Chasing that Feeling

Cooper McCord can still remember the last note.

He was standing inside the Alamodome with the Atlanta High School marching band, finishing what would be his final performance at the state competition. As drumline captain, he knew the moment meant something. For some of the students, it might be the last time they would ever experience anything like it.

When the band finished its show, “Crossroads,” Cooper looked toward the crowd.

“I just yelled, ‘Take this in, take this in,’” he recalled. “This is the last time some of us might get to experience something like that.”

Years later, recounting that moment still brings him close to tears.

“I think that experience right there is the whole reason I chased the dream of being a professional touring musician,” he said. “Just to get that feeling every night.”

Today, Cooper is the drummer for Tucker Wetmore's touring band, the Highrollers. He has performed in arenas overseas, played for crowds of tens of thousands and traveled around the world doing something he never imagined could become a career.

But the path that led him there began in an Atlanta Middle School classroom, with an instrument he hadn't even planned to play.

Cooper wanted to play the tuba. His mother wasn't enthusiastic about him hauling one between campuses, so they settled on baritone instead. 

Somehow, though, Cooper ended up in percussion class.

“I liked my schedule so much, I was like, ‘Might as well stick with it,’” he said. “And that's how I became a drummer.”

In beginner band, Cooper found himself alongside two of his closest friends, Tristan Bishop and Kason Kennedy. The three shared an interest in taking percussion seriously, and they had opportunities to work more closely with their instructor and develop their skills.

One of Cooper's earliest memories is performing a percussion trio with his friends in the auditorium.

“I think that's where I got the bug right there,” he said. “It was just me and two of my best friends from school doing a trio together and rocking out and having a good time.”

He loved the rhythms, but he also enjoyed the work of becoming a better musician.

“I think that's what I fell in love with—the process of getting to become an incredible musician,” he said.

By seventh grade, Cooper was playing vibes in the high school marching band's pit. He remembers Monday night rehearsals that continued until a section was right, the repetition and the expectation that everyone would contribute to something bigger than themselves.

“We're not just providing entertainment,” he said. “We're actually competing and trying to be the best band in the state in our classification.”

That year, the band advanced to state, giving Cooper his first experience performing in a stadium.

The performance lasted only eight minutes, but the preparation had taken months. Students spent mornings together, rehearsed through the summer heat and worked on individual parts until they could bring them together into a complete show.

“You're all sweating together. You're all getting dirty together,” Cooper said. “But you also share this feeling of accomplishment when you finally learn all the parts of the show and you learn all your sheet music and it finally comes together.”

Those experiences gave Cooper lasting friendships and a reason to keep pushing himself. He wasn't always the strongest drummer, he said, but he wanted to improve. He practiced at home, worked through frustration and learned that a disappointing performance wasn't a reason to stop.

“It's very important to persevere through those types of things to see what kind of person you are at the end of the day,” he said.

Cooper eventually became drumline captain. Band was no longer simply an activity he participated in during the school day. It had become a central part of how he understood himself.

Asked how much of his identity was shaped by being a band student, his answer was immediate.

“I'd say all of it.”

Still, graduating from Atlanta High School didn't mean Cooper had a clear plan for turning music into a career.

He enrolled at Belmont University in Nashville, initially as a percussion major before switching to creative entertainment industries. He had nearly chosen trade school instead, and his parents had encouraged him to give college at least one semester before making a final decision.

One semester became another. Cooper met other musicians, joined bands and began playing shows. Each new opportunity gave him a reason to stay.

“I planned on dropping out every semester to do it full time, and it just never made sense,” he said.

Before the big stages came years of small gigs, including eight-hour drives to shows that sometimes paid barely enough to cover gas. 

“There was a lot of time where I was like, ‘What am I doing this for?’” he said.

In Nashville, Cooper began to see a future in music that he hadn't been able to imagine before.

“Just meeting other guys that had been doing it for 10 years and being like, ‘Oh, this is possible,’” he said.

During his early days in Nashville, Cooper and his roommate, fellow musician Carver Partin, met Tucker Wetmore. They became friends, and Wetmore told them he hoped they would eventually join him on the road.

On April 4, 2024, they played their first full-band show together. Since then, Cooper's life has been filled with tour buses, sound checks, late-night travel and performances across the country and overseas.

“It's the most rewarding yet the most tiring job I feel like I've ever had,” he said. “Not a lot of people know exactly what goes on day to day. They just see the thousands of fans and the big stages.”

In 2025, the band toured Europe, performing in arenas where audiences thousands of miles from home knew the songs.

At London's O2 arena, Cooper found himself trying to take in what was happening.

“I'm in a foreign country, I'm playing music, and I'm getting paid,” he remembered thinking. “This is not real.”

Yet for all the changes in his life, some of the things he learned in Atlanta remain part of his routine.

Before every show, Cooper uses warm-ups and stretches he learned from Atlanta percussion director Hunter Hale. He and his bandmates prepare together, then gather afterward to talk about what worked and what they can do better.

“Every night when I get onstage, I just want to be better than I did last night,” he said. “It doesn't always happen that way. There's going to be bad shows.”

That understanding came from years of rehearsals and competitions when one performance might fall short, but another opportunity to improve was always ahead.

The sense of teamwork is familiar, too.

Cooper's current bandmates come from different parts of the country, but they share the goal of putting on the best show they can. He especially appreciates that Wetmore treats the musicians as partners in what they're building.

“Tucker has been really good about making us feel like we're doing this with him and not for him,” Cooper said.

It's a feeling he recognizes from his years in the Atlanta band, when students with different parts to play worked toward something none of them could accomplish alone.

Cooper doesn't pretend that touring is an easy life. He misses the stability his friends back home have built, and he knows the audiences who see him onstage don't see the years of uncertainty that came before it.

But he also knows what it feels like to step in front of a crowd and hear the music begin.

“I've played for four people, and I've played for 75,000 people, and it's the same adrenaline rush every time,” he said. “You're feeding the crowd, and the crowd's feeding you back. It's a beautiful experience.”

For a fifth grader who wanted to play tuba, none of this was part of the plan.

“I'm forever grateful for the Atlanta High School band program,” Cooper said. “There's no telling where I'd be without it.”