About Les Claypool
Leslie Edward Claypool (born September 29, 1963) is an American musician, best known as the founder, lead singer, bassist, and primary songwriter of Primus. Ranked as one of the greatest bassists of all time by Rolling Stone, his unique playing style mixes tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends, and slapping and popping. Claypool has been involved in a number of non-Primus projects, including supergroups such as Oysterhead (with Trey Anastasio and Stewart Copeland) and Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains (with Buckethead, Bryan Mantia, and Bernie Worrell) and duos such as Duo de Twang (with Bryan Kehoe) and The Claypool Lennon Delirium (with Sean Lennon). He also fronts the experimental rock projects Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade and Les Claypool's Fancy Band. He has produced and engineered several of his own releases from Rancho Relaxo, which is his studio in California. Claypool appears in the opening titles of the animated comedy series South Park, for which Primus has performed the theme song since its debut in 1997. In 2006, he made his debut as both a filmmaker and author when he wrote and directed the mockumentary Electric Apricot: Quest For Festeroo and released the novel South of the Pumphouse. Claypool and Tom Waits first recorded on each other's records in 1991 and have continued to do so since. In mid-2003, Claypool reunited with former Primus drummer Tim Alexander and guitarist Larry LaLonde to record a DVD/EP called Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People. In 1997, Primus was asked to play and record the theme song for the animated television show South Park. On October 17, 2006, Primus released both their first greatest hits album, They Can't All Be Zingers, and their third DVD, Blame It on the Fish, subtitled An Abstract Look at the 2003 Primus Tour De Fromage.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.