Les Claypool

Leslie Edward Claypool (born September 29, 1963) is an American musician, best known as the founder, lead singer, bassist, and primary songwriter of the band Primus since its formation in 1984.

Frequently considered to be one of the greatest bassists of all time, his playing style mixes tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends, and slapping.

Outside of Primus, Claypool has also been involved in a number of side projects, including supergroups such as Oysterhead (with Trey Anastasio and Stewart Copeland) and Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains (with Buckethead, Bryan Mantia, and Bernie Worrell).

He also fronts the experimental rock projects Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade and Les Claypool's Fancy Band.

He has self-produced and engineered several solo releases from his own studio, Rancho Relaxo, in California.

Claypool was born into a working-class family of car mechanics in Richmond, California, in 1963, and was raised in El Sobrante, California.

He learned to play the bass guitar at age 14, but didn't begin a career in music until much later.

He attended De Anza High School in Richmond, California, where he was friends with Kirk Hammett.

Claypool worked as a carpenter for several years after graduating from high school.

Primus' eighth studio album, Primus & the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble, a re-imagining of the soundtrack from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, was released in October 2014.

Primus began as "Primate" in the mid-1980s, with Claypool on bass, Todd Huth on guitar, and various drummers, most notably Jay Lane, though Huth and Lane left shortly thereafter to pursue other projects.

Claypool replaced them with guitarist Larry LaLonde and drummer Tim Alexander.

Claypool is considered to be the leader of the band, as well as the driving force behind its blending of funk with other genres.

Claypool frequently utilizes the slap-bass technique, prominent in funk music, and is the only member of Primus who comes from a funk background.

Because of Claypool's strong funk influence, Primus is often described as "thrash-funk" or funk metal, though Claypool dislikes these labels, stating: "We've been lumped in with the funk metal thing just about everywhere. I guess people just have to categorize you.

He later recalled Hammett had given him a copy of Metallica's 1984 album Ride the Lightning, which he enjoyed, but Claypool also stressed he "wasn't a big metal guy" and did not realize how popular Metallica had become until he arrived at the audition.

Metallica frontman James Hetfield said that Claypool was not offered the job because "he was too good" and "should do his own thing".

Claypool responded by admitting that he "wasn't the right guy" for the band due to being a self-proclaimed "weirdo", and stated his belief that Hetfield was just "being nice" with his comments.

After the death of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton in 1986, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett reconnected with Claypool and asked him to audition as Burton's replacement.

In the Metallica episode of the documentary series Behind the Music, Claypool said that he jokingly asked the members of Metallica if they wanted to "jam on some Isley Brothers tunes" during the audition, a reference to his lack of experience with Metallica's thrash metal style.

In 1988 Claypool started a short-lived alternative/funk rock band featuring Todd Huth on guitar and Jay Lane on drums.

From 1989 to 2000, Primus was one of the most unusual bands to gain significant mainstream airplay, headlining Lollapalooza in 1993, appearing on Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 1995, and even appearing at Woodstock '94, where they performed their Pork Soda hit "My Name Is Mud" and were consequently pelted with mud by the audience, much to the band's displeasure, even driving Claypool to stop playing, and telling the audience "the song's called My Name is Mud, but keep the mud to yourself you son of a bitch".

In 1991, the band was featured in the movie Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, performing "Tommy the Cat" live.

Claypool and Tom Waits first recorded on each other's records in 1991 and have continued to do so since.

In October of the same year, the band embarked on a two-month tour in which two sets were performed per show, the second set consisting of their 1991 release Sailing the Seas of Cheese being performed in its entirety.

The group released their first album in April 1994 "Riddles Are Abound Tonight" by Prawn Song Records, and did a few short tours and opened for groups such as Helmet, Rollins Band, and Slayer.

In 1997, Primus was asked to play and record the theme song for the animated television show South Park.

In 1999, he allowed Activision's use of the song "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" in the popular video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

Primus went on hiatus in 2000.

In mid-2003, Claypool reunited with former Primus drummer Tim Alexander and guitarist Larry LaLonde to record a DVD/EP called Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People.

Primus continued touring into 2004, performing their 1990 release Frizzle Fry as their second set, as documented on the DVD Hallucino-Genetics: Live 2004.

In 2006, he wrote and directed the mockumentary Electric Apricot and released his debut novel South of the Pumphouse.

More recently, he has formed musical duos such as Duo de Twang (with Bryan Kehoe) and The Claypool Lennon Delirium (with Sean Lennon).

On October 17, 2006, Primus released both their first greatest hits album, They Can't All Be Zingers, and their third DVD, Blame It on the Fish, subtitled An Abstract Look at the 2003 Primus Tour De Fromage. The band toured in 2006 on their Primus: The Beat a Dead Horse Tour 2006, and played at a small number of festivals in 2008.

In 2010, Alexander, who had left the band for the second time due to lack of interest, was replaced by Jay Lane, who had not played with the band since 1988.

The band subsequently resumed touring after the free June 2010 Rehearsal was released later that year, and a studio album, Green Naugahyde, was released in 2011.

In 2013, Lane left Primus for the second time to focus on his other band RatDog, who were coming off hiatus at the time, and was replaced again by Alexander.

In 2017, Primus released The Desaturating Seven, an album that is based on a bedtime story published by Italian author Ul de Rico, which is about a group of rainbow eating goblins.

They then began a tour with Mastodon through most of 2018.

The band reunited for a show on December 31, 2019, opening for The Claypool Lennon Delirium and have not returned since.