Leslie Edward Claypool (born September 29, 1963) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, filmmaker, author, and winemaker, best known as the founder, lead singer, bassist, and primary songwriter of Primus. Ranked as one of the greatest bassists of all time by Rolling Stone, his unique playing style mixes tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends, and slapping and popping.
Claypool has been involved in a number of non-Primus 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) and duos such as Duo de Twang (with Bryan Kehoe) and The Claypool Lennon Delirium (with Sean Lennon). He also fronts the experimental rock projects Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade and Les Claypool's Fancy Band. He has produced and engineered several of his own releases from Rancho Relaxo, which is his studio in California.
Claypool appears in the opening titles of the animated comedy series South Park, for which Primus has performed the theme song since its debut in 1997. In 2006, he made his debut as both a filmmaker and author when he wrote and directed the mockumentary Electric Apricot: Quest For Festeroo and released the novel South of the Pumphouse.
Early life Leslie Edward Claypool was born into a working-class family of car mechanics in Richmond, California, on September 29, 1963. He was raised in El Sobrante, California. He learned to play the bass guitar at age 14, but did not begin a career in music until much later. He attended De Anza High School in Richmond, where he was friends with Kirk Hammett, and worked as a carpenter for several years after graduating from high school.
Career Early career After the death of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton in 1986, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett reconnected with his high school friend Claypool and asked him to audition as Burton's replacement. In Metallica's 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. He later recalled Hammett giving him a copy of Metallica's 1984 album Ride the Lightning, which he enjoyed, but also stressed he "wasn't a big metal guy" and did not realize how popular Metallica had become until he arrived at the audition.Les Claypool on his Metallica audition, YouTube, accessed March 7, 2018 He also did not realize at the time that the intro riff of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" was performed on bass, and thus did not play it during 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 said that Hetfield was just "being nice" with his comments.
Primus
Primus began as "Primate" in the mid-1980s. The band featured Claypool on bass, Todd Huth on guitar, and various drummers (most notably Jay Lane); however, 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. He frequently utilizes the slap-bass technique prominent in funk music, and is the only member of Primus who comes from a funk background. However, Claypool often rejects the "slap bass" label commonly applied to his style, preferring instead the phrase "thumpin' and pluckin'", a term he borrowed from funk bassist Larry Graham. Because of Claypool's strong funk influence, Primus is often described as "thrash-funk" or funk metal, although Claypool dislikes the labels. He said, "We've been lumped in with the funk metal thing just about everywhere. I guess people just have to categorize you”.
From 1989 to 2000, Primus gained significant mainstream airplay, headlining Lollapalooza in 1993 and appearing on Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 1995. They also appeared at Woodstock '94, where they performed their Pork Soda hit "My Name Is Mud" and were pelted with mud by the audience, much to the band's displeasure. It drove Claypool to stop playing telling the audience "the song's called My Name is Mud, but keep the mud to yourself you son of a bitch".Primus' Les Claypool Talks Woodstock '94, 20 Years Later, Billboard.com In 1991, the band was featured in the movie Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey performing their song "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 1997, Primus was asked to play and record the theme song for the animated television show South Park. In 1999, Claypool 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. 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. Primus continued touring into 2004, performing their 1990 release Frizzle Fry as their second set, as documented on the DVD Hallucino-Genetics: Live 2004.
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 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. 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.
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 started a tour with Mastodon through most of 2018.
In 2024, Alexander resigned from Primus "effective immediately," seemingly retiring from music due to a "lost passion to play." The band announced plans to continue touring with members from Claypool's other bands and began searching for "the world's best drummer" to replace Alexander on X (formerly Twitter).
Solo work
Sausage
In 1993 Claypool began a short-lived alternative/funk rock band featuring Todd Huth on guitar and Jay Lane on drums. 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. The band reunited for a show on December 31, 2019, opening for The Claypool Lennon Delirium and have not returned since.
Holy Mackerel In 1996, Claypool produced, engineered, and released a solo album, "Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel presents" Highball with the Devil. He is credited with playing bass, and drums as well as vocals on several tracks as well as guitar. Also on the album are Mark "Mirv" Haggard, Adam Gates, Jay Lane, Joe Gore, Charlie Hunter, and Henry Rollins. The accompanying tour included Haggard and Gates on guitars with Bryan Mantia on drums. It was announced during the Holy Mackerel tour that Mantia had been chosen to become the next Primus drummer.
Oysterhead
In April 2000, Claypool collaborated with Trey Anastasio (of Phish) and Stewart Copeland (of the Police) to form a supergroup called Oysterhead. Claypool and Anastasio had been looking for an opportunity to collaborate. Each had a mutual interest in playing with Copeland who had been a rock idol of their teen years. Plus, Claypool and Copeland already had an established friendship. Oysterhead were originally intended as a one time performance during Jazz Fest in New Orleans. Though timid of the band's sudden and surprising popularity they decided to record and tour. They released one studio album, The Grand Pecking Order, and toured before disbanding in 2001. They re-united in 2006, at the Bonnaroo Music Festival. In 2016 Les tried to reunite the group, but ended up releasing an album with The Claypool Lennon Delirium. They re-united once again in 2020 for two shows at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado, with the rest of their tour cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Frog Brigade
In May 2000, Claypool formed Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, an experimental rock group. He was asked to put together a band for the Mountain Aire Festival in Angels Camp, California. The band "of the most incredible guys (he) could possibly find" debuted that Memorial Day weekend and played a number of other festivals including moe.down. Originally he was going to call the band "Les Claypool's Thunder Brigade". Claypool said:
I originally was going to do the two drummer thing with Herb and Jack Irons, so I was gonna call it the Les Claypool Thunder Brigade. Michael Bailey from Bill Graham Presents said to me that it may sound a bit too heavy for the Mountain Aire crowd and to perhaps try something a little different that had to do with the event itself. Since it was home of the Calaveras County Frog Jump... hence the Frog Brigade and then it evolved into Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade.
The Primus hiatus allowed him to return to his musical roots, playing songs by bands such as Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and the Beatles. Claypool has called the Frog Brigade his "mid-life crisis band". From a set of October shows recorded at Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, Claypool released two Frog Brigade live albums, one being a cover of Pink Floyd's Animals. The line-up included Todd Huth, Eenor, Jeff Chimenti, Jay Lane, Skerik and Claypool.
The Frog Brigade is also noted for Claypool's being accepted into the jam band scene.Jambands, Dean Budnick, Backbeat Books, 2003, pp 248–9 Live Frogs Set 1 won "Best Live Album" at the second annual Jammys. Jay Lane and Jeff Chimenti are both members of Bob Weir's bands Ratdog and Wolf Bros. Claypool performed with the Rat Brigade when opening for Ratdog once in 2000 and again in 2007. The Rat Brigade includes Claypool, drummer Lane and keyboardist Chimenti, with guest appearances by saxophonist Kenny Brooks and Bob Weir. Claypool also guested on the Ratdog sets in 2000, 2006 and 2009.
In 2002, Claypool released a studio album of the Frog Brigade, Purple Onion. Musicians on multiple tracks for Purple Onion include Warren Haynes (Gov't Mule) Eenor, Mike Dillon, Skerik, Jay Lane, Ben Barnes, and Sam Bass (Dillon and Skerik were both from Critters Buggin; Barnes and Sam Bass were from Deadweight). The album includes "Whamola" which later appeared as a remix for the theme of South Park Season 10.
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