Gigi Gonaway


Gregory "Gigi" Gonaway is an American drummer and percussionist, born in Phoenix, Arizona. His father, Eldridge Gonaway was an attorney and city developer and his Mother, Lois is a retired registered nurse. Gonaway has been making music since the 1970s and has played drums on recordings with artists such as Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Natalie Cole, and Steve Winwood
among others and toured extensively with Mariah Carey and Clarence Clemons.
He was a protégé of Narada Michael Walden's in the 1980's and 90's and worked at Tarpan recording studio with Walden on most of the major label acts he produced. Walden was an established music producer and drummer and took Gonaway under his wing as he said he reminded him of himself when he was a young drummer just starting out. Gonaway attributes much of his success to Walden.

Early Years

Gonaway began playing drums at ten years old. His parents relocated from Arizona to the San Francisco Bay Area in California where he attended a Catholic high school, Saint Mary's College High School where he learned to read, write, and arrange music under the guidance of Bob Barrett and played in the school's jazz band.
Gonaway's first band was called Sapphire and they played the nightclub scene in Oakland. Later he formed the jazz fusion band, Iz Kidz who performed regularly in the San Francisco Bay Area.
While performing in the jazz fusion band, Iz Kidz in Oakland, California, Gonaway was introduced to Narada Michael Walden who took an interest in his drumming skills and shortly afterwards Walden hired him at his recording studio. Walden would later open Tarpan studio in San Rafael, California. Part of Gonaway's job was running errands and providing transportation to recording artists to and from the recording studio. Before long Walden was teaching him how to create beats on the drum machine and letting him play drum tracks on albums with Aretha Franklin and George Benson.

Session Work and Touring

Walden mentored Gonaway in many areas of his musicianship including becoming a more diverse drummer developing programming skills and understanding the importance of production in the studio. Eventually, Gonaway was participating in Walden's recording projects for projects including recording artists Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Kenny G, George Michael and others.

Mariah Carey

In early 1990, Mariah Carey and producer Walter Afanasieff formed the original Mariah Carey band, which included Gonaway, Randy Jackson, Vernon Black, Ren Klyce, Dan Shea, Peter Michael Escovedo and engineer Dana John Chappelle. Gonaway's first televised performances with Carey were on The Arsenio Hall Show and later on her controversial appearance on Oprah on which she discussed her racial makeup. Gonaway toured with Carey from 1990-2005.

The Aaron Hendra Project

Gonaway began playing drums with singer-songwriter, Aaron Hendra in 2009 which would later be named The Aaron Hendra Project.
Hendra is married to reality TV actress, Tiffany Hendra of The Real Housewives of Dallas. Tiffany organized a charitable event on at The House of Blues in Dallas, Texas, where Gonaway performed with The Aaron Hendra Project, at the Light Up Tomorrow event to raise funds that were used to build state-of-the-art off grid solar farms in the various East African orphanages, schools and facilities. The project was built and managed by Sam Childers, the Machine Gun Preacher, through the Angels for East Africa organization. The live performance aired in Season 1, Episode 7 on The Real Housewives of Dallas.
Hendra and Gonaway also appeared in the romantic comedy film, Slightly Single in L.A. in 2013, performing live as The Aaron Hendra Project.

Film Appearances

Gonaway appeared in the Whitney Houston music video, I Get So Emotional playing percussion in 1987 and in Mariah Carey's MTV Unplugged live recording as Carey's drummer in 1992. Aaron Hendra and Gonaway appeared in the quirky romantic comedy, Slightly Single in L.A. in 2013 and on Bravo 's The Real Housewives of Dallas in 2016 performing live as The Aaron Hendra Project.

Product Endorsements