I didn't follow the standard rules of bass playing, and many musicians on many different instruments who became noteworthy for their unique or particular style did a very similar thing.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
In 1972, I got my first electric bass and started playing the kind of instrument I play now. I found that the majority of musicians couldn't bear that. They are not used to listening to the bass because they think the bass is in the background to support them.
I realized pretty soon that I have to do more than just play bass in the background way. So, I developed a kind of playing which only a handful of musicians accepted.
I wasn't originally a bass player. I just found out I was needed, because everyone wants to play guitar.
I don't really know why I chose bass except that it was different than guitar.
At the time, I didn't know that bass would not be enough for me. I'm not a bass player because bass is always a background instrument even to this very day.
I listened to many different types of instruments and music, and have always tried to look at the bass as an instrument as opposed to only a bass.
Because nobody wanted to play bass, I was instantly in a band.
I always got great respect as a bass player.
I picked up the bass kind of postpunk-style. There's a real art to not learning how to play an instrument and being able to still play it.
From the first moment that I can remember, I had identified myself as a bass player and it had everything to do with my father, who was a bass player. And he loved music, you know, as much as anybody I've ever seen. And that dynamic I just thought as somehow was a straight pass to me.