Why did you Start to play Bass?

Seeing both Chris Squire and JP-J live with Yes and Led Zep in 1974!!

 

believe it or not, Adam Clayton, and yes, im a metalhead

 

Back in grade like 7 everyone i knew was playing guitar and i figured i would be different and there were no bass players around so i would be a needed commodity. Plus i also had an interest in bass and the bassist that made me really wanna play was mark hoppus.

 

A bit like me, in about year 7 or 8 all my mates where going to learn guitar and set up a band (which had 4 guitarists at some point) and i wanted to be a bit differant so i learned bass. This band was over as quickly as it was thought up and only a few people kept on playing instruments and those few are in the band im in now Flea also made me want to play after listening to the californiacation album with songs with good basslines like "around the world" and "californiacation".

 

And me. Everybody wanted to play guitar (and drum, but where are they now!? Drummers are the scarcest commodity around here, it seems) so I figured if I picked up the bass, I'd be more in demand, as it were.

My biggest influence is Geezer Butler. He was the one that made me want to playbass instead of just...playing bass.

 

ever since I can remember i've always picked out the bass line in a song... no matter what kind of song in it, (I'm one that can tune my ears into certain instruments, some people clain they are not able to do that, but I always have been) so I always wanted to play bass....

that and I know that I'd have more of a chance at playing bass with someone than guitar since guitarist are so populous.

and its fun..

 

As a child, I was dropped on my head. But, it was determined that I was still too smart to be a drummer!

 

These guys I knew, a 3-piece power band with a singer, dumped their bass player. The guy was GREAT! He had some serious chops, and the boy could sing... he sounded kinda like Geddy Lee. This was really too bad... the guy, Mike, was so full of talent, but he was equally full of BS, too... a first-class egomaniacal jerk! A Terrell Owens kinda guy...

So, this clown got pulled over by a Dallas cop, because his POS car (an American Motors Gremlin) had a busted tail light lens. After doing a warrants check, the cop arrests poor Mike... he had a wheelbarrow full of unpaid traffic tickets (sounding like a Michael Irvin kinda guy now...)! This was a Friday afternoon, and the band was still booked to play that night, and the following night!

When Mike got to make his phone call from jail, he called me of all people! I guess because I was the "stable" guy around the band... I rented a house in my name, and I had a telephone. I was all of 22 years old. Mike said it was going to cost $750 to bail him out. That, boys and girls, was a lot of money back in 1975! I told him I would pass his message onto the guys, and we would see what we could do...

Well... I had been helping these guys out by being an assistant roadie, and I ran their sound board. They paid me $25 each night. They also knew I could play a little, as I would fool around with their guitars every now and then. What they didn't know (well, the drummer knew) was that I played keyboards... I had 4 years of formal organ lessons from age 8 - 12, and I taught myself to play piano, as well as guitar, but I had never played a bass guitar...


So... I volunteered to play bass. There was no way we could scrape together 750 bucks to spring 'ol Stupid from the Dallas County jail, and there just wasn't enough time, either. Mike's parents were poor folks, and his father was an abusive drunk anyway, so we knew there wasn't going to be any help there. So I played bass. I used Mike's equipment that night, and the following night. As scared as I was, I managed to pull it off... so much so, that I ended up replacing 'ol Stupid.

You see... no one ever came up with the cash to bail Mike out. He ended up staying in jail until his court date, and, since he also didn't have the money to pay all of those fines, he got to do some time for the state of Texas. I "borrowed" his axe and rig for three weeks, then bought my own equipment: a Rickenbacker 4001, and a slightly used Kustom 200 with a 3 x 15" cabinet (red sparkle tuck-n-roll...)

Mike finally got out of jail... about six months later... and that's a whole new story. I'll put it this way: he wasn't too happy about being replaced...

 

LMAO!, thats a good one, ill have to use that lol....sorry if u were actually dropped on ur head tho lol

i stated playing bass by accidant, my cuz just started playing bass, and i would go over to his house and just screw around on it, and then he just learnt a little bit from come as u r, and he showed me it, and my other cuz (his brother) was playing drums, so he was pretty much a begginner but played before i started bass, and we would jam n stuff and it was fun, i remember we leart the start of by the way, and play it over and over and we were like yeaaah, look at us go lol, and nearly 3 years later i'm still playing with the same amount of inthusiasm as when i first started, but my cuz says hes got no inspiration to play drums like he used to, and i think thats a daft excuse, i just love learning stuff and finding out about all these other bass players and what they can do and all the differant kinds of music, thats enough inspiration to play by its self for me, but also playing bass has opened me to alot of differant kinds of music i probs wouldnt of found out about if it wernt for playing bass, and also i got into the chili peppers at about the same time i started to play bass mabe abit before, and Flea's bass lines, like californication, pritty littly ditty, stone cold bush etc i thought were awsome

 

Wow that beats my story

 

As a kid, I was a huge Beatles fan. I didn't start playing music until my teens, and by that time I was listening to harder rock. But I am convinced that Sir Paul McCartney's brilliant bass lines influenced me to choose bass as my primary instrument.

Macca didn't influence me as much as a player... I'm more of a rocker, in the vein of John Entwistle and John Paul Jones.

 

Shalom. I started to play bass because we needed to pick an instrument at school for music class. I chose bass because my brother used to play bass. My first influence was Adam Clayton. But I later discovered Marcus Miller and Jaco.

 

Seeing The Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show".

 

played low brass all through grade and middle school, wanted to play in a band and bass was the only thing I wanted to do.

 

Cus guitarists were so lame!

I dig the low end.

 

In my early teens, I wanted to play some music with my friend who was learning guitar. I thought; who is the coolest guy in KISS, Gene Simmons! What does he play? Bass guitar! Then that is what I am gonna learn!

Simple

 

Yeah, that's a pretty cool 'origin story', Keeaumoku.

 

Holy crap Im went through pretty much the exact same thing!

 

as a fan of Elton John in the early 70's, I began to wonder why I enjoyed listening to the music so much. While listening to a copy of 17-11-70 (or 11-17-70 depending on the origin of your album) the live album from the bands debut in America, it struck me it was Dee Murray's bass playing. I had to learn to play bass, as fate would have it my next birthday brought a bass and amp, a present from my dad... who for the next few years had to endure the practice of a couple bands at the house every weekend... Thanks dad!

I do miss Dee Murray.