Slim Jim Phantom

As the drummer for the Stray Cats, Slim Jim Phantom played a key role in exposing rockabilly to an entire generation, then sustained an extended run of activity across multiple rockabilly and roots-rock ensembles once the band dissolved. His singular performance approach also attracted notice, since he routinely stood while playing and relied on a compact kit typically reduced to a snare drum, kick drum, and lone cymbal. Born James McDonnell in Brooklyn, New York, on March 21, 1961, he spent his formative years in Massapequa, New York, where his earliest musical exposures came from his father’s holdings of classic jazz 78s; at age ten he took up the drums. During his late teens he performed in local groups alongside school friend Leon Drucker, who handled bass and later adopted the stage name Lee Rocker. Another Massapequa classmate, guitarist Brian Setzer, had already been performing rockabilly material with a band called the Tom Cats; after that outfit disbanded, Setzer enlisted Phantom and Rocker to launch the Stray Cats, who made their first appearance in 1979. Finding scant local enthusiasm for the style in Massapequa, the trio moved to England in 1980, where rockabilly still retained a devoted audience. After an uneven beginning on British soil, they gained crucial backing from musician-producer Dave Edmunds, who secured them a contract with Arista’s U.K. division. Their self-titled debut LP, produced by Edmunds and issued in 1981, achieved modest sales across England and Europe. A follow-up album, Gonna Ball, surfaced later that year yet failed to match its predecessor commercially. In 1982 the group obtained a U.S. deal with EMI and quickly issued Built for Speed, an anthology drawn from the two earlier British releases; the collection achieved multi-platinum status stateside and yielded two Top 10 singles. Its successor, 1983’s Rant N Rave with the Stray Cats, also registered strongly worldwide, yet mounting personal and creative tensions led to the band’s breakup by the close of 1984.

Phantom immediately formed a new alliance, joining Lee Rocker and guitarist Earl Slick in the harder-rocking Phantom, Rocker & Slick. The unit released two albums—Phantom, Rocker & Slick in 1985 and Cover Girl in 1986—before dissolving at the end of that year when Phantom and Rocker rejoined Setzer to record the Stray Cats’ Rock Therapy. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s the Stray Cats reassembled intermittently for further recordings, though after the all-covers set Original Cool in 1993 they again parted ways. In 1988 Phantom made a brief acting appearance as Charlie Parker’s drummer in Clint Eastwood’s jazz biopic Bird, his sole substantial screen role, though he and Rocker later contributed to the soundtrack of the 1997 film Inventing the Abbotts. As the decade progressed he immersed himself in numerous additional projects. Together with Rocker and guitarist Danny B. Harvey he established the Swing Cats, whose retro-rock carried a pronounced swing flavor; the group issued four albums between 1999 and 2001. Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, an avowed rockabilly enthusiast, guested on the second Swing Cats release, the 2000 tribute A Special Tribute to Elvis. An impromptu studio jam prompted Kilmister to join Phantom and Harvey for an album of rockabilly standards; first issued in 2000 as Lemmy, Slim Jim & Danny B., the trio subsequently performed and recorded as the Head Cat. The debut was reissued in 2006 under the title Fool’s Paradise, and a second album, Walk the Walk…Talk the Talk, followed in 2011.

Phantom and Harvey also collaborated in the rockabilly supergroup 13 Cats, which included alumni of the Polecats and the Rockats and released material between 1996 and 2006. Two live tracks they cut with Johnny Ramone appeared on the 2007 EP Ramones Solo Performances. In 2007 Phantom launched another outfit, the Katmen, featuring Imelda May guitarist Darrel Higham and bassist Al Gare; former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke participated as well, and the band delivered two albums—Katmen in 2006 and The Katmen Cometh in 2013. Phantom and Clarke had earlier worked together in the short-lived Col. Parker, which issued the 2001 album Rock N Roll Music. Phantom continues to record and tour with the supergroup Dead Men Walking, whose members include the Damned’s Captain Sensible and the Alarm’s Mike Peters; their debut, Additional Parts Inside, appeared in 1999, and the ensemble reconvened for 2015’s Easy Piracy. In 2016 he published the autobiography A Stray Cat Struts: My Life as a Rockabilly Rebel. Whenever his schedule permits, Phantom performs with his own Slim Jim’s Phantom Trio.