Editor’s Letter

In the middle of putting this issue together I got an unexpected and amazing gift — a trove of old Drummers from an estate. The moment couldn’t be more serendipitous. A mainstay of the DRUMMER experience was its physicality, getting and holding a copy in your hands as you dove in. It’s why we still print them today and always will––guys want something they can feel. With this issue we wanted to get into the DRUMMER legacy and here it was. In my hands – metaphorically and literally. There couldn’t have been a clearer sign from the universe.

Since 2019 we’ve been intentional in bringing back the feeling of the golden years, but without getting caught in the past –– respect and continue the legacy, without repeating history. In celebration of our 50th birthday though, there’s no better time to really get into it––see where it’s led us. We wanted to honor our writers. Honor our photographers. Honor our illustrators. Honor our men. All, key components to making every issue quintessentially DRUMMER. So we asked writers who were of the era of our dawn to wax nostalgic about what it was like to witness. (“THE BEAT OF THE DRUM”). We asked photographers from outside the US to share their city’s scenes (“DRUMMER WORLD”). We picked our 10 favorite covers and in honor of issue #1, asked new artists and illustrators from all over the globe—some hand-picked from our erotic gallery where users self-submit work—to recreate them in their vision. And bringing it back around to two of the most defining elements of every Drummer, the covers and the men who graced them, we revisit the “THE CLASSICS”— 4 legends who landed on the most coveted page of every issue. They share what that moment was like, where it’s led to today, and what it means to be forever part of the DRUMMER legacy.

This issue is simple. 
This issue is special.
This issue is deeply personal.

I viscerally understand the weight of historical milestones, and the importance of upholding a legacy. No editor before me at this publication (or any contemporary men’s magazine for that matter) looked like I do. Interestingly enough, there are strong parallels. We’re the same age. We’re rooted in the same era of leather. We’re both undyingly loyal to the scene. We’re equally wolfish about creating and maintaining a space for that scene — especially in the face of groupthink and conformity. We want it all, for all men who want it. I’m at the same time honored and easy in shepherding DRUMMER. Leathermen have looked out for their own since the start, and nothing means more to a wolf than its pack. As both, I think I’ve got it covered.

I have a deep well of gratitude to all of the men who made this issue possible. Especially to those who donated their time and their art to this special moment in our story. None of this though––none of it––would be possible without the men who first heard and have been following the drumbeat since 1975, all the way through today. The Leather Fraternity has now expanded across the globe to fetishes and scenes of all kinds. But what still remains is that brotherhood: different gear, same mind. Always DRUMMER.

PHOTO: STEVEN HARWICK