One of the absolute last things you would expect from sweet, innocuous John Bradley, especially with his persona so deeply conflated with Tarly’s, is for him to engage in a loud, quick, physical hobby. And yet, that’s exactly how Bradley blows off steam. In his spare time, he’s a drummer – and an excellent one, too. It wasn’t until his appearance on the short-lived British game show Bring the Noise that Bradley revealed to the world his mad skills on the skins.
His solo begins with a flurry of tom hits that might only impress non-drummers, but that is only because Bradley has the instincts of a showman. Measure by measure, he gradually begins varying his drums and rhythms, building to an impressive finale in which he expertly uses the entire kit. Bradley, as demure as ever, told Bustle that playing the drums was “not something that I shared with people before because … if I had started to introduce that into my professional life, then I’d lose some of the enjoyment of it.”
Bradley regretfully admits, “People kind of know about it now and it’s not something that’s a private passion anymore, it’s become part of my image.” Nonetheless, Bradley’s image remains, like Tarly’s, humble and charming.
