Different Kind of Pain showed just how far Sam could push his drumming skills.The guitars lay down a bed of distorted open chords, blending with a strong wicked drum beats from Sam, creating this wave of sound upon which for Scooter to sing.
But in Cold's journey had come to an end in 2006 when on their myspace they announced they would be disbanding after 20 years of rocking. But they will always be remembered, the sad song will always live on. Sam is currently working on his new band Carny with his wife and Paul Leary from the american rock band the Butthole Surfers, they have some songs out there and are working on more stuff for the future.
