As Primus ready themselves for their long-delayed Rush tribute tour, A Tribute To Kings, bassist and frontman Les Claypool has taken to Instagram to reveal what he's been doing to polish up on his skills ahead of the event. Not that a musician as technically mind-boggling as the man who trailblazed the prog metal universe with songs such as Jerry Was A Race Car Driver and American Life needs much practice, mind.
On August 7, Claypool posted a photo onto the social media platform with Rush's similarly inspiring prog rock pioneer Geddy Lee. Both holding their instruments in hand, the Primus frontman captions the image declaring to be "learning from the master".
The A Tribute To Kings tour will see Primus performing a set of their own material as well as songs from Rush’s seminal platinum-certified 1977 album A Farewell To Kings.
Originally scheduled for 2020, the tour was delayed until the summer of the following year, and is now set to kick off on August 10, 2021 in Boise, Idaho, before wrapping up on October 25 in Arizona.
On the tour, Claypool said in a statement: “Finally, the clouds are parting, the planets are aligning, the dough is rising … whatever metaphor floats your proverbial boat, Primus is going on tour again.
"We were poised and ready for a massive, bent-rock extravaganza when the gremlins of Covid came and yanked the rug out from under us all. I personally have been climbing the walls like a shit-house rat and, after my first season off in 30-some-odd years, I’m very anxious and excited to stand in front of the microphone with my four-string piece of furniture and belt out some girthy ditties to sweaty throngs of punters.”
The bass player also spoke of how the Rush tribute idea came into fruition via a interview with Rolling Stone, stating “I texted with him — I keep in touch with Geddy — just to make sure we weren’t trodding on something weird. So I checked in with him to see what he thought of it, and he was excited about the notion.”
Check out the post below:
