The audition that never got off the ground started with a joke about the Isley Brothers. Les Claypool, born September 29, 1963 in Richmond, California, walked into a room with Metallica in 1986 and suggested they jam on some soul classics instead of thrash. The stakes were absurdly high: Cliff Burton had just died, and the band needed a bassist who could anchor their sound. Claypool knew guitarist Kirk Hammett from high school in El Sobrante, where both grew up surrounded by auto mechanics and suburban boredom. What happened next became one of rock's great what-ifs, though Claypool's path was already pointing somewhere far stranger than metal.
The audition that failed
Claypool picked up bass at 14 and spent his post-high-school years working as a carpenter, a trade that kept his hands strong and his schedule open for music. The friendship with Hammett gave him an inside track when Metallica lost Burton, but Claypool didn't prepare the way a metal bassist should. He didn't know that the intro to 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' was played on bass, so he never touched it during the audition. James Hetfield later said Claypool didn't get the job because he was 'too good.' The rejection stung, but it freed him to build something Metallica could never contain.
James Hetfield later said Claypool didn't get the job because he was 'too good.'
Primus began in the mid-1980s under the name Primate, with Claypool joined by guitarist Larry LaLonde and drummer Tim Alexander. The sound they developed defied easy description, though critics kept reaching for labels like thrash-funk or funk-metal. Claypool hated those terms. His bass style leaned on a slapping technique he preferred to call 'thumpin' and pluckin',' borrowing the phrase from funk bassist Larry Graham. By 1993, Primus was headlining Lollapalooza, proving that weird, angular, bass-forward music could pull festival crowds without radio-friendly hooks.
Live chaos and pop culture
The live chaos around Primus became its own legend. At Woodstock '94, the band played 'My Name Is Mud' while the audience threw actual mud at the stage, which infuriated Claypool. The absurdity fit a group that had already appeared in 'Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey' in 1991 performing 'Tommy the Cat.' That same year, Claypool began a long-running collaboration with Tom Waits, each appearing on the other's records. By 1997, Primus had recorded the theme for 'South Park,' and two years later 'Jerry Was a Race Car Driver' landed in the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater soundtrack.
Claypool never stayed in one lane for long. In 1993 he launched the side project Sausage with guitarist Todd Huth and drummer Jay Lane, releasing 'Riddles Are Abound Tonight' in April 1994 on Prawn Song Records. Then came the solo pivot: 'Highball with the Devil' in 1996, credited to Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel, where he played bass, drums, vocals, and guitar himself. Charlie Hunter and Henry Rollins joined as guests. The record showed Claypool's range beyond Primus, blending spoken-word weirdness, funk grooves, and the kind of bass tones that made him instantly recognizable.
Supergroups and side projects
The new millennium brought stranger collaborations. In 2000, Claypool formed Oysterhead with Trey Anastasio and Stewart Copeland, releasing one studio album, 'The Grand Pecking Order.' The supergroup reunited at Bonnaroo in 2006 and again for two Colorado shows in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the tour. Meanwhile, in May 2000, Claypool created Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, a project named after the frog-jumping contest in Calaveras County. He called it his 'midlife crisis band.' The group covered Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and The Beatles, releasing two live albums recorded at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.
One of those Frog Brigade live records was a full-album cover of Pink Floyd's 'Animals.' Live Frogs Set 1 won Best Live Album at the Jammys. The studio follow-up, 'Purple Onion,' arrived in 2002. That same year, Claypool assembled C2B3 with guitarist Buckethead, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and drummer Brian Mantia. The project had no rehearsals and no prepared material before shows. At one gig, the band made sandwiches on stage for the audience. In 2004, C2B3 released 'The Big Eyeball in the Sky,' documenting a group built entirely on improvisation and theatrical unpredictability.
Solo records and novels
Solo work continued alongside all the collaborations. 'Of Whales and Woe' arrived in 2006, featuring Skerik, Mike Dillon, and Gabby La La, with Claypool's children Cage and Lena appearing on the track 'Back Off Turkey.' That same year he toured with Les Claypool's Fancy Band, released the mockumentary 'Electric Apricot: Quest For Festeroo,' and published a novel, 'South of the Pumphouse.' A live DVD called 'Fancy' followed in 2007. In 2008 he wrote music for the Wii game 'Mushroom Men,' and in 2009 he released 'Of Fungi and Foe,' built from material for that game and the film Pig Hunt.
Primus kept evolving through reunion cycles. In 2003, the band returned with the EP 'Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People' and a tour where the second set was 'Sailing the Seas of Cheese' played in full. A year later, 'Frizzle Fry' got the same treatment, captured on the DVD 'Hallucino-Genetics.' The compilation 'They Can't All Be Zingers' landed in 2006. 'Green Naugahyde' in 2011 brought back drummer Jay Lane. 'Primus & the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble' in 2014 reimagined the Willy Wonka soundtrack, and 'The Desaturating Seven' in 2017 drew from Ul de Rico's rainbow-goblin fairy tale. In 2024, Tim Alexander left Primus, citing a loss of passion for playing.
Claypool still runs Rancho Relaxo, his recording studio in California, where he produces his own records and collaborates with Sean Lennon in The Claypool Lennon Delirium. He also performs in Duo de Twang, the acoustic project he formed with Marc Haggard in 2012, and once played Rush's 'The Spirit of Radio' in 2010 when the band entered the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He has been married to Chaney Smith since 1995. The man who lost a Metallica audition by being too good now owns a catalog spanning funk, metal, jam, and whatever C2B3 was. His birthday is September 29.