Pentti Glan


Pentti "Whitey" Glan was a Finnish-Canadian rock drummer, best known for his work with Alice Cooper and Lou Reed.

Musical career

Glan's first serious band was the Canadian soul band The Rogues which he formed with keyboardist Josef Chirowski and bassist Don Elliot; they had worked together in other bands like Whitey & The Roulettes. Mandala had their first hit single with "Opportunity" with original singer George Olliver, recorded at Chess Records.
In 1966 Glan played several shows with Mandala in Ontario and recorded the first two demo songs of his career. Roy Kenner had replaced George Olliver. When they played their first shows in the USA they performed at the Whiskey A Go Go. They recorded their only album Soul Crusade in 1968 which produced a hit single but they disbanded in 1969 after several line-up changes and poor album sales.
He formed another group called Bush in 1971 with Mandala bandmates Domenic Troiano, Roy Kenner and Prakash John. They released a self-titled album and toured with Steppenwolf, after which they disbanded.
Glan became a session drummer, playing on the first and second solo albums of Steppenwolf’s John Kay. In 1974, Glan began touring with Lou Reed, playing on two live albums and one studio album. In 1975 Glan joined Alice Cooper for the recording of his first solo album Welcome To My Nightmare and subsequent tour, and later appeared on the live album The Alice Cooper Show. Glan toured with Alice Cooper from 1975 to 1979 during the Madhouse Tour, supporting Cooper’s From the Inside album. He also appeared in the movie The Rose as the drummer of The Rose Band.
He died on November 7, 2017 of lung cancer at the age of 71.

Partial discography