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FORGOTTEN HISTORY: 5 - Caught on Camera

“Everyone I've ever met that I worshipped has been a disappointment, so I want to keep him as my hero”: Geezer Butler names his favorite bassist of all time

His basslines with Black Sabbath are iconic, but Geezer Butler’s still a fan with his own four-string idols

Guitar World

“It’s sloppy and out of tune, but it seems to benefit the track”: How Ryan Martinie redefined metal bass playing for a new generation with Mudvayne

Ryan Martinie stepped out as a 21st-century bass hero on Mudvayne’s The End of All Things to Come

Guitar World

“There were no fret markers on it, so all I could do was try to keep a straight face and guess!” Fretted, fretless, double bass, eight-string – Sting is unstoppable on bass. Here’s how he developed his style

Songwriter, actor, author, activist, rock star, jazz freak... Gordon 'Sting’ Sumner is quite the renaissance man. Oh, and he played bass in The Police…

Guitar World

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“Everywhere I go someone knows my name because of that bass solo. It’s not like with Michael Jackson – I don’t get mobbed – but I am famous”: How Willie Weeks' unbelievable solo on Donny Hathaway's 1972 Live album made him a bass legend

After being introduced as “the baddest bass player in the country,” Willie Weeks kicked off his now iconic solo

Guitar World

“Andy’s passing left us all absolutely devastated. I’ve been wanting to celebrate his life and contribution to music”: The Smiths drummer Mike Joyce launches Crowdfunder for Andy Rourke tribute mural

The campaign will finance a mural of the band's late bass player in Manchester, UK, with some of the proceeds also set to go to charity

Guitar World

“I’m sick of people saying Walk On the Wild Side is a classic. I got paid £12, and David Bowie didn’t even show up”: Session bass legend Herbie Flowers on the making of Lou Reed’s 1972 hit – and the hardest session he ever did

Having recorded over 20,000 sessions for the likes of David Bowie, Dusty Springfield, T.Rex, Paul McCartney and Elton John, Brian ‘Herbie’ Flowers was not your average bassist

Guitar World

“I couldn’t work with John Lennon and Paul McCartney. I’d end up being beaten to death”: When we locked horns with Lemmy to talk Motörhead, Marshalls and why he wouldn’t fit in with one of his favorite bands

In a world full of rock ’n’ roll poseurs, Motörhead's hard-living bassist, Lemmy Kilmister, was a true original

Guitar World

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“I wrote that bassline when I was 16. I saw this dude slapping the hell out of a bass at a music store – the tumblers clicked in my head. I took a bus home, picked up my bass, and I was doing it!” Fishbone’s Norwood Fisher names his 10 best basslines

The most iconic bass riffs in Fishbone’s catalog, according to Norwood Fisher himself

Guitar World

“I didn’t know Corgan, but I knew he wasn’t the easiest person to work with. I thought, ‘This isn’t going to last but it’ll be interesting’”: Jane’s Addiction’s Eric Avery on his brief stint with the Smashing Pumpkins and what he learned from Billy Corgan

Avery briefly worked with Corgan on what would later become the Pumpkins’ seventh album, Zeitgeist

Guitar World

“I’m like the power forward on a basketball team – I bring out the best in my teammates”: A pillar of the L.A. session scene, Bob Glaub might be the most famous bass player you’ve never heard of

Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, Stevie Nicks and oh so many more: for 50 years, Bob Glaub has kept things moving on hit after hit

Guitar World

“Prince picked up my bass – but it was tuned to Eb, so he just found one note that worked and he stayed on it the entire song”: Raphael Saadiq on playing with Prince, D'Angelo and the “dead” 1962 Fender that put the vintage in Instant Vintage

The Tony! Toni! Toné! trailblazer created a whole new rhythm section style on his 2002 solo debut

Guitar World

“They just looked at each other like, ‘What the hell are we doing with this bass player?’” The late Mick Karn recalls his first tour with David Torn and Bill Bruford

Few electric bassists have a style as singular and strong as Japan’s fretless sorcerer

Guitar World

“I hear bad intonation from some bassists, and that bothers me. I have no intention of being out of tune”: How Chick Corea bassist Avishai Cohen landed one of the most coveted gigs in jazz

