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Lilac_Wine.
User deleted
Ecco l'ultima parte dell'intervista:
Do you compare yourself to other bassists?
Sure. There are a lot of great bass players on Lollapalooza, like Chris Chaney with Jane's Addiction and Incubus, who got the guy who used to play guitar in the Roots [Ben Kenney]. I trip out on the caliber of bassists out there. There are a lot of great players out there who don't make a lot of money. In some ways your musician skills don't count as much as your networking skills. But if you get too networky and start becoming a session cat, you might prevent yourself from getting into a great rock band. It's hard to be Chris Chaney. He's a schooled bassist playing a lot of cool shit, but I see him as a seesion cat, flat out. When I heard he was in Jane's Addiction , I was blown away. It doesn't even seem right to me, ya know? Then there's guys like Robert Trujillo, who I kind of put in the same category as Chaney. Maybe he's not as good or as jazzy as Chaney, but he;s still a really good player. He never quit working, and it's led him into the biggest rock band in the world.
On one tour the Roots opened up for Rage, and I was totally nervous that their bass player [Leonard 'Hub' Hubbard] was going to destroy me.
That guy tears it right up ! But I just put all my attention on my right hand and said, "Okay, I'm a big, strong man and I can pluck the strings as hard as anyone." The key is to be able to take that to that point where if you hit it any harder, it would sound like shit.
How do you avoid hand injuries?
Well, I'm a huge mountain biker--in fact, I'm a freakin' maniac on my bike. Every time I go riding, people ask me how I refrain from hurting my hands, and I'm like, " I just don't worry about it." As I get older, though, I do notice my joints are not as limber; it's not pain-free anymore. I take glucosamine and stuff like that to stay lubricated, and I don't drink. I do drink coffee, but on this tour I'm going to drink green tea instead so I can be more hydrated.
Is there a relationship between your mountain biking and bass playing?
I feel it. When you're outside riding, sometimes you feel your grooving and sometimes you're not. Sometimes I feel as if I'm invincible and flowing with everything that's happening around me and I can do no wrong. And sometime I feel like I'm going to crash. It's the same with the bass. On the first show of the tour I'll feel kind of crazy and not solid like I feel at the end of the tour.
My clavicle [collarbone] is also where mountain biking and bass playing collide. I separated it three years ago; I was racing downhill and crashed. The tendon that holds my scapula [shoulder blade] to my collarbone is shredded, and my collarbone sticks out when I shrug my left shoulder. It's hideous, and it happens to be right where the strap on the bass sits.
Did you have to change anything about that way you were playing?
I got a new strap. Levy's Leather made me these six- to eight-inch wide
straps that rest on my whole shoulder instead of just on the clavicle, where most straps sit. I play a super heavy bass too; I tried a light bass but I truly believe that a heavier bass has a slightly thicker tone.
How about your tattoos? Is there a link to your bass playing?
I'm proud of myself as a player, and I always feel that my tone is superior to anyone out there. I feel the same way about my tattoo. You will never see me in a tattoo magazine because my tattoo is too good. It's a lifetime project that I'm in no hurry to finish. My back, chest, arms and leg are done, but my thighs and stomach aren't. My butt is outlined and maybe a third of the way done. It's the best part of the whole thing-just two big spirals. By the next record, I promise you, my butt will be the main focal point of the band. The whole process is exciting, and it's painful and risky.
When a band breaks up, only the singer becomes sucessful, but you guys have done the opposite.
Besides Van Halen, ther wasn't much track record of anyone trying to do what we did. Some people didn't want to admit it, but for Van Halen it worked out better without David Lee Roth. A lot of bands out there are interchangable, but I feel we have a signature sound--mostly because of Morello's guitar playing. But more and more I feel we all have a lot to do with it.
It sounds like you are comfortable in the supporting role.
Oh yeah, I'm better suited to that, without question, both personally and in the band. That part of the reason I felt uncomfortable about doing this interview, because I've never been self-promotional. Even that climb MTV thing was not self-promotional. We had made the best video in the history of music with Michael Moore, the only legitimate director in the house that night. We were up against Limp Bizkit and some other knuckleheads for Best Video, and they beat us ! I thought, I'm going to make sure they say the name Rage Against The Machine every time they bring up the awards show. And that's what I did. There are a lot of reasons why I did it, but it was maily to protest what was happening with my band. We were on the verge of breaking up, and we ended canceling a tour with the Beastie Boys, who asked us to reschedule when [bassist] Mike D hurt his arm--but Zack wanted to work on his solo project. So we ended up blowing off hundreds of thousands of kids who had bought tickets to see Beasties and Rage. We had set it up so that one dollar per ticket went to homeless shelters around the country, but we had to say, "Sorry you're not getting this money because our singer has to work on his solo album." That shit is just ridiculous, man.
Do you have any regrets about that incident?
Hell no ! That was the sickest video ever made, and I will climb for that every time. I only wish I has stayed up longer. And I should have worn a SAVE THE WHALES T-shirt--people would have understood it better. Save the whales, except for [Limp Bizkit singer] Fred Durst.
Things are good right now. I feel more comfortable speaking my mind in this band than I ever did in Rage. I'm glad politics are not in the driver's seat anymore. They're still there, but it's not the first thing someone askes me in an interview. That always felt uncomfortable. I was playing bass; I wasn't reading the manifesto.
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