“I’ll Never Be as Great as I Want to Be but I’ll Spend the Rest of My Life Trying to be as Great as I Can Be” ~ Kenny Aronoff

Berkshire County has produced some extremely talented and very successful celebrities over the years. One of those folks is drummer extraordinaire  Kenny Aronoff. If you don't know, Kenny was the drummer for John Mellencamp for 17 years. The drummer has upwards of 300 million records sold featuring his work and over 1,300 certified Gold, Platinum, or Diamond awards by the RIAA. Kenny has been the go-to drummer for studio recordings and live concert tours in the music industry for decades. He's currently playing with Sammy Hagar in the Best of All Worlds band.

I met Kenny a little more than 10 years ago at the Mahawie Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington when he came home to host an awesome performance and drum clinic. I had interviewed him over the phone years prior, but this was the first time I met him in person.

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One thing I noticed and admire about Kenny is that, despite his success, he remains very humble. It's like you're talking to an everyday guy. Kenny's humbleness is echoed in the spring 2026 issue of Berkshire Magazine. The magazine features a whole piece on Kenny Aronoff. Editor-In-Chief of the Magazine, Anastasia Stanmeyer, interviewed Kenny, and one of the questions she asked him was: What Keeps You Grounded? Kenny responded with the following:

I've got a line that goes like this: I'll never be as great as I want to be, but I'll spend the rest of my life trying to be as great as I can be. I'm humbled by what I'm not able to do, and I'm eager to always achieve the things I can't do right now. When "Jack and Diane" went to number one and I was in the same room I got fired from two years before, I celebrated for two seconds, and I went, I'm not as good as it sounds. I need to do it again. What grounds me is that I'm reminded that I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to be as great as I can be.

The spring edition of Berkshire Magazine, with the full Kenny Aronoff interview, is out now. Get more details by going here.