"I look at what I've done and I'm happy and proud of the progressive growth and where I am as a human being"

“As far as my early days it was Geddy Lee and Chris Squire, those were my two guys,” says Les Claypool about his first two bass heroes.

In a career spanning the twisted rock of Primus, whose most recent album saw them tackle the soundtrack of the 1971 movie Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, to Oysterhead, The Frog Brigade and Duo de Twang, Claypool has shown an almost gleeful disregard for ideas about genre limitations and the traditional role of the bass as a supportive part of the rhythm section.

“I remember the first time I witnessed somebody doing the thumping and the plucking was Louis Johnson on the old Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert"

While he’s often considered one of rock’s foremost proponents of slap bass, he’s not a fan of that term, preferring thumping and plucking. “I remember the first time I witnessed somebody doing the thumping and the plucking was Louis Johnson on the old Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” he says.

“Louis Johnson was from The Brothers Johnson and his style was unbelievable. He would pop his thumb off that bass, his thumb would come a foot and a half off the bass. To this day I’ve never seen anybody thump their bass as hard as that guy. I was like, holy shit, I’ve got to learn to do that.”

‘Wait a minute, that’s pretty cool’

Asked how he compares now to the young thumper and plucker who cut Frizzle Fry and Sailing The Seas Of Cheese, Claypool replies, “I hear him but I don’t see him because the guy back then was running around on stage with his shirt off and a pair of shorts with a braided Mohawk. Now people don’t want to see this guy with his shirt off on stage.

"It’s like anything else, as you move through life there are elements of reflection where you go, ‘What the hell was I thinking?’ Then time goes by and you go, ‘Wait a minute, that’s pretty cool.’ You grow to appreciate those things. I look at what I’ve done and I’m happy and proud of the progressive growth and where I am as a human being – as a father and husband and all those things. I feel like I’ve got it pretty good.”

The Primus and the Chocolate Factory is hitting Europe and the UK in June. For the full tour dates and tickets, visit primusville.com