The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 6 plus 6 letter word THE DEVILS TATTOO
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
T
H
E
D
E
V
I
L
S
T
A
T
T
O
O
More clues leading to the result THE DEVILS TATTOO
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Distracted drumming" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case distracted drumming = the devils tattoo.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.