In an interview with Q On CBC Rush‘s Geddy Lee said what the world already know about being a bass player. Read it here:
“No one becomes a bass player willingly. You get voted to be the bass player when the bass player that was chosen originally quits. In my case, we were in a little basement band, only it wasn’t a basement band, it was an apartment-bedroom band.
“And the guy that was supposed to play bass with us, his mother really didn’t like him associating with us, so he left. And then they all looked at me and said, ‘Okay, you’re going to be the bass player.’
“I went to my mom and I begged her to lend me like $30 so I could buy a bass, and that’s how it all started.”
“I think it was for me going to work with my mom at an early age, and even before that when my dad was still with us, going to work with him.
“There was always music on in the car, there was always music on in the store, and of course, in that period it was Motown, or the pre-Motown Motown, a lot of rhythm and blues.
“It was insidious in a way, because I picked up on the drum parts and the bass movement, and I remember songs like [The Temptations’ 1964 track] ‘My Girl.’
“They just sort of spoke to me, and when eventually I got the job of the bass player in my basement band, I started listening with a different set of ears and trying to mimic some of these people, especially in the early days Bill Wyman from The Rolling Stones.”
