Les Claypool talks Golden Eggs and Parrot-Oxes

By Lauren Taylor Carr & Kevin Murphy Wilson • Photos Provided

Although his longtime role in the metal-funk-rock outfit Primus keeps him firmly in the spotlight, that endeavor is just one of many creative ventures currently occupying legendary bassist Les Claypool. In fact, Claypool released three new records this year alone: a collection of Primus rarities, A Handful of Nuggs; a live album from Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, The Return of the Live Frogs Vol. 1; and The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy, a studio LP created with Sean Ono Lennon under the Claypool Lennon Delirium banner.

When he’s not making music, Claypool oversees a thriving wine label, Purple Pachyderm Pinot Noir by Claypool Cellars, and serves as chief designer for his own bass guitar company, Pachyderm Instruments. As if that weren’t enough, he is also taking pre-orders for his debut graphic novel and illustrated fable, Frizzle Fry: The Phantoms of Barrington Hall, which arrives in October.

We recently caught up with the renaissance man and rock icon for a wide-ranging three-way conversation about creative partnerships, family, the so-called “paper clip conundrum,” and more. 

Kevin Murphy Wilson: I’m getting ahead of our plan here, but I just saw that [Kentucky-born master musician] Billy Strings sat in at one of your “Claypool Gold” shows this summer for his first live performance since his infamous skateboarding accident. And because you also officiated at his wedding, I was wondering what you can tell us about that friendship and if there are any plans for more intentional collaborations in the future?

Les Claypool: “A handful of years ago, I was playing a festival with ‘the Delirium’ and my wife came up to me and said, ‘There’s this band that played earlier in the day and here’s their setlist.’ I looked at the setlist and the first song started with ‘L,’ the second song started with ‘E’ the third song started with ‘S’ the next song started ‘C,’ so on and so forth. It spelled out my name. I was like, ‘Well, that's a little weird and kind of creepy.’ He [Billy Strings] and his bandmates were big fans, though, so they came over to meet me. I don't remember meeting Billy that evening, but I met his band. And then, my daughter forced me to get Instagram a handful of years ago as well. Up to that point my idea of being on social media was going on Craigslist and looking for old Chrysler parts. But she said, ‘You know, you really need to get in touch there, Dad.’ So, I got an Instagram account, and I didn't know what to do with it. I just started posting fishing pictures. And Billy would always comment on my fishing pictures. So, we just kind of connected over that and became friends. We eventually started fishing together and we actually started working on a studio record, but we just have never finished it.”

Lauren Taylor Carr: Going back to the beginning of your musical journey, was there a specific bass player or band that inspired you to pick up the instrument?

LC: “Kirk Hammett [future founding member and lead guitarist of Metallica] was my friend in high school and was a huge influence on me. He's pretty much the one that got me into music. He wanted me to sing for his band, which became [thrash metal pioneers] Exodus, but I was just too bashful. I couldn’t sing for shit at the time and I still can’t sing very well. Anyway, I met this other guy in high school who had a band and he was kind of a ‘hot shot guitar player’ and they needed a bass player because nobody wanted to play bass back then. Everybody wanted to be Eddie Van Halen. So, I bought a bass and was in his band. Like most guys where I grew up, we were listening to people like Rush, Led Zeppelin and whatnot. So, Geddy Lee, and John Paul Jones were my early influences on bass. Then Stanley Clarke [Return to Forever], Larry Graham [Sly and the Family Stone], and some people like that.” 

KMW: I know that later on Kirk Hammett also invited you to audition for Metallica following the tragic 1986 death of [original bass player] Cliff Burton. Even though it didn’t work out, did preparing for that session impact your approach to making music at all?

LC: “I met Cliff right before he died. And then when he did die, I got the call to come down and audition. And I didn't really know a lot about Metallica. I had the Ride the Lightning album because Kirk had given it to me. But I wasn't really into the metal scene, I was into more obscure, more experimental stuff. But in the process of learning those Metallica songs to do the audition, it did start influencing me and some of the Primus material like ‘Frizzle Fry,’ especially ‘Frizzle Fry,’ which I wrote pretty much right after I auditioned for Metallica. There were a lot of changes to that song, you know, it's a pretty intricate song, and there are some heavier elements to it. So, yeah, that experience definitely started influencing the way Primus was sounding.”

LTC: We’re still digesting your latest LP, The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy. There are some really timely themes unfolding within it. Can you break it down a little for our readers? And, like, what inspired you and Sean Ono Lennon to go down that particular rabbit hole?

LC: “You know, when ‘Shiner’ [Claypool’s nickname for Sean Ono Lennon] and I decided it was time to start making another ‘Delirium’ record, knowing we wanted to do something special for our third record. We talked about maybe doing an animated piece, we talked about doing a stage show, some sort of ‘Rock Opera,’ but trying to do some sort of conceptual thing does make it a lot harder, because you’re putting up parameters. I’m a very spontaneous person in the studio, and even with my writing, and when you have a narrative you have to follow, it makes it a little more difficult. We had a few different ideas floating around until one day he [Sean Ono Lennon] started talking about this ‘paper clip conundrum,’ which is an actual theory…it’s a ‘mind study,’ and I said, ‘That will be a great concept for this thing.’ So, we started going down the path of this ‘paper clip theory,’ which is the notion that if you give AI a task and tell it to do this task most efficiently, it will do that task to the ‘nth degree,’ to the point where it will absorb all resources on the planet and eventually the universe. So, that was sort of the conduit for the story, whereas actually, the moral of the story has to do with the erosion of empathy we’re seeing on the planet.”

KMW: The music business seems stranger than ever. In this day and age, and at this point in your career, how do you even measure success?

LC: “Everybody has a different way of measuring success. I talk about this to young people all the time. People say, ‘So how do you become successful?’ Well, first of all, you have to define what ‘success’ means to you. Is success a lot of money, is success a lot of sex? [LAUGHTER] Is it getting to do what you want to do, or is it being famous? You know, there are all kinds of things. For me, it has always been about being able to do what I want to do without anybody really telling me a direction or whatever. Obviously, I have my friends and people that I respect that I’ll bounce ideas off of and whatnot. I’ve always said my resume, or my headstone, is going to look pretty cool just because of all the amazing and wonderful people I’ve gotten to befriend and work with…some of them my heroes and some of them new people. So, that to me is my favorite aspect in terms of what I’ve done with my career.”

LTC: Looking back from this juncture, what are you most proud of generally speaking?

LC: “What I’m most proud of is that I just had my 30th wedding anniversary. Me and my wife [sic] have been together 37 years [total]. I have an amazing family. I’ve raised a couple of spectacular kids. So, that's what I'm most proud of. And then, being able to go out and travel around in a shiny box [Claypool’s tour bus], which I’m sitting in right now, having my wife with me, doing shows with my friends, and going camping on the days off…that’s pretty incredible!”

For more information visit LesClaypool.com.