John Wooton

John Wooton is an American percussionist, drummer, and professor of percussion. He is the director of percussion studies at the University of Southern Mississippi and has written two books on rudimental drumming.

Career John Wooton marched in the snare line of the Phantom Regiment from 1981 to 1984. During his time in the corps he won the Drum Corps Midwest Individual Snare Drum title and the Percussive Arts Society Snare Drum Individual title in 1983. He attended the University of Louisiana Lafayette and earned a Bachelor of Music in 1985. Wooton returned to the Phantom Regiment to be the percussion caption head from 1987 to 1989.

He has been a professor of music at the University of Southern Mississippi since 1992, where he teaches Applied Percussion, Percussion Ensemble, Steel Pan Orchestra, Percussion Methods, Percussion Arranging and Composing, Percussion Pedagogy, Graduate Percussion Ensemble, and Samba Band. He followed with a book and DVD combo in 2010 called Dr. Throwdown's Rudimental Remedies. He has published around 10 other musical works for percussion with Row Loff Productions over his career.

Wooton leads a steel band called Kaiso and frequently plays with the Southern Miss Jazz Quintet. He has been associated with five National Champion drum lines, including the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of North Texas.