Cesar Zuiderwijk

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Cornelis Johannes Zuiderwijk (commonly known as Cesar Zuiderwijk, born 18 July 1948) is a Dutch drummer. He is best known as the drummer of the legendary Dutch rockband Golden Earring (since 1970).

He was born in The Hague in 1948. When he was twelve he started playing the guitar, but switched to drums two years later. He found playing the drums helped him deal with the aggression he felt after his father's death. He has been a drummer in a number of bands: his highschool-band, the band René & His Alligators, Hu & The Hilltops and in Livin' Blues.

When he was asked to replace Golden Earing drummer Sieb Warner in 1970, Zuiderwijk turned out to a perfect addition, musically and socially. Apart from two `incidental` line-ups of five (with Robert Jan Stips and later Eelco Gelling), Golden Earring has consisted of the same four friends (Cesar Zuiderwijk, George Kooymans, Barry Hay and Rinus Gerritsen). Zuiderwijk is known to add a drumsolo to each performance, which he concludes by launching himself `over` his drumkit.

When the police found a gun in his attic after a burglary in 1985, he spent a month in prison. It is said that Zuiderwijk might have smuggled the gun in his drum kit after an American tour. Later that year Zuiderwijk participated in a one-time project called Labyrinth with jazzmusician Jasper van 't Hof and singer Julia Loko.

In September of 1992 Cesar saw one of his dreams come true when he joined thousands of other drummers to play Radar Love on the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam. In 1999 he was invited by War Child to teach kids in the Bosnian town Mostar to play drums. In 2000 he went on tour with Percossa Percussion as members of Golden Earring took a year off. The theatre show "Alle gekheid met een stokje" consists of sketches, drumescapades and stories and was an unexpected success.

In 1994 he married Marianne Vreeswijk, they have two children. He separated from Marianne in 2001.