John Dolmayan

John Dolmayan (Armenian: Ջոն Դոլմայան) (born July 15, 1972[1]) is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American musician, best known as the drummer of System of a Down.

Dolmayan ranked number 33 on Loudwire's list of Top 200 Hard Rock + Metal Drummers of All Time.

Other drummers that he cites as major influences include Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, Stewart Copeland from the Police, and Rush's Neil Peart.

[5] Dolmayan joined System of a Down in 1997 after their original drummer, Ontronik "Andy" Khachaturian, left the band due to a hand injury.

[11] In August 2009, Dolmayan, Perez, Shamoun, and Cifarelli as Scars on Broadway traveled to Iraq for a USO tour across the U.S. army bases.

He also played drums on the Axis of Justice concert tour with various artists and on the Serj Tankian solo debut, Elect the Dead.

[23] Dolmayan, Malakian, and Odadjian performed together again in November 2009 during a charity show for Deftones bassist Chi Cheng.

[34] In October 2023, Dolmayan claimed he had lost friends as well as "hundreds of thousands of fans" on Instagram due to his controversial opinions about Trump, his beliefs that Black Lives Matter "never had legitimacy" and was a "propaganda tool" for the Democratic Party, and his arguments that the COVID-19 pandemic "has always been about money".

Dolmayan uses Tama Drums and hardware, Paiste cymbals, Evans Drumheads, LP percussion and his signature Vater drumsticks.

Dolmayan drumming with System of a Down in 2011
Dolmayan in 2009
Dolmayan's drumset