Top 30 Les Claypool Quotes

I pretty much built a band out of the most incredible guys I could possibly find. I didn’t really want a six-piece band, but it just ended up being a six-piece band because these guys are all awesome.

More than anything, I think the best thing you can do as an artist is just stay as true to yourself as possible and hope that your fan base will appreciate that.

For the past couple of years I’ve been pretty bored with music in general… just bored with it.

I’ve never been on the cover of ‘Tiger Beat’ magazine, let’s put it that way. But that’s not why you go see Primus. You don’t go see Primus to see what kind of new clothing I’m wearing or what my new hairdo is.

I have a very difficult time describing my music.

Play as much as you can as often as you can with as many people as you can. That’s how you learn and grow.

The end of the Nineties was an unhappy Primus camp. I hit a creative stagnation that wasn’t helping us forward, and the personal elements, it just was time to stop.

To me, if you’re going to talk about funk, you have to go back to George Clinton and Bernie Worrell. Those guys are the giants. I’ve played with Bernie, and it was unreal. He’s the master.

I’m a big believer in spontaneity.

I think Phish will come back. I just think it’s time for a breather.

It’s always hard to put your finger on what it is that makes Primus Primus.

My favorite venues are the 2,000 seat theaters, like the Warfield. If there was a Warfield in every city, I would play it. That’s all I would do. I love venues like that.

I’ve always said the bass just happens to be the crayon I picked out of the box. I’d still be drawing the same pictures… should I have picked trumpet or accordion or guitar, whatever it may be. The sounds in my head are still the same.

You know, there are times when you play a song over and over and over and you get a little tired of it and you let it sit for a while. It’s like, you may love eating sushi, but if you eat it every single day, you’re going to get a little tired of it.

You know, whenever somebody comes in, in any situation – whether it’s a poker game or a bobsled team or a band – it’s gonna change things. And sometimes significantly.

I liked the name Frog Brigade because it lent itself to a lot of cool imagery with the whole frog thing.

You might have a favorite book or film, but you can only watch or read it so many times before you have to let it sit and then go back and realize it’s your favorite still. At some point everything gets a little stale and you have to step away from it.

I didn’t realize Metallica was as big as they were. I just thought it was my buddy Kirk’s band – we went to high school together. I wasn’t really following metal.

I love character actors. If I’m switching channels, and something with Slim Pickens is on, or Walter Brennan, I’m stuck. I have to watch it.

Because nobody wanted to play bass, I was instantly in a band.

Theaters are great. They’re designed to sound good, not for basketball.

I have a very difficult time describing my music. Because I run into people in the hardware store and they go, ‘Oh, you’re a musician. So what kind of music do you play?’ And I go, ‘Uh, I’ve been doin’ this for many years – I don’t know what to call it.’

If I’m home and I come up with something, I’ll try to record it, but a lot of the time I’ll forget to. A lot of things go off into space and never come back ’cause I just don’t remember them.

We’ve all had our thing. I listened to the Monkees when I was little kid.

As I’ve moved through life, I’ve found that I like things to be as casual and as spontaneous as possible when writing.

I never think about rhythm versus melody; I’ve always just played to what’s in my head.

My heroes are guys like Frank Capra and Elia Kazan and Coen brothers and Terry Gilliam, more so than a lot of bass players at this point in my life. So I’ve always been an old-film nut and have very much enjoyed doing videos over the years.

Daniel Day-Lewis is my favorite actor walking the planet right now. He never ceases to amaze me.

New Year’s was insane! It was the best show I’ve ever played for New Year’s.

Music in general is looking for something new overall.