Shawn Thompson


Location: Lawrence, KS

Challenge: Right Hand Amputee

Website: facebook.com/My-Fathers-Gun

Written by Andy Woolard

Shawn Thompson began banging on upside-down trash cans at the age of five. At six, his parents ponied up for proper drumming lessons.

From then, to now, the frenetic rock rhythm that was his metronome of his maturation has been in his hands – or hand – for various bands, most recently and most famously, My Father’s Gun.

At age 18 – on the brink of jumping fully into the industry with all the right reasons to be a rock drummer, a quarter stick of dynamite blew up in Shawn’s right hand. Blew his whole arm off.

Right to the elbow, not to mention an eye. Just able to vote, not legally able to drink, he was dealt a literal blow to end everything he’d known and hoped to know.

If you close your eyes, which you’re going to do between drops of your head mid a My Father’s Gun set, you’d have no idea the piercing strikes of the Zildjians come from a one-armed man. You see, when you decide you love something at age 5, you don’t let it go, no matter where your grip comes from.

Decades later, Shawn's fitted a steam-punk prosthetic to his stump and is double-fisting a frighteningly intentional, musical barrage of his willing drum kit. Laying the foundation to his band's shredding guitar chords and cold-cock baselines. Harder, louder, precise as a sniper, each hit a reminder that some things are very permanent. Some beats go on.


Shawn Thompson - "Triple It"