01/09/17 Aaron “A-Train” Smith, Drummer with The Temptations

Aaron “The A-Train” Smith is a Nashville-based drummer and percussionist.
At the age of 20, Aaron Smith played drums on The Temptations’ megahit “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” (which was a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100and won three Grammy Awards in 1973), and recorded with Ray Charles as well. In the fall of 1974, Smith toured with Czechoslovakian bassist Miroslav Vitouš in support of Miroslav’s Warner Bros. release Magical Shepherd. After this tour, he moved to Boston, where he studied for two years under jazz drummer Alan Dawson. From Boston, he moved to San Francisco where he was a co-founder of the power funk trio Peter Bilt. Later on he joined Romeo Void. From 1984, Smith played with the Sacramento-based rock band The 77s. After recording Drowning With Land In Sight in 1994, Smith left The 77s to join Rich Mullins’s A Ragamuffin Band.
Smith has recorded, performed and toured with dozens of other artists over the years, including Jimmy Abegg, Michael W. Smith, Margaret Becker, Vector, dc Talk, Rick Elias, Mitch McVicker, Riki Michele, Cindy Morgan, Sixpence None the Richer, Engelbert Humperdinck, Charlie Peacock, Romeo Void, and Steve Scott.
An autographed pair of Smith’s drumsticks can be found in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, next to a pair of sticks used by Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. This collection, which is owned by Peter Lavinger, is now in the “Drumstick Hall of Fame”, New York City.