This is the role Primus was born to play. The jammy metallic Northern California trio is talented and weird enough to convincingly play Rush music. And that’s what they’re doing for “A Tribute to Kings.” The tour finds Primus performing - in its entirety - “A Farewell to Kings,” the sprawling 1977 album by Rush, the prog-metal trio of all prog-metal trios.
To casual fans, Rush’s fifth studio LP is known for spectacular singalong power-ballad “Closer to the Heart.” But dedicated Rush faithful adore the longer, more adventurous pieces on “Kings”: the shapeshifting “Xanadu” and deep-space thrasher “Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage.”
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On their “A Tribute to Kings” shows, Primus is essential opening for themselves. Before the Rush material, they perform a set of their own songs, which often include the band’s signature classics “My Name is Mud,” “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” and “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver.” (There is also an actual different opening act on the shows - the bands Battles, Black Mountain or Black Angels, depending on the date.)
On a recent morning, Primus bassist supreme and vocalist Les Claypool checked in for the below phone interview. He called from the cozy confines of the band’s tour bus in Oklahoma City, where he and Primus guitarist Ler LaLonde and drummer Tim Alexander were performing later. Below are edited excerpts from our conversation.
Les, how did Rush change your perception of what a three-piece rock trio could do? Back when you were growing up or as Primus was first forming.
For us the connection with Rush was when we auditioned Tim Alexander, we saw this guy show up with this big drum kit and we were like, “Huh. Guess we can play some Rush licks.” And we just started jamming on Rush licks. We didn’t know any songs in their entirety, but it was one of the things that we were able to connect on. That and like (prog-rock band King) Crimson and some other things, and it was just a common ground. And then, of course, later when we went out on tour with those guys (Rush), becoming friends with them, it really just sort of solidified our place in their world and their place in our world. But as far as analyzing how a three-piece band could be because of that, I mean, that was a big part of just me being a kid. Looking at Rush – wow, a three-piece! – or The Police or Cream. Those power trios, I’ve always liked that. ZZ Top, man!
Got a vivid memory from when Primus was opening for Rush on their “Roll the Bones” tour in the early ‘90s?
While there was a lot of them because we toured with them, I think, twice in the States and one time in Europe. So we became good friends. We’ve had some good drunken times together. But one thing that became a fairly regular was we’re playing all these arenas, and we all had our locker rooms. And then we’d always set up a little drum-kit and practice amps and stuff that that. It’s just always what we did, and those guys would come in and, we’d just jam it up.
And there’s Neil Peart (Rush drummer) banging on the lockers and (Rush guitarist) Alex Lifeson playing guitar using a tortilla chip for a pick and us swapping instruments. And next thing you know, Alex has gotten a trumpet out or whatever. There was a time when we first got to know those guys, and me and Ler had Geddy (Lee, Rush bassist/singer) fishing in the boast we had just fixed up, and we threw a fan belt halfway across the bay, and we’re stuck out in the middle of San Francisco Bay fishing for sharks with Geddy Lee. A lot of things like that.
Sounds like good times, man. My understanding is Primus is using some of Rush’s instruments on tour. Which of those holy relics are you bringing out with you?
Well, that’s more Ler. I’m using Rickenbackers (basses, as Lee often has played), but Ler got a hold of Alex because Alex kind of coached him on some of these chord progressions and whatnot. And Alex just (loaned) him a couple of guitars to use, so he’s using a couple of Alex’s guitars.
Is Alex’s famous white double-neck Gibson one of those?
A white double-neck is being used, yes. I doubt it’s the original - I’m sure those guys had multiples of these and actually I think the original’s in some museum somewhere.
I read where you compared learning Rush material to climbing Mt. Everest. Rush’s music is known for its virtuosity and complexity. Besides those facets, what makes doing Rush songs right so challenging?
The most obvious thing is the vocals. You’ve got to be up there in frickin’ dolphin land, pitch wise. So that was challenging. I mean, I’m not a keyboard player, so my keyboard looks like a box of crayons because there’s so many pieces of colored tape on there so I know where to put my fingers. Playing all these things at the same time, that’s tough.
But it’s also a labor of love. It’s very fun, very nostalgic and it was very bonding for the three of us too. We’re lazy. We’ve never rehearsed. We get together to rehearse for a tour and we play a few songs and go drink wine and eat steaks. This time, we had to really buckle down and actually rehearse - we have a new rehearsal space - and it prompted us to record these new songs too, because we just kind of got into it. We got into being a band again. It’s really been a great thing for Primus in general, because it’s reinvigorated us in a pretty substantial way.
