Les Claypool of Primus Didn’t Want a Reunion

Last month, Primus fans celebrated the release of ‘Green Naugahyde,’ the band’s first new album in over a decade. But to hear bassist and band frontman Les Claypool describe the release, the Primus reunion didn’t meet up to the hype.

“To be honest with you, I wasn’t really that interested in doing it,” Claypool revealed during a recent interview with the Colorado Springs Independent. “I like turning over new rocks, and it didn’t feel like it was a new rock.” 

The clincher for Claypool was getting together for a jam session with Primus drummer Jay Lane. “We got together and played, and we were getting along really great. It felt good. It felt right,” Claypool explained. “We did the tour and then we said, ‘OK, let’s do the real thing here. Let’s make an album and make a good run of it.’ So, here we are.”

It turned out that Claypool’s old band still had some “new rocks” to offer. “I like being challenged, and that’s what we’re dong with Primus right now,” he said. “And Jay Lane is really good at shooting from the hip, so we do go off into sort of strange territory every night, and that to me is very enjoyable. I mean, it’s great to play the old tunes and play them the way they should be played, but you also have to have that little bit of stepping off into new territory, that element of dancing on the edge, so to speak.”

‘Green Naugahyde,’ the band’s first release through ATO Records, debuted in the Top 20 of Billboard’s album charts on September 13.

[LoudWire]