Les Claypool Details The Prank Rush’s Alex Lifeson Pulled On Primus

Primus frontman Les Claypool recently talked to Ultimate Classic Rock about his time with Rush. The musician particularly recalled when guitarist Alex Lifeson pranked his band by coming on stage to play a trumpet solo.

Rush and Primus have a history that dates back to when the latter was first formed. Following the release of their second studio album entitled ‘Sailing the Seas of Cheese,’ the band toured to support Rush, which marked the beginning of their friendship. During their performances, Primus also performed cover versions of Rush songs to tribute their influence.

At the beginning of 2020, Primus announced that they would embark on a tour during which they would cover Rush’s 1977 album ‘A Farewell to Kings‘ in its entirety every night. Les Claypool even shared a photo with Geddy Lee on his official Instagram account to show he took lessons from the musician for their upcoming tour.

Unfortunately, the tour got postponed twice because Primus joined Slayer on their retirement tour, and the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, the band announced the rescheduled dates of their ‘A Tribute To Kings’ tour via a post on their official Twitter, the first show being on April 15. Les Claypool was recently asked about his time with Rush during an interview, mainly about whether the band pulled a prank on them while touring together.

The musician admitted that he often fails to remember these things, but fortunately for the fans, his son recently brought out countless videotapes for the Primus documentary. In one of those tapes, Claypool saw a moment from their last show with Rush on the last tour they did together. As they were performing ‘Here Come the Bastards,’ Alex Lifeson showed up on stage to play the trumpet solo while wearing a baseball cap and a black electrical tape on his lip as a big mustache.

When asked if Rush pulled a prank on Primus, Claypool said:

“You know, I tend not to remember things. But my son’s working on the Primus documentary right now. So he’s been going through hundreds and hundreds of videotapes. There was one the other day that I was watching. It was our last show with Rush on the last tour we did with the band. I can’t even remember what song we were playing. I think it was ‘Here Come the Bastards.’

This guy comes on stage and does a trumpet solo. It was Alex! I didn’t even recognize him. He had a baseball cap on, and he put a big piece of black electrical tape on his lip to have a big mustache. He’s just doing a trumpet solo the whole time, and he can’t play trumpet, but he was going for it. It was pretty good.”

You can check out the Twitter post of Primus’ tour dates below.