Ian Paice--not enough said.....
I started playing guitar when my sister brought home a little 45 of deep purple playing 'Hard Road' from the late 60's. I heard it and went, wow, what the heck? i want to play guitar. Since I started learning drums I went and listened to some old DP stuff and went, WOW, what the heck? I want to play drums.....
Ian Paice is absolutely incredible. And after starting to learn 'Bloodsucker' from Deep Purple in Rock, I realize now why everyone says to practice rudiments because to keep that groove I can see that Paice is a very technical rudimentary drummer.
I saw the thread comparing Bonham and Paice, and they are like the alternate universe mirror of each other--Paice the very technical, linear, rudimentary drummer, Bonham the very improvisational, non-linear, esoteric type drummer, yet each could easily slide into the others style, I think, with ease.
I think paice would have been one of the few drummers who could have filled Bonhams shoes in Zepplin, and Bonham one of few that could have filled the role in DP. Both so alike yet so different. ...so that is my rant about Ian Paice, who I consider one-half (Bonham being the other half) of the drummer that defined hard rock.