Ricky Free started playing drums at the age of three, his parents bought him his first drumset for Christmas. His father Brian Free is the owner and tenor singer for the multi Dove Award winning Gospel group Brian Free & Assurance. Ricky was constantly around music from the day he was born. Ricky pretty much taught himself how to play drums from old Toto records. Ricky was exposed to so many genres of music, it made him into the drummer he is today. His biggest influences are Steve Brewster, Matt Chamberlain, Jeff Procaro and Stewart Copeland.
At age fifteen, Ricky's father took him on the road to play with Brian Free & Assurance full time. So while Ricky played 200 shows a year he was being home schooled. The more live shows he played the tighter he became as a musician and more opportunites for session/studio work started to spring up. So as soon as Ricky was old enough to drive he began communting from Atlanta, Georgia (where he lived at the time) to Nashville, Tennessee. Ricky became deeply passionate for becoming a studio musician. After ten years playing for his father decided to concentrate on playing sessions, writing and producing full time.
Since then he has toured with country artists LeAnn Rimes and Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Canaan Smith, Eric Paslay, Kelleigh Bannen, Easton Hamlin, Weston Burt, Attwater, High Valley, pop artist Mike Viola (the music co-writer voice behind the movie That Thing You do!, and many more. Ricky has recorded on three Grammy nominated records, and many GMA Dove Award winning records for various artists including Avalon, Paige Armstrong, Kelly Jones, Brian Free & Assurance, The Booth Brothers, The Lewis Family, Jessy Dixon, Ernie Hasse & Signaure Sound, The Perry's, Lewis, Scruggs and Long, and custom/indie records. Ricky has performed on the GMA Dove Awards and many other television networks over the years. Ricky is currently touring with the top selling Christian Artist Matthew West.
"I am so proud to be able to be just a small part of the Innovative Percussion family. These drumsticks are THE BEST on the market today, PERIOD! I look forward to spreading the word to everywhere I go!"