That leads into what was going to be my next question. I read Primus has been recording a new EP that includes a 13-minute song. How has digging back into your roots renewed this long running successful band? Although it sounds like you just told me …
The original notion was: Hey, we’re going out to do this to do another round on this tour and maybe we should have some couple new songs to play. And we didn’t want to do a whole album. I don’t think people want to have a whole new album inflicted upon them when they’re coming to see some classics. The notion was, hey, let’s do one 20-minute song, and it came out to be 11-and-a-half minutes. So we needed a B-side and then it was like we need two B-sides because this thing’s so damn long. So now it’s an EP. And now there’s keyboards on this f—king song. [Laughs] Definitely the Rush thing has inspired us to expand in other ways as well.
It’s cool you picked “A Farewell to Kings” for a Rush album to take on. “Moving Pictures” or “2112″ would be the obvious choices. So take us back and put me in the room for the first time you ever heard “A Farewell to Kings.”
I was probably 12 or 13. And I don’t know how it was in your neighborhood, but there was always that neighborhood kid that had all the cool toys. Their parents had a little bit of money. My parents didn’t have any money. So we’d always go hang out at my buddy Jeff’s house because he had a Doughboy (above ground) swimming pool and he had BB guns, and both him and his brother they each had their own stereos. And there was a stereo in the pool room where there was a pool table. It’s like, Oh, my God.
Because he had an older brother he also had all these albums and we would just sit there and look at the records and pick them by their cover. And all sudden I’m looking at this thing and I see this puppet, the “Farewell to Kings” cover, and I was like, “Put this one on.” And that was the first time I heard Rush.
One of Primus’ signature tracks is “Jerry Was a Racecar Driver.” I’ve always thought song was like a different take on “Devil Went Down to Georgia” by Charlie Daniels. Is that a fair assessment?
That’s funny, because I’ve always said that. That it has the cadence of “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” because I get compared to The Residents quite a bit because, well, I’m a big Residents fan too and they have a very similar cadence to a lot of their stuff. So it wasn’t like I listened to Charlie Daniels and went, “Hey, I’m gonna sing it this way.” But it definitely has that cadence. But you’re the first one that’s ever said that. That (“Jerry Was a Racecar Driver”) gets compared to ‘90s (King) Crimson quite a bit as well.
What was the initial reason Primus decided to do these Rush tribute shows? Was it Neil Peart’s passing?
No, we were talking about doing this while Neil was still on the planet. In fact, I had asked Geddy about it way back in the day. I said, “Hey would you guys mind if we did this thing”?” and they were excited about us doing it. But it got postponed because we ended up doing that Slayer tour, Slayer’s last run and we’d always talked about doing a Slayer tour and it was like now or never. So we postposed the Rush thing for the following year, and then COVID stopped the world. By the time we got around to doing it, Neil had left the planet. It is a wonderful tribute to Neil, but it wasn’t the impetus. I was bummed that he didn’t see it - he was a good dude, a good friend.
I’ve read your son is making a Primus documentary. What can you tell us about the status of that?
He’s working with Jimmy Hayward, who’s a friend of ours, who’s a film producer and director and has done a lot of cool things (including working on “Toy Story,” “Finding Nemo” and Jonah Hex”). And now (“Aquaman” actor) Jason Momoa has come on as a producer, and it’s kind of turning into a real thing. In fact, my son’s down in L.A. right now cutting together a bunch of footage. He went through literally, I can’t remember the number, like 760 some odd videotapes of old Primus footage, of just shows and of hanging out, but there’s an insane amount of material to draw from. And he’s been interviewing all these different cats. And so he’s putting it all together.
You’ve always got a lot of different bands and musical projects going. Primus, Oysterhead, Delirium, Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains, an upcoming projects with Billy Strings … How do you gauge how many projects is too many? How do you not overload your circuits?
Oh, my circuits are totally overloaded, bro. [Laughs] Getting ready for this tour, just getting my damn bus on the road was about to give me a frickin’ aneurysm. But I don’t know, it’s what keeps you getting up in the morning. I can’t imagine retiring. I would be I would be so depressed. I’ve got to do stuff. But, you know, interesting opportunities come along and you just take them on.
On April 30, Primus’ Rush tribute tour comes to Mars Music Hall, address 700 Monroe St. at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. New York duo Battles opens the 8 p.m. show. Tickets start at $43 plus fees, via ticketmaster.com. More info at primusville.com.
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