{"id":832268,"date":"2026-03-17T18:13:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/832268\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T18:13:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:13:21","slug":"primus-les-claypool-on-being-rejected-by-metallica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/832268\/","title":{"rendered":"Primus&#8217; Les Claypool on being rejected by Metallica"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/les-claypool\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Les Claypool<\/a> has looked back at being rejected after auditioning for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/metallica\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Metallica<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"post-content-read-more\">\n<li><b>Read More:<\/b><b>\u00a0<\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/live\/metallica-amsterdam-live-review-2023-setlist-photos-m72-3436887\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Metallica live in Amsterdam: still the greatest heavy metal band around<\/b><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/primus\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Primus<\/a> icon recently spoke to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2026\/mar\/16\/we-did-disneyland-on-mind-altering-substances-primus-frontman-les-claypool-on-being-rocks-great-joker-and-why-metallica-rejected-him\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The Guardian<\/a> about \u2018The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy\u2019 \u2013 his forthcoming album with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/sean-ono-lennon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sean Ono Lennon<\/a> as the Claypool Lennon Delirium.<\/p>\n<p>During the interview, he looked back at his roots with Metallica, having gone to school with the band\u2019s future guitarist Kirk Hammett, and later auditioned to be a part of the thrash metal band after the sudden death of bassist Cliff Burton.<\/p>\n<p>As he shared, he auditioned for the band in 1986, and was unaware of the rapid momentum the band were getting at the time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t know how popular they were,\u201d he said, explaining that he botched the audition with his lighthearted approach. \u201cWe played a song or two and I said, \u2018Hey, you guys want to jam on some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/isley-brothers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Isley Brothers<\/a>?\u2019 Nobody laughed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Claypool spoke about the audition back in 2005, too, and said to BP that he \u201ccouldn\u2019t remember what songs\u201d he played with the band, but could tell relatively soon into the audition that he \u201cdidn\u2019t fit in\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[It] was really obvious,\u201d he said (via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guitarworld.com\/features\/les-claypool-on-his-failed-metallica-audition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Guitar World<\/a>). \u201cI believe Lars [Ulrich, drummer] said. \u2018You\u2019re not really used to this kind of music, are you?\u2019 My first response was, goddamn, this is loud! And then I asked them if they wanted to jam on an Isley Brothers tune, just as a joke. Which they didn\u2019t think was very funny.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>When he was asked if he was wanting to be a part of the thrash line-up, he said that he was working as a carpenter at the time and \u201cwould have joined any band that paid me\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time I thought it would have been a fantastic, fun thing to do, but I\u2019m incredibly glad it didn\u2019t happen,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>He also went on to dismiss the claims made by Metallica frontman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/james-hetfield\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Hetfield<\/a> in the Behind The Music documentary that he was \u201ctoo good\u201d to be enlisted as part of the band. When asked by Kerrang! about the comments, he told the outlet: \u201cNo, it wasn\u2019t that \u2013 I just didn\u2019t fit in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a blonde Mohawk and baggy skater pants and two different coloured tennis shoes \u2013 and this was back when they had long hair and tight pants,\u201d he recalled (via Guitar World). \u201cI told [Hetfield] he was full of it, and thought I was a freak! That was why he didn\u2019t want me! And he just laughed, because it was true. I wouldn\u2019t have fit. They\u2019re not dumb.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy\u2019 is an AI-themed concept album that sees Claypool join forces with Sean Ono Lennon, and is set to be released on May 1 via ATO.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DVLvkcCDtJ0\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In other Les Claypool news, recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/primus-announce-2026-uk-and-european-tour-buy-tickets-3931312\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Primus shared details of a UK and European tour taking place later this year<\/a>. Dates include headline stops at Manchester\u2019s Academy, Glasgow\u2019s Barrowland Ballroom, and London\u2019s O2 Forum Kentish Town on August 17, 18 and 19, respectively, as well as festival slots.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/ticketmaster-uk.tm7559.net\/c\/2862475\/431519\/7559?sharedid=NME&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ticketmaster.co.uk%2Fprimus-tickets%2Fartist%2F735894\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Visit here<\/a> for tickets to UK dates and <a href=\"https:\/\/ticketmaster.evyy.net\/c\/2862475\/264167\/4272?sharedid=NME&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ticketmaster.com%2Fprimus-tickets%2Fartist%2F735894\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a> for international dates.<\/p>\n<p>New live dates also come following Primus sharing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/primus-announce-complete-shock-departure-of-drummer-tim-alexander-3808129\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the \u201ccomplete shock\u201d departure of their longtime drummer Tim Alexander<\/a> in 2024, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/primus-share-billy-strings-audition-video-for-drummer-role-we-may-have-found-our-guy-3821485\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">holding auditions for a replacement<\/a>. They <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/primus-announce-new-drummer-after-open-call-for-auditions-3836190\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">eventually went with John Hoffman<\/a>, a drummer from Shreveport, Louisiana, who has a significant following on YouTube.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Les Claypool has looked back at being rejected after auditioning for Metallica. Read More:\u00a0Metallica live in Amsterdam: still&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,3981,269,9380,16,15],"class_list":["post-832268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-prog","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116245876403086739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}