West Music Staff Blogs

Never!

Most 91-year-olds are quietly spending their time at a peaceful retirement home. Not Californian Jerrie Thill, who spends her days beating the drums and recording new offbeat tracks while lugging around an oxygen tank. Jerrie Thill is a spunky percussionist from the Jazz Age who still performs regularly.

Born in Dubuque, Iowa in 1917, Jerrie has been part of the commercial music business since age 18. She began as a drummer-singer in the Chicago area as the leader of an all-girl vaudeville swing band. She then spent several years singing and drumming for a series of jazz ensembles. And then, in the early '70s, she joined the Dixie Belles, with whom she played for 20 years. She and the Belles appeared on Married With Children and The Golden Girls.

Since 1984, vocalist-drummer Jerrie Thill has performed each Sunday afternoon at the El Cid Restaur" and that you can let it rock at any age!

"You have to stay in life's stream," Jerrie told the Studio City Sun in a 2005 interview. "Because the minute you sit down, you've had it." You can VISIT JERRIE'S WEBSITE HERE.