If you've played the first one, or been following all the news about the upcoming sequel, you'd know that the songs featured in Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II rank among the best air-guitar tunes in rock history. Or rather, you know the games feature covers of those rock classics. But Guitar Hero II actually features one song that, like the tunes on a K-Tel collection, is performed by the original artist: Primus' "John The Fisherman," which originally appeared on the band's 1990 studio debut Frizzle Fry, but will soon also be heard on their new best-of collection, They Can't All Be Zingers (and, we hope, their upcoming tour as well). Though as we found out when we talked to their singer/bassist Les Claypool, it wasn't Primus' guitar player, Larry "Ler" LaLonde who'll be kickin' everyone's butt at the game.



GameSpy: How did "John The Fisherman" end up in Guitar Hero II?
Les Claypool: Somebody made a phone call and asked if we wanted to be a part of it. And I said "sure" because while I actually haven't played the game myself, I watched Jay Lane [Primus' drummer before Tim "Herb" Alexander] and his kids play it, and I was impressed with it.

Let me give you my perspective on this Guitar Hero thing. My kids are allowed to play video games one hour a day on the weekends only. Though they usually fudge that out as much as they can. In fact, we only have a GameCube, and my son has a Game Boy, so we don't even have the machine to play Guitar Hero on.

But I must say that I find Guitar Hero to be a very encouraging thing because A) It trains the ear to differentiate a guitar from the rest of the instruments, which is a huge thing. When I first started playing bass, I was like, "Okay, I'll play the one with four strings." I didn't know really much of the difference, sonically. B) They're getting the sense of rhythm. When you're starting on an instrument, you're so busy trying to make the notes sound good that the rhythmic aspect just adds another layer of difficulty to what you're already trying to do. But with this, you don't have to worry about the notation. And C) It trains the coordination between your right and left hands.

But the main thing is that it's getting kids into instrumentation again, as opposed to pushing buttons on an 808 or scratching a turntable. And I've sort of seen this resurgence among friends of mine who have teenage kids. The movie School Of Rock has been a huge thing to get kids into instrumentation again, and now Guitar Hero, so I'm all for it.
GameSpy: So does that mean you're going to go buy a PlayStation 2 so your can play the game?

Les Claypool: Yeah, I'd go get a PlayStation 2.
GameSpy: And will you play with them?
Les Claypool: Yeah. I play with them once in a while. They're very into Pokemon, which is not that appealing to me. But Stewart Copeland [with whom Les played with in the band Oysterhead] had a very interesting perspective on this. He has seven kids, and he's into the video game thing because, he says, unlike watching TV or a DVD with your kids, it's a way to interact with your kids. My kids talk Pokemon, they design their own Pokemon, it's Pokemon-land around here. So the more interest I show in these little Pokemon, the more I can relate to my kids on their level.