Who or what inspired you to become a Bassist?

Good question.  Lets see.... I realy can't say who it was that first inspired me to play bass.  I just realized one day that I wanted to.  I'm glad i took it up too.  Bass playin has definatly been the best thing I've ever done.  No way would I ever give this up. But Anyhoo, people who curently inspire me are Flea, Dirk Lance, Fat Mike, and Chris Ballew(even though he plays guitar stuff too)

Not too dramatic- I tend to think of my bass not as an instrument, but just an extention of my ugly imagination. Coolest thing about the bass in my opinion is that it's a feel- a groove- you're bassically pushing air- moving air... what a sick concept! People don't just hear what you're playing... they feel what you're playing- how many guitarists can claim that!

The person who inspired me to play bass was the druggie bass player in my first band. I played rhythm geeter and sang until his lame ass got thrown in rehab. Since we needed a bass player and he owed me money, I took his bass and amp and never looked back. Guess his habit caused SOME good in the world...

haha

Oh I wish I was in the UK, gettin'sick of the same boys 'round here.  Book my band some gigs and we'll be there.  havanhabrown.com
(sorry to let ya down on the hot factor)
Also, not limiting myself to just bass boys, some of the kids in the audience arn't so bad, either.

(Edited by Vanessa at 1:06 pm on July 31, 2002)

Music was my main motivator but having a brain injury as a kid and subsequent learning disabilities the two less strings on the bass made it the least confusing of all the instruments.

I also played cello before the brain injury and four fat string just felt right.

oh man he used to amuse me, how was he able to stand so ice while the rest of the band were destroyin' every instrument
(oops!)

(Edited by Alex at 11:36 am on June 19, 2003)

I got started because a buddy of mine had a p bass and bassman amp which he wanted to sell so he could put a muncie 4-speed in his '56 chevy convertable. I bought the rig and started gigging. Been playing ever since. I listened to Joe Osborn, Bob Bogle, Carol Kaye, Bob Moore, Leland Sklar, Carl Radle, Nokie Edwards, "Duck" Dunn, James Alexander, Berry Oakley, Dusty Hill, & whoever else thumped the bottom end.

No, He's my bass Mentor!!!!!

'ey, I think you're hot.. fer what it's worth. Let me know if you guys play in Kentucky..... yeeeehaw..

Actually, all sarcasm aside, Louisville does have a pretty good music scene, and it's getting better all the time.

The Ox's line on "The Real Me" blew me away. I heard it on the radio, and got it on tape. Then it stayed in my car for what must have been months.

I always wanted to play bass.i started out a a drummer when i was 9,i played untill i was 28 or so(off and on,depending if i could have a kit where i lived or not)all the while wanting to play bass but had to much time into the drums to give them up. i moved into an apartment last year and i wanted to get back into it,the lanlord's friend had a drum set in the basement getting ruined from the damp air,so i bought the drums for 100.00&#36. it had no h/ware or cymbals or snare drum,so i started to build it up. after realizing how much it would cost me to get up and playing i went to the local music store and decided to trade it in, well un-beknownst to me the drum set was an old Ludwig cocktail set from the 60's and it netted me 400.00&#36 in store credit(not bad for a 3 piece set). so i got an Ibanez GSR200 bass with everything i could possibly need. 9 basses and one year later i'm still causing head-aches

Well I personally was forced into playing the bass (play this four string thing and no... we don't know how to tune it!) But once I hit an open E I was in. Reggae has been a huge influence on my playing (and tone), but I would have to give shouts to James Jamerson, Bootsy, Loius Johnson, a tad bit of Flea- as well as a host of others. I've always tried to play like myself- but those guys were inspirations- big time!

Geezer and Steve Harris got me playing. I don't listen to that stuff much anymore (except for the odd nostalgic moment), but credit where it's due, Maiden and Sabbath knocked me out as a kid!

Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Chi Cheng (Deftones).

