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Les Claypool

early life

Claypool was born into a working-class family of car mechanics in Richmond, California, in 1963. He was raised in El Sobrante, California. He learned to play the bass guitar at age 14, but didn't begin a career in music until much later.

He attended De Anza High School in Richmond, where he was friends with Kirk Hammett. Claypool worked as a carpenter for several years after graduating from high school.

early career

After the death of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton in 1986, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett reconnected with Claypool and asked him to audition as Burton's replacement.

In the Metallica episode of the documentary series Behind the Music, Claypool said that he jokingly asked the members of Metallica if they wanted to "jam on some Isley Brothers tunes" during the audition, a reference to his lack of experience with Metallica's thrash metal style. He later recalled Hammett had given him a copy of Metallica's 1984 album Ride the Lightning, which he enjoyed, but Claypool also stressed he "wasn't a big metal guy" and did not realize how popular Metallica had become until he arrived at the audition; according to Claypool, he also didn't realize at the time that the intro riff of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" was a bass, and thus didn't play it during the audition. Metallica frontman James Hetfield said that Claypool was not offered the job because "he was too good" and "should do his own thing". Claypool responded by admitting that he "wasn't the right guy" for the band due to being a self-proclaimed "weirdo"; he said that Hetfield was just "being nice" with his comments.