Jonathan Fortson Wins Guitar Center's Drum-Off 2026 as Tré Cool Judges

Guitar Center's Drum-Off returned last Thursday, August 20, 2026, at the historic Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, its first National Finale since 2016. Jonathan Fortson, a drummer and teacher based in Hamilton, Alabama, and originally from Elberton, Georgia, won the $25,000 title, beating five other finalists pulled from more than 2,600 submissions nationwide.

Fortson has been behind a kit for 33 years, since age two by his own account, and now works as a full-time staff musician and teacher at The Ramp Church. He'd tried Drum-Off once before, as a teenager, and never got past the district round.

Tré Cool, Green Day's drummer since 1990, sat on the judging panel, one credit among a roster stacked with working drummers: John Stamos (credited in Guitar Center's own recap as playing with The Beach Boys), Jay Weinberg of Slipknot, Adrian Young of No Doubt, Josh Freese of Nine Inch Nails, Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine, and Alex González of Maná, among others. He judged. He didn't play.

The actual playing, behind the drummers themselves, fell to two bass legends from two different eras of hard rock. Robert Trujillo, Metallica's bassist since 2003, performed live with every one of the six finalists as part of the Kate Mess Project, effectively serving as the house rhythm section for the whole competition. Michael Anthony, who played bass in Van Halen from 1974 to 2006, closed the show in a different way: a one-off power trio with Kenny Aronoff and Phil X, working through Van Halen songs including "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love." Guitar Center's own recap calls it the trio's first time playing together.

Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto framed the whole night around discovery, telling the company's own Riffs blog that "it's our mission at Guitar Center to shine a spotlight on those musicians and Drum-Off gives great drummers a national spotlight." His verdict on the winner: "Today, Jonathan stepped into that spotlight and knocked our socks off."

Neither bassist's rig changed for this gig, they're not new endorsements, just two documented setups that happened to share a stage. Both run stainless steel roundwounds on a hex steel core, the same general recipe, from two different manufacturers, a generation apart in hard rock.

The gap between them is small but real: Anthony's Rotosound set runs a half-step heavier on the low string, .105 against Trujillo's .100, which tracks with the two players' different eras of hard rock more than any dramatic tonal split. If you're chasing either player's low end rather than the exact gauge, both sets land in the same bright, stainless-forward neighborhood, and the .005 difference is a setup-shop adjustment, not a different sound.

Bill Burr and Stephen Perkins hosted. Beyond Trujillo's and Anthony's sets, the finale featured Tosh Peterson (Lady Gaga, MGK), Tim Stewart (Lady Gaga, Rihanna), Jordi Radnoti (Olivia Rodrigo), Tiara Stewart (Ashlee Simpson), and a set from the Grammy-nominated rock band Rival Sons. Fifteen percent of ticket proceeds went to the Guitar Center Music Foundation, which funds music education and instrument access.

Worth being plain about: this is Guitar Center's own competition, run and promoted by a competing retailer, not a CYS or Amazon event. What CYS can verify and vouch for is the gear angle, the string sets Trujillo and Anthony are documented playing, both linked above, are the actual reason this story earns a place here. Fortson's own drum and cymbal gear isn't documented anywhere CYS could verify as of this writing, so it's left out rather than guessed at.