Two different styles but both excellent bass players

Ok, someone here, please tell me they got some Jaco in their blood??? Man, after hearing him, and listening to old Weaher Report, you just want to pick up a bass and play. I got into Jaco about 9 years ago from my brother and man, some good jazz will inspire anyone. Also, Billy Gould of Faith No More, and Muzz skillings and Doug Wimbish of Living Colour..both old and new.

I grew up in the hairband/ speed metal days so i wasn't inspired by great bassist till i heard Jaco Pastorius with Weather Report. It was the first time I heard a fretless played. My buddy played bass at the time, and I was always hammering on his. I ended up buying one later in life and found numerous opportunities to play. Guitarists are a dime a dozen, and bassists can find a ton of gigs just hanging out. Good drummer sare tough to find though, and we'll leave someone that can sing a whole other issue.

started on guitar after hearing "holy diver" by dio. trade the guitar for a bass and 17 yrs later still searching for "that sound"...it all started w/ metal and now it's gone into jazz/electronica...go figure?

...and now you've met some, vanessa! if you're hot and in the uk, fancy hooking up for a jam? ;)

Hay, no one is sayin' nothin bad about Kentucky, don't be so critical, You might be way ahead of us for all we know, but then again,,,,,naw just kidding. Thanks for the courtesy compliment!

I grew up playing the Cello, so the bottom end has been in my blood all along. I was trying to learn the guitar three years ago, and it was a cramping experience, so I was working at a summer camp and there was this chick bass player named "Jazzy." She looked like she was having a BLAST, and she sounded really good. That was the day I decided to get Ugly.

Sting - October 9th 1983 The Police in Concert in Berlin!

Life was never the same since that day ...

Christian

I just FELT the bass in all those old '45's and 33's.  I used to find myself singing "boom - boom boom" on beats 1 and the +3 instead of the melody line. I guess I just sorta felt it.
I play guitar and banjo but LOVE bass. Nathan East is the sorta bass man I'd like to be.  Anyone seen the "Friends in Concert" DVD that he made with Eric Clapton, to raise funds for the Antigua "Crossroads" drug-rehab centre?  If you want to hear Gods of music on stage at the same time go get it!
Jaco P is cool too.

It was years ago, My best high school friend was ending his piano career and he also plays guitar. I don't need to say that he plays, he really plays. I admired him. One day told me: "man, with your personality you should be a bass player". Flea from RHCP ended the work and here I am, keep on the low end

Lots of reasons:
Money for nothing and chicks for free.
Have more fun than ought to be legal.
Make people tap their toes and dance.
Too many guitarists already out there.
A desire to become the pinacle of subtlety.
To prove that if (your favorite bassist's name here) can play it, so can I.
I've always wanted to jam with Dave Weckl and Joe Satriani (I still do).
On and on....

Yeah, I'd have to cast my vote in the Ugliest Bass Player category in total agreement with basslater... Gene Simmons. He's one #### of an ugly dude, especially without the makeup. The whole band is hideous looking unmasked, furthering the overall marketing genius of adopting makeup in the early stages of their career. Good call, basslater!

Yup tzn, skin fliks have inspired a riff or two... so to speak... :o

Hey, I'm so stoked about the aussie radio station news that I'm going to completely ignore the whole Duran Duran thing! So you're getting off easy, buddy.

How were we mentioned on JJJ? That's great! And would also explain the recent surge in inquiries from down under. What part of OZ are you in? I love that place.... visited in '95. East Coast. Send me a carton of VB and I'll send you some free UBP stuff...
Can't buy VB in the states. Shame....

well... I went to see my Gramps play his "Geetar" when I was 5 ish and they made me sit on stage in front of a 2x15" Fender rig of the early 70's. Needless to say, I could not breathe of my own free will the whole show

I knew at that point I wanted the bottom.

I later played the sax in grade school, because my district didn't teach stringed instraments.

Finally, in 6th grade (12 years old), my neighbor was jamming to a Black Sabbath album (Paranoid) and I got the itch to play.

