“He was the stuff of legend,” Barrie Jazz and Blues Festival organizer Robin Munro said about his friend, drummer Pentti “Whitey” Glan, who died Nov. 7.

Glan lived in Innisfil, but lived a life many musicians only dream of.

“He was a major influence on me as a drummer, going back to the '60s and '70s, but over the past four years he’s been part of my group in Barrie playing jazz,” Munro said. “We became good pals.”

Born in Finland, Glan moved to Toronto where he soon found himself behind a drum kit.

He formed a soul band in 1965 called The Rogues, which later changed their name to Mandala, and they started touring Ontario, then the U.S.

Their first and only hit, Loveitis, came along in the '60s, shortly before the band disbanded.

But Glan kept making music.

He was involved in the Canadian group Bush, before becoming a session drummer for Lou Reed in the mid-'70s, and later Alice Cooper, on the Welcome To My Nightmare album and tour.

"I picked Whitey Glan as the drummer for my Welcome To My Nightmare Tour because he was simply the best drummer around, not knowing he could drink me under a table," Cooper wrote on his Facebook page. "He was just a great guy, everybody who’s worked with him considered him one of their best friends. He was one of rocks premier drummers, but in my opinion he was very under rated and under publicized."

Glad also played for Anne Murray before moving to California, later being shortlisted to play a drummer in Bette Midler’s movie The Rose in 1979, eventually winning the role.