Oswego alum Nate Felty '12 plays drums at CMC Rocks Festival in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo courtesy of Maclay Heriot)
When Nate Felty ’12 first came to SUNY Oswego with his major undecided, he never imagined he’d one day be playing drums on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
Recently, that wildest dream became a reality when he performed with country music artist Zach Top on an episode that aired April 30. The performance marked Top’s late-night television debut.
Felty said the experience of walking into 30 Rock ahead of the performance is something he’ll never forget.
“The elevator opens and you’re on this floor, and there are all these suited-up people with all these microphones,” he said. “It’s a full production. Everyone was racing around with headphones and orders … makeup rooms everywhere.”
The band met Fallon before the show and even during commercial breaks.
“Jimmy ran off the set, came into our green room where we were all just hanging out, peeks his head in and is like, ‘Guys! Do you got a minute?’ and we were like, ‘Holy, it’s Jimmy Fallon!’” Felty said. “Just a very friendly guy. He made it feel like you were just in someone’s home, almost. Jimmy was just such a humble dude.”
Felty not only met Fallon, but also some of his personal idols — including drummer for The Roots Amir Thompson, known by most as Questlove.
“To see him on stage and in between commercials was wild,” he said. “I talked to him outside of his dressing room, and he was like, ‘You’re holding it down back there, man. Thanks for coming on.’ And it was just such a special experience. I’m still kind of coming down off of it. I'm very privileged to be part of it.”
Nate Felty '12 on 'The Tonight Show' stage alongside host Jimmy Fallon and country artist Zach Top. (Photo courtesy of Todd Owyoung)
Touring with Zach Top
“The Tonight Show” wasn’t Felty’s first time playing with Top — nor his last. Their collaboration began at the beginning of 2024, after his good friend Brett Resnick, who played steel guitar for the band at the time, recommended him to fill in for a few shows.
“Brett was like, ‘You should just call [my friend] Nate and see if he’s around,’” Felty said. “Fortunately, he did. He called me about a week before a run of shows he had and was like, ‘Hey man, not trying to put you on the spot here, but I need a drummer. I’ve got a couple of shows — I’ll fly you out in a couple of days to Milwaukee if you’re down.’”
And he was. Felty flew to Milwaukee, met Top for the first time on stage and was handed about an hour’s worth of music to learn.
“I had no idea what I was walking into,” he said. “I assumed it was going to be like a club or something, like a little music venue in Milwaukee, and it was this huge venue with a few thousand people there! I was like, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be like this! OK!’”
Felty, who said he never shows up to a gig unprepared, brought notebooks full of drum notes — which Top and the band seemed impressed by.
“I keep these notebooks that are full of these weird music charts and my own drum notes and stuff,” he said. “I asked Zach, ‘Do you mind if I keep my notes next to my cymbal here so I can be sure I’m in the right place?’ and he was like, ‘Dude, I don’t care what you have to do to feel comfortable — thanks for helping us out!’ And as soon as he said that, I knew it was gonna be an awesome show.”
At the time, Felty said Top intended for him to be a “life preserver” to get him through a week of shows. But that quickly changed after the performance.
“I was the last one off the stage, and I walked into the [green room] and everyone was just kind of staring at me like, ‘Who is this creature?’” he said with a laugh.
“[Top] took his hat off, shook my hand and was like, ‘Dude, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what you have going on for the rest of the year, or beyond, but the drum chair is yours.’ And it’s pretty much been full steam ahead since then.”
When Felty first began playing with Top, the band was thrilled to be the opener, performing for a few thousand people. Now, they’ve had the opportunity to play large-scale arenas, including the Houston Texans’ NRG Stadium on March 11, with more than 70,000 in the audience.
“Just seeing the trajectory — I’ve never seen someone just blow up that way so organically,” he said. “To now be the group everyone is showing up to watch, and on an even bigger scale in 15 months, and then to get invited onto Jimmy Fallon, is pretty wild.”
Nate Felty '12 plays drums on stage with country artist Zach Top at NRG Stadium in Houston. (Photo courtesy of Kane Wayne)
From Oswego to stadiums
Felty wasn’t always playing drums to crowds of thousands. In fact, there was a time he didn’t consider a career in music at all. Like many Oswego students, Felty came from a middle-class, blue-collar family with no ties to the music industry.