Plus my Pops had a "MapleGlo" Rick 4001 in his basement studio... I never did get that one (bought my own in 87), he hooked me up with a "Harmony" starter he rescued from the trash and with the help of my first teacher... got my old man to buy me and Ibanez Destroyer

A Polka Band?! Right on... that's a first in this forum!

#### - I didn't know there was such a thing as a bass guitar until 2 years ago, when I started playing.  I'd been playing the double bass for 2 years before that, and one night my dad broke out his old Les Paul bass, turned on the radio and told me to pick out the bass lines.  I was hooked.

Tony Sales and John Entwistle are the two bass players I most look up to! Both are masters of the interminable mutating lick. I've only been playing a few months, so I have a ways to go before I sound like them, though.

Rufus Reid's book has been a GREAT help to me in developing "one-ness" with my bass and in developing my own sound.

I grew up in the hairband/ speed metal days so i wasn't inspired by great bassist till i heard Jaco Pastorius with Weather Report. It was the first time I heard a fretless played. My buddy played bass at the time, and I was always hammering on his. I ended up buying one later in life and found numerous opportunities to play. Guitarists are a dime a dozen, and bassists can find a ton of gigs just hanging out. Good drummer sare tough to find though, and we'll leave someone that can sing a whole other issue.

Hey, no problem. BTW, where can I get some more Havanha Brown mp3s? Pretty good schtuff.

That was pretty brave vanessa, though Im sure you can handle yourself and any dude. Ill check you out somtime in HB when I can get up there....Layher

Well let's see.... I was heavily into Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Kiss, Metallica.....too many to list.
All my friends were getting guitars and I guess the natural bass player in me started to come out. I thought everybody and their dogs are playing guitar I'm gonna be different, so I bought a bass. My thinking at the time was, "Steve Harris, Gene Simmons, Cliff Burton are badass bass players, I might as well give it a shot!" I've been hooked ever since. Good guitar players are a dime-a-dozen in Texas, what we need are bass players and yes, we could stand a few good drummers as well.

Matt Freeman from Rancid got me started. Wicked basslines.
Started playing as a band for a couple of months now, and its amazing. No one told me to play bass, it's like, the 3 of us each liked an instrument for our own reasons and the 4th liked to bang on skins, and then bam! We became a band with an agenda.
Talk about God opening doors for us!

Charlie Mingus was a God to me...James Jamerson could lay down a groove that would curl your toenails...but I really wanted to be just like John Entwistle. He was just so awesome, such attack, such growl...I miss him.

Gene Simmons does get Ugliest Bass Player. I kinda like the makeup though...

The two things which got me into the bass was hearing Geezer Butler (of Black Sabbath) and talking to a good friend of mine who played bass. Sadly, her bass got busted...

When he told you you looked like a bass player, did you slap him?

Yeah, in truth I preferred Tooheys Old. Great story too about how you picked up the bass. Slade has a similar story. But we stuck him on the bass back then because we didn't want him to scare the groupies away.

We're going in at the end of the month to record, and this time it won't sound so shatty, so as soon as that is mixed down we'll have it on our site. The two on there are just an appetizer, it's not the main course,,,,

Gene Simmons was definitely my first inspiration. At a time when most bass players stood in the back near the drummer looking at their fingers he was THE man on the KISS stage. After a hiatus of about 15 years after high school where I didn't touch a musical instrument at all, Adam Clayton of U2 is the guy that got me back into bass.

i guy at my church told me i look like a bass player and said i should try, then the next day my two best friends formed a band and needed a Bass Player so i went and bought a '81 Peavey Dyna~Bass, and never looked back

I wanted to meet guys!

Hoohah! Can't wait for the entree.

There was this '45 that my brother had(an actual vinyl record, that had a hole in the middle, and was heard via a now obsolete contraption that we children of the "70s called a "record player") called "Funky Sensation". My mother wanted me to take piano lessons, but after hearing the bassline on this record, which was so mellow but funky, my destiny became clear.
There are times though, when I'm lugging my gear, that I feel I should've taken flute lessons...

Flea from the Chili Peppers without a doubt...