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Keith Moon, a rock 'n' roller legendary for drumming and recklessness, never even felt secure within in his own band, let alone comfortable with his status as a snare-smacking icon. "They said they'd come by at 7," he once said, recalling his casual invitation into The Who. "And that was it. Nobody ever said, 'You're in.' They just said 'What're you doing Monday?'" If Moon felt underappreciated, he's probably not alone. Relegated to the back of the stage, obscured by kits of things to bash, brush and beat, percussion aces don't always get the spotlight they deserve. That the drummer is the hockey goalkeeper of the music world — vital but often overshadowed by more noticeable teammates — is the comparison often made.

But, there are exceptions. There are eminent whackers who, by dint of oversize personalities or sublime ability, earn spotlights. These are the subjects of Cut to the Drummer, an exhibition showing at Toronto's Steam Whistle Gallery, which includes 50 portraits of all-star timekeepers (Moon included) done by 50 leading illustrators. Jazz artists are heavily represented (Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton, Tito Puente, Max Roach and Buddy Rich, to name some), but Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, Green Day's Tre Cool, the Roots' Questlove and Black Sabbath's Bill Ward (done as an almost Biblical figure) hail from classic rock and contemporary music.

The exhibition, which benefits the MS Society of Canada Scholarship Fund, was spearheaded by Warner Music, curator Sandra Dionisi (an artist whose portrait of Blink-182's Travis Barker is part of the exhibit) and Aaron Solowoniuk, a drummer afflicted with multiple sclerosis. Solowoniuk, of six-time Juno-winning punk group Billy Talent, created the scholarship fund.

As for the profile of Moon, Canada's Blair Kelly has the loony musician depicted as a king, instead of the jester role he so often played. In part, that's what this project is about: the bringing forward of a performer often relegated to music's back row.

Sandra Dionisi on her portrait of Blink-182's Travis Barker

"I had read an interview where someone asked him about his tattoos. He's pretty much covered now. The images on his body here are actually less than what he's got right now. I pared it down. What he said was that his tattoos guaranteed that he couldn't really do anything normal — that he could never get a 'regular job.' I think it's a planned separation from society."

Clemente Botelho on former Tonight Show band drummer Ed Shaughnessy

"It was his intensity. He had this happy growl about him. And I couldn't get away from the sideburns — my first sketches were Ed the Wolfman because of his powerful look. I didn't want to show his hands. I didn't want to limit it to a depiction of what he was doing. I was drawn to his snarl, and that intensity of the explosion going on around him.

Joe Morse on jazz fusion drummer Billy Cobham

"I found a film of him playing in 1968. I was in Windsor, Ont., in 1968, and I remember the race riots. Billy was playing with Horace Silver, his first commercial gig after leaving the U.S. Army. It's [the film is of] a drum solo, it's black and white — it's beautiful. I just thought, 'I don't want to leave this time period.' He's at the beginning of his 40-year journey. With the stick on fire, he's talked about how music lights a path, and that music is a way to communicate in a universal language."

Barry Blitt on Art Blakey

"He's great to draw. He's got big eyes and a sort of round head. He really looks like someone who's playing jazz in the 1950s. The photograph I used [by Herman Leonard, 1958] was well known. Maybe it was a bit obvious to draw that one, but I couldn't resist. The text is a cheap pun, 'achy Blakey heart.' I hate myself for it, believe me. It makes no sense. It doesn't mean anything. It just made me laugh."

Cut to the Drummer runs to Feb. 28, at Steam Whistle Brewing, 255 Bremner Blvd., Toronto.