Les Claypool
speaker
184 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard Mar 2025
Les Claypool’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
If you've never played an instrument, I don't know that you could ever understand that process of like... unlocking your brain i don't know what else there is that maybe it's some stuff in athletics where you just subconsciously like you just know where you're supposed to move um but yeah that's that's something that unlocks something that um is probably very underutilized
You mentioned Jay Lane a bunch of times here. What were those early days of coming up with the lyrics, coming up with these characters and these concepts, and really doing something a lot of people hadn't been doing for a rock group?
You did. You did. Because I know that at least in some of the interviews that I've read, just your timeline of family members on this, it's just so funny. It's hard to keep up with. But just some of the creative stuff of like, all right, what got us to that next level? Because there had to have been...
Was there ever like an executive meeting where it's like, Hey, you, you're quirky little thing here and you're pretty good on that instrument, but like, there's no way there's long-term success. There's no way there's long-term commercial appeal to what you're trying to do say on the first couple albums.
I can only like, you know, I kind of go back to like the guys that I would hang out with. And I was always like, this band sucks. Not you. Like somebody said, you know, I was like a little pretentious about it. Right. I'd be like, these guys are good. And this is like the good list. And this is the bad list.
And then I was working at a CD place and your CDs were in there and I could never understand the cover. I'd be like, what the fuck is that? and then a guy who played guitar, and then his brother who played bass. They were like, you don't listen to Primus? And I was kind of like laughing, being like, you do? They're like, you're nuts.
I thought it was like, because there was younger kids coming in and buying it. But again, I wasn't even that old. I was only like 16 or less. But I was like a little pretentious like Allman Brothers, and I was getting into my jazz phase, you know, which is funny enough, because when once I started listening... Yeah, right. What a dick. Yeah.
I also love rap too, but I, I remember, I think I listened to Stanley Clark school days before I ever listened to you. And then once I listened to you on the early stuff and then I was, it's, you know, and I've read you talk about Stanley and him being an influence.
Um, I've talked about Jocko cause that teen town live from Brazil thing on the fretless base is like, to this day, I could, I could still go back and listen to it all the time. Um, But once I understood, there was different elements to it. Again, this is just me talking to you, but it was fun. But then it was the grooves. The grooves always brought me back. And the way you would get into stuff.
And then it just felt like everybody was kind of sort of on board once it was Sailing the Seas of Cheese. I feel like Sailing the Seas of Cheese is when there was the full buy-in from the rest of the people that just didn't quite get it.
I was lucky enough to see you with Oysterhead in New York. I know it was short-lived. What was it like to have that kind of departure to two people like Stuart and Trey after, you know, at that point, obviously a lot of different drummers, but, you know, basically being Primus for 25 years? What was that like?
Uh, that frog brigade show that you did, I think it was what summer of 23. Um, that was my, my brother, his first concert. So I was able to bring him to that. Um, which was, which was really cool. It was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, No, he was, he loved it. And you, you put on a show too.
I just, it was, it was kind of like, you know, he was almost like looking around going like, this is, this is what these people can do. And I'm like, yeah, like, especially when, when they're this special. I can close on this because I don't want to take up more of your time, but You mentioned Danny Carey, who I'm lucky enough to have met a bunch of different times through a mutual friend.
I've been lucky enough to go see Tool live. And I always thought the first time I saw Tool play in L.A. and we went backstage, I saw like every musician imaginable. And it was like a thing that jumped out. I go, think about this. like tool playing here.
And then granted, you know, it's being in LA, so there's a lot of guys around, but that this many people from this many genres wanted to make sure that they saw it. That has to be like one of the ultimate compliments. And I feel like you are the same kind of guy where the appreciation of 40 years of doing this that other musicians have for you.
I know you're probably a pretty well-grounded guy and maybe there aren't days where you're just egos through the roof, but. this is an incredible run for something that was so different than everybody else. I'm, I'm wondering if you're getting to an age in your life where you're acknowledging how, how special this run has been.
No.
No, I just watched the video this morning again. I've been doing a lot of Primus prep and it looked like the mask was driving you fucking crazy halfway through the song.
Had you ever run into Letterman after that?
I can't imagine booking Primus and then going, well, wait, you guys are going to do something weird. I don't know.
Showing 161–180 of 184 · page 9 of 10
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