In a city renowned over the decades for its powerhouse drummers, second-generation Memphis mainstay Rodd Bland has emerged as one of its top blues and R&B timekeepers, racking up prestigious awards from the Blues Foundation and Living Blues magazine as leader of his Members Only Band and laying down skin-tight beats for so many blues and R&B bands that it’s hard to keep track of them all.

Of course, when you’re the son of legendary singer Bobby “Blue” Bland, music comes naturally—it’s in your blood from the outset. Instead of precisely following in his dad’s outsized footsteps and confidently stepping behind a microphone, Rodd was drawn to the drums. He was beating on his mom’s pots and pans at the precocious age of two-and-a-half, already mesmerized with hammering out beats. Bobby admirably didn’t steer his son into the business—it was Rodd’s decision all the way. “He didn’t push drums or push music on me,” says Rodd. “I just naturally gravitated towards it.” It didn’t take long at all for young Rodd to develop enough chops to join his dad onstage. “I started doing shows with him when I was five,” he says.  

As a teenager, Rodd gained invaluable road experience working with his father’s orchestra in a two-drummer stage setup, learning the subtleties of the craft from three of the best timekeepers in the business, all of them employed by Bobby at one time or another: John “Jab’o” Starks, Harold “Peanie” Portier, and Tony Coleman.

“The three wise men, as I call them,” says Rodd.

In 1996, Bobby’s regular drummer George Weaver was absent for a concert in Kansas City, forcing Rodd to “fly the plane” on his own—and he proved a competent pilot. Rodd picked up invaluable advice along the way from his godfather—the immortal B.B. King. All those nurturing mentors left him well-placed for extended success in the musical field. After his dad passed away in 2013, Rodd quickly established himself on the competitive Memphis circuit as a timekeeper to be reckoned with, playing with some of the Bluff City’s finest young bands-- Brimstone Jones, Will Tucker, Ashton Riker and the Memphis Royals, and the Blues Players Club among them.

Moviegoers grew cognizant of Rodd’s talent thanks to the 2014 music documentary Take Me to the River, which blended several generations of Southern soul, blues, and rap performers as they impressively located common musical ground. In addition to backing his father in live performance, Rodd displayed his versatility in the acclaimed film by performing with rapper Yo Gotti.

Particularly close to Rodd’s heart is his own Members Only Band, formed in 2017 with other former members of his father’s touring orchestra. “My full criteria for the musicians is that in some way, shape, or fashion, you had to have played with my dad,” explains Rodd. The band’s Live on Beale Street: Tribute to Bobby “Blue” Bland, laid down live in 2019 at B.B. King’s Blues Club on Beale Street, was released on the Nola Blue label and won a prestigious 2022 Blues Music Award for Best Emerging Artist Album. Rodd picked up another honor that year when Living Blues magazine named him Most Outstanding Musician (Drums).

You’re liable to witness Rodd stoking a red-hot groove with any number of bands up and down Beale Street. He was born into the blues, the time-honored idiom remaining central to his explosive rhythmic concept. Yet Rodd’s more than willing to take musical chances, primed to advance the blues and its soulful offshoots into fresh, bracing directions aimed directly at new generations of music fans.

With Rodd Bland’s regal bloodlines, being an innovator comes naturally.

Image of Rodd onstage with Jimmie Vaughan NYC 2025 during Antone’s 50th Anniversary  

Image Credit: Mike Fackler