Born in Israel and raised in St. Louis, Avishai Cohen followed the path of many bass players – electric to acoustic – and ended up landing in the hottest seat in the jazz circuit

Guitar World

“Eric was a bit taken aback”: When Jack Bruce radically reworked Cream hits to Eric Clapton’s surprise – and that time Marvin Gaye asked him to join his band

Some people believe rock ’n’ roll should never leave the cozy three-chord confines of the garage – and then there’s Jack Bruce

Guitar World

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“That was a big shift, but I kind of love it. I wouldn't look back now”: Pixies’ new bass player on how she ended up joining the band – and why it forced her to change her approach to playing

Emma Richardson was recruited earlier this year to replace Paz Lenchantin in the alt-rock outfit – and that meant re-evaluating her playing

Guitar World

“I was doing overdubs, and by that point we had Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders and players standing around, all drinking beer with Hank”: From Hank Williams Jr. to B.B. King and Bonnie Raitt, Hutch Hutchinson has led a diverse career in the low-end

Bonnie Raitt’s longtime bass sideman can do it all – and he even played on the Toy Story soundtrack

Guitar World

“Buzz Osborne said to me, ‘You’re both great bass players – but you’re just really weird, and I gotta go with normal.’ I said, ‘I get that’”: Butthole Surfers bassist Jeff Pinkus was too out there for the Melvins – now he’s switched to banjo

The veteran reflects on his lifelong pursuit of a Grand Funk Railroad tone, the gear he’s taking on his solo tour, and why you’re out of luck if you want the career he’s had

Guitar World

“I wouldn’t be able to play the technical stuff while wearing the mask. I’ve almost passed out a few times”: Slipknot’s original bassist Paul Gray on holding the middle ground in metal’s most extreme band

Slipknot are one of the most visually arresting bands still working today – but the late Paul Gray’s role was decidedly different

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“You could argue that Cream was the first fusion band. Eric Clapton was our Ornette Coleman – we just didn’t tell him!” How Jack Bruce tapped into his jazz roots with fusion supergroup Spectrum Road

Jack Bruce launched Spectrum Road in 2012, featuring drummer Cindy Blackman-Santana, and Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid

Guitar World

“If you couldn’t play that solo, you weren’t a bass player – you couldn’t get a gig”: How Bob Babbitt laid down an epic first-take solo on this under-appreciated Motown classic – with the help of a damp household sponge

Every bassist needs to familiarize themselves with Bob Babbitt’s knockout solo

Guitar World

“We walk into this music store, and the owner is making sure we didn't turn up with a lawyer – and then Robert Trujillo came in and saved the day!” The amazing story of how Jaco's Bass Of Doom made its way back to Felix Pastorius

Stolen in 1982, the bass vanished from the public eye until 2006 when it resurfaced in a New York music store

Guitar World

“James would always try to break you down. Any time you played a great gig, he'd call you into his dressing room and say, ‘You just ain't on it. You ain't on the one!’” If you play funk, you owe Bootsy Collins – the bass legend who played with James Brown

Bootsy Collins is a legend not just for his interstellar bass playing, but also for his star-shaped bass guitars

Guitar World

“My feel drives Stephen nuts – he’d rather have a traditional metal bass player who uses a pick and follows his every move. Instead, I counter his every move”: Chi Cheng on his final Deftones album – which took almost three years to complete

According to the late Chi Cheng, Saturday Night Wrist was the first time he’d really locked in with the drums

Guitar World

“I’d messaged Cory to see if he needed a bassist. He sent me his tour manager’s phone number and said, ‘See you in two days’”: Meet Vincen García, the Spanish bass virtuoso who joined Cory Wong’s band with 48 hours’ notice

Vincen García shares his bass heroes and how he went about “bringing the artillery” with Cory Wong

Guitar World

“I knew Beyoncé would really belt it out there, so I wanted to play something more in your face”: Meet the unsung bass hero who laid down one of the noughties’ most irresistible basslines with Beyoncé

Jon Jon Webb laid down his standout grooves with a late-‘90s Fender Marcus Miller Signature Jazz Bass

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