Aynsley Dunbar : 1. Career.

Aynsley Dunbar

1. Career.

He was almost the drummer for The Jimi Hendrix Experience when in an audition Hendrix was unable to decide to pick either Dunbar or Mitch Mitchell - the latter won Hendrix's coin flip.

Dunbar led the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation which issued a number of albums. Dunbar co-wrote "Warning," recorded by Black Sabbath on their first album. The Dunbar version was recorded in 1967^[where?].

Subsequently, Dunbar founded a short-lived progressive rock band called Blue Whale, which debuted with a tour of Scandinavia in January 1970. Following the recent collapse of the original lineup of King Crimson, Dunbar unsuccessfully tried to recruit Robert Fripp as Blue Whale's guitarist. Fripp, in turn, unsuccessfully tried to recruit Dunbar as King Crimson's new drummer.

Dunbar was later the drummer for Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, featuring on albums such as Waka/Jawaka, and The Grand Wazoo, as well as the film 200 Motels. In 1974 he played on the soundtrack for "Dirty Duck", a Chuck Swenson adult animated movie. In the mid 1970s, Dunbar joined Journey for their first four albums; he left and joined Jefferson Starship for three albums. In 1985, Dunbar joined Whitesnake, and drummed on their 1987 album, Whitesnake. He also spent some time working with Eric Burdon and The Animals.

More recently, in 2005, he drummed on Jake E. Lee's solo Retraced album.

Currently, Dunbar is recording a new album of material for Direct Music with Mickey Thomas of Starship, and musicians such as Jake E. Lee, former guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne.