John Ollis

Slingerland History - The John Ollis Chapter

When DW acquired the Slingerland drum company, all they really got was legal documentation of ownership of the name. What happened to all of the business records, manufacturing equipment, parts, and finished goods? The answer is long and complicated. Each time that Slingerland changed hands, there was less of all that. When Fred Gretsch sold Slingerland to Gibson, he retained a substantial inventory of finished goods, parts, and old manufacturing equipment that he gradually liquidated. (The shell-making molds and related parts were sold in two industrial auctions.) Gibson disposed of some fourteen filing cabinets of Slingerland documents and the old manufacturing equipment when they closed the Nashville Slingerland operation. Everything else was packed into semi trailers. After several dormant years, Slingerland manufacturing and distribution was established in Conway, Arkansas, in an old vacant Baldwin building owned by Gibson. Gibson closed the Conway Slingerland operation in 2007. When Gibson went through bankruptcy in 2018, Slingerland assets were determined to consist of: the Slingerland name, and everything else. The Slingerland name ended up being sold to DW, and the “everything else” was sold to John Ollis and his partner Jeff Brown. This interview with John Ollis was conducted in April 2025.

John Ollis: I am 58. I've been a musician all my life. I grew up in the town where I still live; Jonesboro, Arkansas. From early on, I've had a fascination with Slingerland. I began building drums in the mid 1990s, from Keller shells and Hayman lugs and all the goodies from Andy Foote at Drum Supply House.

Rob Cook: How'd you find out about, like, bearing edges and stuff like that? Did somebody kind of tutor you and help you along?

JO: Yes, actually, my best friend, Mike Jones. He basically tutored me on bearing edges. But the bearing edge that I use today is unlike anybody's. That's my own, and I, honestly, have never seen anybody use a bearing edge like mine. I start with a bearing edge cut from the outside all the way to the inside, at a 45 degree angle. (The outer edge of the shell is trimmed down.) After making that 45-degree cut, I make another 45 degree cut on the very inside of the shell. That way, when you lay the head down on top of the drum, it literally just kind of floats.

RC: How did you find out about the whole Slingerland mess? I presume it had something to do with the proximity of Conway to Jonesboro. Did you know that they were doing things over there in Conway?

JO: Yes. They shut down the Conway plant in 2007. I believe the last set that they built there was for Carmine Appice. Everything that was in the Conway plant went into three semi trailers, and ended up 15 minutes from my house, down in Truman, Arkansas. It had all been palletized for the trip from Conway, and was stored in an old Baldwin warehouse. All of the finished drums, all of the raw materials, shells, hoops, badges, you name it. I learned about the goods being 15 minutes from my house and that Gibson guitars was having a bankruptcy auction. I knew that I was somehow going to make this happen but that I would need help, so I partnered with Jeff Brown. Jeff had the logistics to handle the goods we purchased; he had an 18-wheeler truck & trailer rig and forklifts. We were able to rent warehouse space. It wouldn't have been possible without him.

We sorted out the finished goods from the parts, and worked on selling it off to recoup our investment. There were about 150 complete kits (with hardware) of the Music Yo era Concert King drum outfits. (These were made in Taiwan or Korea) There was a whole pallet of Conway-built Radio King snare drums; about 80 drums in all. There was quite an assortment of Conway-finished drums. There were two of the Gene Krupa Legend Series outfits. I probably made the biggest single deal with Music Go Round in history by selling them a very large amount of product. We got our investment back and in the process moved all the finished-goods product out of the warehouse.

When I completed the liquidation of all of the finished goods, I had pretty much fulfilled my commitment to my business partner. There was still a lot of stuff, but it was the kind of stuff that a lot of people had looked at and saw no value in. To me, that was the heart and soul of everything that I was wanting to make happen. I mean, I had this vision, and when the partnership ended, I ended up with basically all of the raw materials. There were shells, hoops, lugs, tension rods, strainers, badges, wrap...

RC: Was there wrap? I was thinking they were only doing lacquered finishes at that point....

JO: Oh yeah, there was wrap. And it was the OG (original) stuff. I had probably 500 sheets of white marine pearl. I had Black Diamond Pearl. There were glass glitters, there was champagne sparkle with the real metal in it. I utilized that wrap, but also sold it.

RC: And the shells?

JO: There were a lot of the Keller shells, designed by Sam Bacco. They were five ply, 5.3 millimeter on the toms and eight ply on the snare drum and bass drum sizes. All maple plies and cross-laminated. Really nice shells. I had all sizes, from 6" to 26". I am now out of the 26" and 6". I sold the last of the 6" shells to Creative Percussion; they make a little six-inch snare drum.

Ironically, all the stuff that I ended up with that was solely mine, all the raw materials, was supposed to have been destroyed. The CEO of Gibson at that time, Henry Juszkiewicz, had ordered all of this stuff destroyed, no kidding.

RC: Any idea why he would have ordered it destroyed?

JO: That's just kind of what he did. When they were building Kramer guitars down there at the Conway Baldwin plant, I remember him ordering an entire palette destroyed. I witnessed this. An entire palette of Kramer bodies and Kramer guitar necks, you know, the ones that have the hockey end on it, like Eddie Van Halens; they were sent to an incinerator and burned. Just absolutely crazy.

So next I actually began building Slingerland drums. I became really good friends with Dendy Jarrett at Gibson, who was very helpful. I was actually building Slingerland drums, Conway badged. I gave most of them away to Slingerland artists. Bobby Rondinelli, John Sparrow from the Violent Fems. John Patterson- I built him an entire drum set, and I did all of this for free. I did it for free because I was promoting the name. I felt like I had the flag in my hand and I was carrying it, and I was so proud of that. And you know, it wasn’t for profit.

I finally got it to a point where I was able to terminate my warehouse occupancy and move what was left to my house. I've got all of the remaining shells here in my attic at home. I don’t know how many shells and hoops I’ve got.... And basically, you know, strainers, I’ve got everything,

RC: Is there a way to tell the Conway Slingerland drums that were made in Conway by Gibson from the drums that you made?

JO: Yes, the bearing edges are different.