The Velvet Underground Tucker began playing the drums in 1963, at age 19, having been infatuated with
The Rolling Stones; she chose the instrument as she wanted to play along to music. When she was asked to join the Velvet Underground, she had dropped out of
Ithaca College and was working for
IBM as a
keypunch operator. In spite of this, Tucker has said that she never experienced difficulties due to sexism during this time. Tucker's style of playing was unconventional. She played standing up rather than seated (for easier access to the bass drum), using a simplified drum kit of
tom toms, a
snare drum and an upturned
bass drum, playing with
mallets rather than
drumsticks. Apart from drumming, Tucker sang co-lead vocals on three Velvet Underground songs: the acoustic guitar number "
After Hours" and the experimental poetry track "The Murder Mystery", both from 1969's
The Velvet Underground album, as well as "I'm Sticking with You", a song recorded in 1969 but left (officially) unreleased until it appeared on the 1985
outtakes
compilation VU.
Lou Reed said of "After Hours" that it was "so innocent and pure" that he could not possibly sing it himself. In the early days, Tucker also occasionally played the
bass guitar during live gigs, an instrument that was usually played by the band's regular bassist
John Cale. Morrison would normally play the bass if Cale was occupied with viola or keyboards, despite his lack of enthusiasm for playing the instrument. However, some songs had Reed and Morrison playing their usual guitars and Cale was occupied with viola or keyboards and as a result, nobody was on bass: two examples of this are "
Heroin" and "
Sister Ray". Tucker temporarily left the group when she became pregnant with her first child, Kerry "Trucker" Tucker, in early 1970. Because of her pregnancy, Tucker was only able to play on a couple of outtakes for
Loaded, which would become the band's fourth and final album with Lou Reed.
Billy Yule, the younger and high-school-age brother of bassist
Doug Yule, filled in the role of drummer for live performances and some of the songs on the album. Tucker returned to the band in late 1970, by which time Reed had left the group and Doug Yule had assumed leadership. She toured North America (United States and Canada) and Europe (United Kingdom and the
Netherlands) with the band during 1970 and 1971; shortly afterward, she quit the band and the music business altogether to raise a family. Tucker participated in the 1993 Velvet Underground reunion, touring Europe and releasing the double album
Live MCMXCIII. In 2017 she played at the Grammy Salute to Music Legends awards ceremony. A band, amongst others, consisting of John Cale, played two Velvet Underground classics "Sunday Morning" and "I'm Waiting For The Man". The Velvet Underground was the recipient of the 2017 Merit Award. In 2021, Tucker participated in
Todd Haynes' documentary
The Velvet Underground.
Other work Tucker moved to
Phoenix, Arizona, in 1971, where she lived with her husband and children. While living in Phoenix, she played drums in the short-lived band Paris 1942 with Alan Bishop of the
Sun City Girls. In the early 1980s, she divorced and relocated to
Douglas, Georgia, where she was hired at a
Wal-Mart distribution center. She quit the job in 1989 when she was asked to go on tour of Europe with the band
Half Japanese. Tucker started recording and touring again, releasing a number of albums on small,
independent labels that feature her singing and playing guitar, fronting her own band. This band at times included former Velvets colleague
Sterling Morrison. Apart from releasing her own records, Tucker has made guest performances on a number of others' records, including producing
Fire in the Sky (1992) for
Half Japanese, whose guitarist, John Sluggett, plays drums on her own recordings. In Jeff Feuerzeig's documentary about Half Japanese,
The Band That Would Be King, Tucker performs and is interviewed extensively. Also, she has appeared with Magnet and former Velvet Underground band members Lou Reed (
New York) and
John Cale (
Walking on Locusts). Tucker also played drums on and produced the album
The Lives of Charles Douglas by
indie rocker and novelist
Charles Douglas (also known as
Alex McAulay) in 1999. She played bass drum, wrote songs, and sang with the New York/
Memphis punk rock–
delta blues fusion group the
Kropotkins with Lorette Velvette and
Dave Soldier, whom she met in John Cale's band, in 1999–2003, recording "Five Points Crawl". In a 2010 interview, Tucker said she had ceased making music several years prior. == Artistry ==