Born April 30, 1936, American drummer, producer and studio musician Bobby Gregg, best is known for his work as a drummer on several seminal 1960s songs, including Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" and Simon and Garfunkel's electric reworking of "The Sound of Silence". He was also temporarily a member of The Hawks following Levon Helm's temporary departure until Sandy Konikoff filled in until Mickey Jones could join from Johnny Rivers' band (he had been in Trini Lopez's band earlier) to complete the dates on the 65-66 tour.
In January 1965, Gregg got to work with Dylan as the drummer on the songs on the electric side of the album Bringing It All Back Home. Gregg recorded the album takes of "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "She Belongs to Me", "Love Minus Zero/No Limit", "Outlaw Blues" and "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" on January 14, 1965 and recorded the album takes of "Maggie's Farm" and "On the Road Again" on January 15, 1965.
On June 15, 1965, when Dylan was ready to record "Like a Rolling Stone", several of the musician from the Bringing It All Back Home sessions including Gregg were called on to back him. Thus, it is Gregg's pistol-like snare drum shot that opens the song, as well as the album Highway 61 Revisited. Gregg was the drummer for the July 29 and 30 sessions that produced "Tombstone Blues", "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" and "From a Buick 6". He was also the drummer for the July 29 recording of "Positively 4th Street", which was left off the Highway 61 Revisited album. Gregg was also the likely drummer for "Queen Jane Approximately" and "Ballad of a Thin Man", meaning that Gregg played on all the songs on the album except "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Desolation Row" (on which there is no drum part), and Gregg is the only drummer credited on the album.
Gregg also played on several tracks on Dylan's follow up album Blonde On Blonde. He also recorded with Peter, Paul and Mary.
In 1965 producer Tom Wilson, who had produced Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home and "Like a Rolling Stone", decided to experiment with electrifying the Simon & Garfunkel song "The Sound of Silence". An acoustic version of "The Sound of Silence" had been released on the Simon & Garfunkel album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. Wilson employed a band to record an electric backing track for the song, without Paul Simon's or Art Garfunkel's knowledge. Bobby Gregg was once again the drummer Wilson employed in the band creating this backing track. The version of "The Sound of Silence" incorporating the electric band backing track became a #1 hit and was released on the Simon & Garfunkel album Sounds of Silence.
Gregg died on May 3, 2014 at the age of 78
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