BILL BURR Recounts Drumming Live With PRIMUS Despite Failing In-Ear Monitors: “I Think I Pulled It Off”

Bill Burr stepped out from behind the comedy mic and onto the drums last week, sitting in with members of Primus and Tool during a performance of “Too Many Puppies” at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA on August 6.

The comedian, a longtime drummer, shared kit duties with Primus‘ newest recruit John Hoffman, while Tool bassist Justin Chancellor joined Les Claypool for a two-bass assault on the 1990 Frizzle Fry track. The night’s revolving cast also included Tool drummer Danny Carey, South Park co-creator Matt Stone, Ty Segall, and bass virtuoso MonoNeon.

Speaking on his Monday Morning Podcast the next day, Burr admitted the appearance was equal parts thrill and chaos. “They kind of asked me a couple weeks ago, and I thought it was the middle of August,” he said. “Then I was like, ‘Oh fuck, it’s the next day.’ I had my little drum chart, put it down upside down, had in-ears that stopped working the second I sat down… I messed up a couple of changes, but I think I pulled it off.”

Burr, who said he stuck to “first and third” fills while Hoffman “murdered” the rest, described the experience as surreal — especially sharing the stage with musicians he’d tried to cover in his youth. “To just be looking up and seeing [Claypool], and then seeing Ler [Larry LaLonde] looking back at me, smiling… John was beyond cool. That orange sparkle DW kit looked like it was glowing.”

The comedian also used the gig as a chance to introduce his wife to the world of Primus, noting the diversity of their fanbase. “Primus fans are everywhere from like Grateful Dead-ish to jocks to introverts to outgoing people. It’s a wide mass of people that don’t look like they should be together, but they do.”

By the end of the set, Burr said his wife was chanting “Primus sucks” — the band’s long-running in-joke — and compared the moment to her watching a sporting event with him and high-fiving at the end. “That was the music equivalent of that,” he told Claypool afterward.

“…I got to sit in on ‘Too Many Puppies’,” said Burr as transcribed by The PRP. “And I can’t even… you know, I’m at the Greek, and me and my brothers, we used to jam way back in the day. We used to try and play the few songs that [Primus] had where Les was sort of playing a bassline that my brother could keep up with.

“And to just be looking up and seeing him, and then seeing Ler looking back at me, smiling and everything. And John was like, beyond cool. Oh, my God, he sounded amazing. And he just got a brand new orange sparkle DW kit. And I just saw that thing. I was like, ‘Dude, that is going to look fucking sick under the lights.’ And it did. It looked like it was glowing.

“And then, oh, by the way, Justin Chancellor from Tool was playing bass also, and then fucking Guitar Center me was up there. But I was psyched. I fucked up some of the changes. They kind of asked me a couple weeks ago, and I thought, for some reason, it was the middle of August, so I was just ripe for that roast.

“And I was like, ‘Oh fuck, it’s the next day.’ So I had my little drum chart, and I went and I sat down, and I put it down, upside down. And then I had in-ears — which I never used — and they were working of course until I sat down, and then they weren’t.

“I could still hear the band, but I was just going, ‘What the fuck?’ So I messed up a couple of changes. But in the end, those 16th note triplets — there’s like four fills. I played the first and the third, and John murdered the second and the fourth. But I did the 16th note triple thing, then just played, like a quad thing. You know, I stayed in my wheelhouse.

“But it sounded… I think I pulled it off. But my favorite part was when I went out to the crowd after, and I went with my lovely wife, and she didn’t know anything about Primus. And as we were walking in, running into people, ‘Hey, man,’ ‘How you doing?’ And she was trying to get a read on what a Primus fan is.

“Primus fans are everywhere from like Grateful Dead-ish to like jocks to like introverts to outgoing people. It’s just a wide mass of people that don’t look like they should be together, but they do. There’s some sort of through line that you can’t quite put your finger on for a Primus fan.

“So when I went out to the crowd and I sat with my wife, she had this look on her face. She was going, like, ‘These guys are great. I like this. This is sort of funky.’ I go it’s kind of like Rush meets conspiracy theory meets, like Bootsy Collins. I don’t know how to like describe it, but it’s fucking awesome.

“And the end of the concert when I saw my wife chanting ‘Primus sucks’, I was telling Les afterward, I go, ‘That was the music equivalent of if my wife actually sat down and watched a sporting event with me and high fived me in the end.’

“So I got to do that. And then today I’m sitting in with somebody else at like, sort of like a Guitar Center thing, which is where I belong, which is cool. And then that’s the end of my my three-night in a row, getting outside of my comfort zone.”