Who is Les Claypool?

In this article, Jack Brouillette talks about world-famous musician Les Claypool.

WHO IS LES CLAYPOOL?

By Jack Brouillette

Born on Sep. 23, 1963 in Richmond, California, Leslie Edward Claypool (Les Claypool) is one of the best bassists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Claypool is most popularly known for his insane, quirky, psychedelic bass guitar riffs and vocals, most notably in his band Primus. Other than his main work in Primus, Claypool is known for many of his other supergroups and solo works, including but not limited to The Claypool Lennon Delirium, Oysterhead, Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains, and Due de Twang. Les Claypool primarily uses a four-string bass guitar, employing a variety of styles such as slapping and heavily utilizing the whammy bar. These techniques are most recognizable on songs like “DMV” and “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” from Primus.

Les Claypool was born and grew up in Richmond, California, where he came from a line of car mechanics. Throughout his early adulthood, Claypool was a carpenter, until he auditioned for Metallica in 1986. Claypool learned the bass guitar when he was 14, but never envisioned himself actually doing anything down the music career ladder, at least not until he auditioned for Metallica. In Behind The Music, a documentary series that focuses on artists and bands alike, James Hetfield of Metallica acknowledges that, in Claypool's audition, “He was too good”, though Claypool always disputes this vision. In an interview with Kerrang! In 2019, Claypool said: “He definitely did not say that! He said that later on in an interview, which was very kind of him. I think they thought I was a freak. They were very nice – Lars [Ulrich] was particularly kind – and of course I knew Kirk from high school. But I think that James thought I was some sort of thug. Put it this way, I definitely didn’t look the part.”

Photo of Les Claypool - Discogs

Originally named Primate, Primus is the first and most popular of Les Claypool’s projects. Primus was formed in 1984 by Claypool, who took the role of lead vocals and lead bass. Todd Huth was lead guitar and, just after the band formed, Jay Lane was chosen for drums. Claypool has noted that he believes Primus does not have a set genre, at least not one that anyone has a name for. This even got to a point where the band had its own ID3 tag, which is primarily used to sort through genres in MP3 audio files. Primus is probably one of the most popular metal (whether it be psychedelic, funk, or hard) bands of the 20th and 21st centuries, releasing their first studio album, Frizzle Fry, in 1990. The collection only charted at 178 on the Australian Albums Chart. Primus was not truly popular until their next studio release, Sailing the Seas of Cheese, which placed second on the US Heatseekers album chart. Each album that Primus released just got more and more popular as more people were exposed to the ‘weird’ sound that came with it. However, their most popular album was actually the one that followed Sailing the Seas of Cheese. Pork Soda, released in 1993, contained some of the most popular Primus songs, including “My Name Is Mud,” "Welcome to this World,” and “DMV.” Throughout the years, Primus has released nine studio albums, with their most recent, The Desaturating Seven, being released in 2017.

Les Claypool in South Park's pilot episode - iMDB

Aside from Primus, Les Claypool has many other projects and side gigs, with one of the most well-known being the intro to the animated show South Park. The creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, were actually fans of Primus and Claypool's other works. According to Les Claypool in an interview with music blog, No Treble, “Those guys were big Primus fans from what I understood. As they were making the South Park pilot, they would listen to different music. The only one they could all agree on was Primus.” Even so, if you listen to the theme, you can tell it is not the standard four-string bass that Claypool is famously known for, but it is actually a Whamola. The Whamola is a direct descendant of washtub basses and is extremely rare, usually being made by musicians themselves and not by companies. Instead of the standard four-string bass with tuning pegs at the top, the Whamola only has one string, with a lever system replacing the tuning pegs. Basically, instead of tuning each string to certain keys, the musician simply moves the lever up and down to get the desired note. And that is not the only oddity of the instrument or the South Park theme itself. Again, instead of plucking, slapping, or any other style of making the bass guitar play, the performer hits the Whamola’s string with a drumstick, which only makes it so much weirder and mysterious to Claypool’s audience. Even then, the song that is used in South Park is actually a sped-up version of the original track. Comedy Central, the production company behind South Park, thought the original track was too slow, but Primus was on tour at the time and could not rerecord, so Trey Parker and Matt Stone simply sped it up, and Claypool later sent in a tape recorder of the new vocals.

This year, Les Claypool’s Gold tour is coming to Bend, Oregon. The official Primus website mentions that Primus, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, and Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade will all be playing, “for a one-mind melting experience.” In all, Primus has gone on over 40 tours, both for studio releases and as openers for other artists such as Rush, U2, Public Enemy, and Fishbone. Claypool is known for his over-the-top, psychedelic and overall insane concerts, with one of the most famous pictures of him playing his own Whamola while jumping around the stage in a monkey mask. Even though Claypool is getting up in age, hitting his 63rd birthday this year, footage of old and present concerts look near to identical.

An article about every side project Les Claypool has either been involved in or has directly created himself would take well over the time I have to write. However, some of my favorite credits of Claypool are found in the albums Desert Sessions: Volume 11 and The Les Claypool Lennon Delirium, Death Grip's song “More Than a Fairy,” and by the band Oysterhead. Claypool is one of the best musicians of our time and clearly deserves to be placed in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

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