Aaron Gillespie

Aaron Roderick Gillespie, born in Clearwater, Florida on July 18, 1983 (age 38), is a musician, drummer, guitarist, and vocalist of The Almost. His previous (and most well known) work was with Underoath, and he was formerly the touring drummer for Paramore until the previous drummer Zac Farro returned in 2017.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Gillespie was born on July 18, 1983 at Florida. Early on from when he was born, Gillespie was close to being blind on his left eye. He grew up in a Christian family and first played drums at his local church, which he regularly attended with his family. When he was 14, he had gotten used to playing drums and began playing for his church. Many people at the church had criticized that his drum playing was disruptive and very loud. Very little had said he will go on to be someone great, and he had followed the positive advice during his teenage years. During his educational life, he attended only private schools. At the time he also vacuumed for his church, earning only $60.00 a week. At the age of 14, he was invited to play the drums for the band Underoath. By the time he was 18, Gillespie's parents had divorced.

Current Life[]

After many years of Underoath, he had won an award for Best Drummer, along with another award by one of his band mates. He had left the band in 2010... during the middle of his touring. He had worked on a solo album for the rest of 2010, though it received fair charting, though had very little reviews. He also ran a clothing brand with his wife, though as of 2012, only his wife works on it. He had done vocals for the song "All About Us" by the band He is We, which released a few months before the split with Underoath.

Bands and Projects[]

Underoath[]

At the age of 14, Gillespie was called by Underoath to join as a drummer for the band, which had lasted until 2010. During the 3 albums he worked on, he wrote lyrics for the third album. Some lyrics were based on his personal life, such as almost getting married at the wrong time with the wrong person. He had stated, "I think I would've died if we didn't write those songs. I thought I had ruined someone's life. It's hard to explain, but you can't just pretend that things are great and go on and get married." There was not any argument when he had left the band in 2010 since he had to move on. He had made a compromise with the other members of the band and wrote a personal post on his blog about his emotions with leaving the band he was in since a teenager. After leaving he band, The Oath released one more studio album before everyone had separated, which had lyrical conflicts with their own feelings of having a band change after many years. The album, being their seventh and final, did not do as well as their past albums. During the history of the band, they had never received a platinum award.

During 2007, on a tour with Underoath, Gillespie had received emergency care after getting an infected thumb. He was replaced while his thumb was healing. Asked about what exactly happened, he said, "here is the story of my thumb. It’s a bit of a drama, I guess — one of those things where, in the end, hope and good prevail. I hope you like it. Last year, Underoath went on a headlining tour. I can’t tell you how stoked we were. It was long over due since it was the first time we had headlined off of our current record. Things were going incredible until about nine days into the trip when I got one of those routine drummer blisters and super glued it shut. I woke the next morning to find that I could barely pull on my pants, my thumb hurt so bad. It was pulsing and had a dark purple-ish hue. This kind of thing has happened before (not to sound tough or anything, but its true) so I just taped it up and played the show that night. I was in extreme pain for the whole show, and afterward, I started to wonder why this hurt so badly. I mean, my thumb had never been hurt before to the point where it messed up my playing. I went to see the crowd paramedic, you know the little station beside the stage. She told me that it needed to be lanced (cut open and drained) and that she could do it, no problem. So she lanced it and I wrapped up my thumb, ate an In and Out burger, and went to sleep. While we were driving to Vegas I woke up and my thumb was even more swollen than before. Also, there were red lines crawling up my arm [a sign of blood poisoning - ed]. Immediately, I went to the emergency room, got a shot, an IV, and some minor surgery. It was weird and I was a baby about it. After it was over, I had to go home for a few days, but I made it back just in time to record our live CD/DVD Survive Kaleidoscope."

The Almost[]

Gillespie was the lead vocalist of the band "The Almost" during early 2010. This was a few months before the summer of him leaving The Oath. The band had peaked at number 7 on the Billboard US Modern Rock charts. After The Oath, Gillespie continued to help out this band... and as of 2014 still is apart of it. They released fewer albums than Underoath, but had higher charting and is still currently a band. Gillespie helped out with the lyrics of their 2013 album entitled Fear Inside Our Bones, which discussed many things he thought of his life and how he had felt about moving on from Underoath.

Solo Album[]

Gillespie had worked on his self-worked album in the summer and the rest of 2010. The album (named Anthem Song) was released on some territory and peaked at Billboard charts. He was very proud of working on an album after a split with a long-communicated-with band. He had stated, "I saw people worshiping God because He exists, because that's what we were created to do. I believe everybody worships something, whether it be your job or your family or a relationship or whatever. We were all made to worship just one, and that's Jesus. And it really, really messed me up, seeing these African people who have nothing worshiping God, just because He exists. It gave me the fuel to go and do this record and also convicted me to leave Underoath and to pursue this ministry area in my life."

Paramore[]

After Paramore's usual tour drummer had gotten into a serious golf cart accident, the band hired Gillespie to fill in for him. He later on (as of August 28, 2013) became an official tour member. Paramore had not had a new tour member since 2011. All of this was during the self-titled tour... and Paramore continued to play in Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. Gillespie had accompanied Paramore (as an official tour member) on the Monumentour in 2014, as well as a performance on Late Night With Seth Meyers when they played Ain't It Fun.

He is no longer the touring drummer for Paramore as of 2016 with former member Zac Farro returning full time.

Awards[]

Title	Award	Nominated Work	Result
HM Magazine Readers' Poll (2008)	Favorite Drummer	Aaron Gillespie	Won

Trivia[]

He has a Twitter account, @aaronrgillespie
- To add on to that, he had an Instagram account @aaronrgillespie
- He has a Facebook account, @aarongillespie
He has his own website, which can be found here.
He is married to Allie Gillespie.
He and his wife are expecting a baby girl.