Atom Willard

Adam David "Atom" Willard (August 15, 1973) is an American drummer who has been a member of several notable musical acts.

His career began in 1990 when he joined Rocket from the Crypt, with whom he remained until 2000.

Willard joined the San Diego, California rock band Rocket from the Crypt in 1990, after their original drummer Sean had moved away from San Diego.

Willard performed on Rocket from the Crypt's second album Circa: Now! (1992) and subsequent albums Hot Charity (1995), Scream, Dracula, Scream! (1995), and RFTC (1998), as well as numerous EPs and singles.

During his years with the band he toured the United States and Europe.

Willard recalls several wild tour experiences with the group such as touring in a box truck and an airport shuttle, both at his suggestion.

In 2000, however, he decided to leave the group due to disagreements with the other members over the band's direction:

I was getting disillusioned with the way we were doing business.

It was getting harder and harder to survive–those tours where you'd come home with no money, that was getting less cool.

[Laughs.] I didn't just want to get some temp job to survive and go on tour anymore.

I wanted to play the drums; I wanted to play music and make a living off of it.

And I thought I could.

And we all could.

I wanted some changes and Speedo and I were kind of at odds on that stuff; we disagreed on how we should go about it.

Willard was replaced in Rocket from the Crypt's lineup by Mario Rubalcaba.

In 2000 he filled in as a touring drummer for Alkaline Trio and appeared with them in the music video for the single "Private Eye".

He soon joined Weezer drummer Patrick Wilson in his side project the Special Goodness, in which Willard drummed while Wilson sang and played guitar.

Willard also filled in with Moth in 2002 for tours in support of their third album Provisions, Fiction and Gear and appeared in their music video for "I See Sound".

Willard's first recorded output with the Special Goodness was 2003's Land Air Sea.

The band have not released an album since then.

In 2003 Willard became an official member of the Offspring, replacing long-time drummer Ron Welty who had left the group earlier that year.

During Willard's tenure with the group he performed on numerous tours but only performed on one song.

Professional drummer Josh Freese had recorded the drum tracks for the band's 2003 album Splinter after Welty left the group.

Willard also recorded drum tracks for the songs "Head Unbound" and "Would If I Could" on Melissa Auf der Maur's debut solo album Auf der Maur (2004).

Subsequently, he joined the Special Goodness, the Offspring, and in 2005 became a founding member of Angels & Airwaves.

In a 2006 interview Willard recalled of the experience:

It was crazy, man.

I was just 16, I would drive down to this kind of sketchy, strange rehearsal space in this part of town I'd never been, and there were people living in some of the spaces.

It was just weird, and everybody was older than me.

But the sound was rad.

It was a lot of soul, a lot of Otis Redding, James Brown–but it was up against a serious punk-rock influence, and just regular rock 'n' roll.

Every song had four personalities!

In 2007 Willard departed from the Offspring to focus on his work with Angels & Airwaves, and in April 2009 he also joined Social Distortion, but left the following March.

In June 2011, he joined the band Danko Jones and in October 2011 amicably left Angels & Airwaves.

In October 2011, he reunited with Rocket From the Crypt to perform the song "He's a Chef" on the children's television show Yo Gabba Gabba.

From 2013 to 2020, he was the drummer for Against Me! until their indefinite hiatus.

Currently he is playing in the bands Worriers, Plosivs, Lektron, and Alkaline Trio.

In September 2013 he played 3 shows with the band for Riot Fest.

In November 2014 he played with the band at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas.

After leaving Rocket from the Crypt Willard served as a drum technician for Weezer.