Fact Check: Yes, Chevy Chase Did Play Drums in Band That Later Became Steely Dan
Claim:
Chevy Chase once played drums in a band that would later become Steely Dan.
Rating:
For years, a claim has circulated online that comedian Chevy Chase once played drums in a band that would eventually, after Chase's departure, become the popular rock group Steely Dan.
One 2017 Reddit post (archived) featuring the claim had received more than 35,000 upvotes and 1,500 comments as of this writing. Referring to Chase, one person responded: "He could have been famous."
TIL Chevy Chase played drums in college for a band called The Leather Canary, which he referred to as a "bad Jazz band". After leaving, two bandmembers and classmates went on to be successful as the band Steely Dan.
by u/DotaDogma in todayilearned
The claim also appeared in numerous posts on other social media platforms, including Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), and X (archived).
In the replies to one Aug. 31, 2024, X post (archived) making the claim, multiple X users asked whether it was really true that Chase played drums in a band with Steely Dan's founding members, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, years before any of the three became famous. One user wrote: "It's astounding if true. Is it?" Another wrote: "Is this really true??"
According to multiple public statements made by Chase and Fagen in interviews and books, the claim is true. Chase did play drums in a musical group consisting of him, Fagen, and Becker while the three were students at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
One example could be found in "I'm Chevy Chase... and You're Not," an authorized biography about the comedian that was published in 2007 and based on extensive interviews its author, Rena Fruchter, conducted with Chase. A section of that biography focusing on Chase's twenties read:
A short time later, he became a drummer with a rock 'n' roll group and his career started moving. For a while, he played with musicians Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who later formed the group Steely Dan. But Chevy didn't think he was good enough and left the band, advising them to find a better drummer.
Similarly, in his 2013 autobiography "Eminent Hipsters," Fagen, the Steely Dan co-founder, wrote (archived):
For the '67 Ward Manor Halloween party, we assembled a dance band that included our classmate Chevy Chase on drums. Chevy looked like a frat boy who'd wandered onto the wrong campus, but he was professional, talented and compulsively funny. He kept excellent time and, at least that night, didn't embarrass us by taking off his clothes or doing any of his Jerry Lewis bits.
The basics of this story were also confirmed in a 2006 Entertainment Weekly article about the origins of Steely Dan:
On Halloween 1967, a party is raging inside Ward Manor, an Elizabethan-style mansion-turned-dorm at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. On a small stage set up in the corner of the common room, a band called the Leather Canary tears through the Rolling Stones' "Dandelion," Moby Grape's "Hey Grandma," and Willie Dixon's "Spoonful," ... Behind the drums is Chevy Chase, familiar around campus as a gifted musician and good-natured goofball who's been known to drop his pants after losing late-night games of "dare" poker. Just in front of him is a long-haired muso named Walter Becker, one of the school's most accomplished guitarists. And the shy singer behind the electric piano? That's Don Fagen, decked out in a leather jacket with feathers attached to it (hence the band's name). Just a few years later, Chase will find fame as one of the greatest comedians of his generation. Fagen and Becker, meanwhile, will evolve into Steely Dan.
One detail related to the claim that could not be immediately confirmed was the name of the band when Chase played in it. According to the 2006 Entertainment Weekly article, which was based on interviews with Fagen, Becker, and Chase, the band was named the Leather Canary.
However, when Chase appeared on a 2023 episode of the podcast "WTF with Marc Maron," he said of the band (between 19:18 and 19:59): "We called ourselves The Very Bad Jazz Band. That was literally our name."
In his 2023 book about the history of Steely Dan, "Quantum Criminals," the entertainment journalist Alex Pappademas said the band was sometimes called the Leather Canary and sometimes the Bad Rock Band:
[Fagen and Becker] play together in a couple of student bands, with names like the Bad Rock Band and the Leather Canary, sometimes with a drummer named Chevy Chase, whom they'll later describe as having been one of the funniest drummers they worked with—but maybe not the funniest.
Snopes reached out to Chase for confirmation of the name — or names — of the band while he was a member and will update this story if he responds.
Regardless of the band's exact name, both Chase and Fagen have repeatedly stated on the record that Chase played drums in a band with Fagen and Becker while the three were students at Bard College. For this reason, we rated this claim as "True."
Sources:
College, Bard. Bard College History at Bard College. https://www.bard.edu/about/history/. Accessed 5 Sept. 2024.
"Episode 1473 - Chevy Chase." WTF with Marc Maron Podcast, 25 Sept. 2023, https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1473-chevy-chase.
Fagen, Donald. Eminent Hipsters. Penguin, 2014.
Fruchter, Rena. I'm Chevy Chase ... and You're Not. Random House, 2013.
Pappademas, Alex. Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. University of Texas Press, 2023.
"The Origins of Steely Dan." EW.Com, https://ew.com/article/2006/03/17/origins-steely-dan/. Accessed 5 Sept. 2024.
