CHURCH’S CHICKEN® AND WORLD’S FASTEST DRUMMER NAME
JOSHUA ROBINSON AND BRAXTON BURKE WORLD CHAMPIONS
Extreme drumming competition crowns new champions at 2015 World Finals

ATLANTA, GA – All eyes were on Nashville, TN as Church’s Chicken and World’s Fastest Drummer (WFD) recently hosted the 2015 World’s Fastest Drummer (WFD) – World Finals. More than 300 drummers from across the world faced off during the competition to earn the title of World’s Fastest Drummer within several drumming categories. Braxton Burke, 21, from Langley, KY took home the title as the Hands Champion, while Joshua Robinson, from Washington, D.C., was named Foot Champion. Robinson, 22, advanced to the World Finals by winning the WFD – Southeast Championship, held this past April at the Atlanta Music Institute of Music and Media (AIMM) in Duluth, GA.

The extreme sport drumming competition took place July 9 – 11, 2015 at the Music City Center – 201 5th Avenue, in Nashville, TN. Qualifying auditions were held on July 9 and 10. Finalists who moved on from the auditions met on July 11 to compete for the WFD title.

“We are thrilled to continue our sponsorship of World’s Fastest Drummer in Nashville,” said Mark Snyder, Global Chief Marketing Officer for Church’s Chicken. “The World Finals competition is the culmination of skills and determination within extreme drumming. It is also a result of Church’s® commitment to serving our communities through education – especially through music education and awareness.”

Church’s celebrated the World Finals by hosting several drumming-themed events leading up to the Finals, including the premiere of Fast Company on Friday July 10 at the Music City Center. Fast Company is a documentary filmed during the Southeast Championships in Atlanta, GA. The documentary features the lives of some of the people who make World’s Fastest Drummer possible, including former champions and the founding members of the competition. The film was produced in conjunction with About Face Media.

Also celebrated during the World Finals were the accomplishments of living drumming legends D.J. Fontana (drummer for Elvis Presley), WS Holland (drummer for Johnny Cash), and Richie Albright (drummer for Waylon Jennings), during the WFD-Church’s Chicken Legends Series Awards. The awards ceremony, hosted by radio and TV personality Charlie Chase, helped kick off the World Finals and was a featured attraction at the Summer National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show, held concurrently at the Music City Center. As part of the ceremony, Church’s Chicken donated $1,000 in honor of each recipient to W.O. Smith Music School in Nashville.

The championship round of the WFD World Finals took place on Saturday, July 11. Braxton Burke, took home the Hands Championship with 953 strokes in one minute. Joshua Robinson was able to secure the Foot Championship with 899 strokes.

About WFD World's Fastest Drummer Extreme Sport Drumming
WFD is a sporting event that challenges speed drummers and employs an instrument called the Drumometer that counts drum strokes. The Drumometer is accepted by both the Guinness World Records organization and the WFD Extreme Sport Drumming competition as the official device used to determine the World's Fastest Drummer.

The primary goal of the competition is to determine who can play the most single strokes in sixty seconds. There are a variety of categories and World Records involved in WFD. After experimenting with various WFD competition formats in the United States, the event achieved international prominence as contestants began traveling from around the globe to compete at WFD World Finals. For more information, visit www.WorldsFastestDrummer.com.

About Church’s Chicken®
Founded in San Antonio, TX in 1952 by George W. Church, Church’s Chicken® is one of the largest quick service restaurant chicken chains in the world. Church’s® specializes in Original and Spicy Chicken freshly prepared throughout the day in small batches that are hand-battered and double-breaded, Tender Strips®, sandwiches, honey-butter biscuits made from scratch and freshly baked, and classic, home-style sides all for a great value. Church’s® (along with its sister brand Texas Chicken® outside the Americas) has more than 1,650 locations in 25 countries and international territories and system-wide sales of more than $1 billion. For more information, visit www.churchs.com. Follow Church’s® on Facebook at www.facebook.com/churchschicken and Twitter at www.twitter.com/churchschicken.