“My mother is a library assistant, my dad’s a mechanic — very supportive in all of my interests and whatnot growing up … but neither of them, you know, they didn’t really have any sort of framework for me to figure this out.”
That changed when he met his mentors and professors Eric Schmitz, Rob Auler and Trevor Jorgensen at Oswego.
“I met Eric as a very lost, confused, undeclared freshman who just happened to get into college,” he said. “I didn’t even know that I wanted to go to school after I got out of high school, and I didn’t think music was even a career option."
In his first semester, he joined the jazz ensemble led by Schmitz. Not long after, Schmitz approached him with an opportunity to perform with his off-campus group at King Arthur’s in downtown Oswego.
“He had a faculty jazz group called the Oswego Jazz Project. And it had other music professors in the group — Dr. Rob Auler, who was their piano professor, and Dr. Trevor Jorgensen, who was our wind, clarinet, saxophone and conducting professor — and an alum of Oswego at the time, Max McKee, the bass player.”
In Felty’s words, he was “a lost little pup, just going to these weekly jazz jam sessions downtown,” until Auler pulled him aside during one gig and encouraged him to join the music program. Once he did, Schmitz became his biggest mentor.
“Eric kind of kept me under his wing for all of undergrad,” Felty said. “We had drum lessons together. We were in his jazz band together. I was in his music theory classes, his jazz and rock class, etc. We saw each other almost every day … He just kept me very, very close and really helped guide me and show me how to have a career like this, because he saw something and put the time in to help shape my journey.”
After making connections and performing regularly in downtown Oswego, Schmitz encouraged Felty to apply to the master’s program at Belmont University, where he was one of only two drumming students accepted. Now, alongside touring, he is also an adjunct professor there and still reaches out to Schmitz for advice.
“Eric was a beacon of light, and so are the other professors in that jazz project,” he said. “They felt more like friends … They knew who I was long before I knew who I was. I’m very, very indebted to all of them.”
Nate Felty ’12 plays drums with country artist Zach Top at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.
Music City and beyond
Felty moved to Nashville to study at Belmont, and his career took off. He started a nine-piece funk band with his friend Ryan Connors — now the musical director for Hozier — that caught the attention of the local music community.
“Putting yourself in a community like Nashville — there are so many people that all want the same thing you do, but they’re very, very driven, very passionate,” he said. “Your career just snowballs so fast when you’re in an environment like that.”
Felty continued to make connections in the Nashville scene and eventually found himself in the same rooms and social circles as artists such as Lainey Wilson, Brothers Osborne, Hunter Hayes, the Backstreet Boys, and Dave Matthews Band saxophonist Jeff Coffin — with all of whom he has shared the stage.
“[In Nashville] you have a lot of that sort of small-world bumping into these very well-known musicians, artists, creative people,” he said. “When I’m not on tour with Zach, I play these weekly residencies here in town … and these musicians and artists will just walk in to hang out, and I’ll be up on stage and be like, ‘Wait — that’s them!’ It’s crazy.”
Even after all his success, Felty keeps in touch with his mentors and peers from Oswego — including Tamar Greene ’09, who currently plays George Washington in the Broadway musical “Hamilton.”
“So many of my buddies from Oswego who inspired me when I was there are still doing amazing things,” he said. “When I’m in New York, Tamar [asks to get together] before the show. I’m like, ‘He’s on Broadway and he wants to meet up?’ I’m like, ‘Dude, don’t you have to go change the world right now?’”
Tamar Greene and Nate Felty, then students, in the Tyler Hall lobby at SUNY Oswego in 2008.
When asked what advice he has for fellow Lakers, Felty encouraged young people to put themselves out there.
“I truly believe in just putting yourself in an environment with people who push you in ways that are inspiring,” he said. “Long before I toured with Zach or at any of these high-profile arenas … I’d get those same jitters at a bar in downtown Oswego, because I was playing with my closest friends who were, like, my most inspiring musician friends. Obviously, the scale is much different, but the feeling is the same.”
New York state fans will have three upcoming chances to see Felty perform with Top: Aug. 14 at Darien Lake Amphitheater, Aug. 16 at Bethel Woods, and Aug. 28 at Madison Square Garden.