Features

Les Claypool: A Self-Described "Festival-Whore" Shares Perspective (Relix Revisited)

Les as Les – photo by Rex Thomson

I started watching Spinal Tap about half-way through production to see if we were stepping on any toes. Spinal Tap is much more overt then this. This is very subtle, probably stylistically Ricky Gervais would be more of an influence. Sure, they are both mockumentaries about a band so you can draw lots of parallels to Spinal Tap. But there are a lot of films about baseball, too.

As soon as we started gigging, we started filming. I’m a guy who’s done a lot of things. I make records all the time— I’m continuously busy. But this was the hardest damn thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. There was stress, there were trips to the hospital, there was a hit-and-run, there were people flipping out and friends mad at each other. One of the festivals we were supposed to shoot at got cancelled like a half-hour before we got there [2005’s Shakedown Festival]. We were driving in a motor home to get to it! It was like a kick in the nuts every day. It just got to a point where I was like, “Okay, just kick me in the nuts.” We became these characters.

The actual filming part was fine, it all went really smoothly and directing the guys was great. I said, “The Murphy’s Law grenades were going off on an hourly basis.” It got to be a joke. We were like, “Okay, what’s gonna happen today? Guess we have to go to the hospital again.” It’s very much like building a house. You know building a house is responsible for some ungodly percentage of divorces. Well, this was like building a house with a handful of amateur carpenters and all the building materials were on fire. Artistically, I think what I learned is, when you have an idea, you just have to follow through with it. We won best comedy at the Tiburon Film Festival. It was sold out—they had to add an extra show. It was unbelievable, but we constructed it. We’ve got a pretty nifty little house.

People have said, “He’s gonna take the piss out of the jambands, he’s gonna take the piss out of the jamband scene!” But it’s actually a very endearing look at the scene. I’m taking the piss out of these four guys. Four guys who just take themselves way too seriously. We all know people like that, whether they are musicians or shoe salesmen or whatever the hell they do. And that’s what I’m taking the piss out of. Warren Haynes actually does a little acting in the movie. He is incredible. He did a great job. Bob Weir and Wavy Gravy are the champions of the movie. Wavy drops some fine knowledge in this one. By the end of the film, I don’t think there is anybody you don’t like. It’s not making anybody look bad. Sure, there’s conflict and there are some villains, to an extent, but it’s pretty mild. All these characters are very lovable and I think it’s a very endearing look at the scene. It’s poking fun at a portion of humanity, people that are somewhat disillusioned by their own perceptions of themselves.

I’ve sort of had the scene thrust upon me by the Oysterhead thing. In 20/20 hindsight, it makes sense, because Primus was one of the more technical bands as far as our contemporaries. We tended to open things up; just out of boredom we’d start jamming. But the thing that I really enjoy about this scene is I get a sense of evolution with this scene. It’s just growing and expanding—evolving. I mean, Oysterhead started when the Superfly guys called and said “Hey, would Les put together this jam thing at JazzFest?” It was pretty ballsy for them to bring in someone like me, and they’re continuously trying to do these things. Now you look at Bonnaroo: it’s not just Phil and Friends and Widespread Panic, which is great, but you also have Radiohead there, you have the Flaming Lips and Ween. That’s what the original Lollapalooza was about, bringing all of these different people together. I think it’s an incredible thing. I feel this vibrant spirit. I like how people are very open-minded.

I’ve played at Ozzfest. It was fun… but we were the oddballs. I became good friends with the Slayer guys at Ozzfest. It was a ritual: Every day I’d smoke a joint backstage with Tom Araya. So at the Gorge, I brought Tom Araya out on stage while we played “Too Many Puppies.” It was truly a sit-in —he sat there and smoked a joint while we played.

It’s one big barbecue, you know? Maybe Bonnaroo has a few more tofu burgers on the grill than Ozzfest, which has more ribs. But it’s still just people coming together, hanging out in the sun and having a good time—though there’s not enough pyro at Bonnaroo. There was way more pyro at Ozzfest. With Oysterhead this summer, we’re gonna do some Rammstein flames, just big towers of fire. And big ole Easter Island heads! That’s what I want, big Easter Island heads on stage with giant torches. It will be the anti-Woodstock ’99.