Primus Announce ‘A Tribute To Kings’ Tour In Honour Of Heroes Rush
The Bay Area outfit will perform the whole of the classic Rush album of 1977, ‘A Farewell to Kings,’ as well as their own music.
Long-running Californian funk-metal heroes Primus are to embark on a summer North American tour entitled A Tribute to Kings. It will see the Bay Area outfit performing the whole of the classic Rush album of 1977, A Farewell to Kings, as well as their own music.
Primus frontman Les Claypool explains the background to the project, and the debt that his band owe to the influence of Rush, by saying: “A little over one year ago, Ler Lalonde and I started kicking the idea around of Primus performing a series of shows featuring an iconic Rush album from our youth.
“Being that A Farewell to Kings was the first Rush record I ever heard, and that it contains my all-time favourite Rush tune, ‘Cygnus X1,’ the choice narrowed quickly. Years ago I had done something similar with Colonel Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, when we covered Pink Floyd’s Animals in its entirety. It was an insane amount of work, but ended up being one of the most enjoyable live endeavours I’ve ever done.
“Dubbing the tour Primus: A Tribute to Kings, it was originally scheduled to be performed in the fall of 2019 but, when we were asked to support Slayer on their Final Campaign, the Tribute to Kings tour was postponed.
“Geddy, Alex and Neil had been superheroes to Larry, Herb and I in our teens,” continues Claypool, “so when we all became pals while touring together in the early ’90s, we were pretty delighted; partially because of the musical geek-out factor but mostly because the three guys whom we had admired so much from afar, turned out to be truly great, down-to-earth humans, and like us, a tad eccentric.
“The Tribute to Kings tour will be just as it is implied, a respectful and loving tribute to three spectacular musicians, songwriters, legends and friends.” The tour will have all the more poignancy after the death of the hugely-revered Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart on 7 January 2020, at the age of 67.
The tour opens on 26 May in Irving, TX and spans over 40 dates through August. Wolfmother will be opening guests for the entire tour with additional support from The Sword and Battles. Tickets will be on general sale from Friday (21) at 10am local time; more information is at primusville.com.
Listen to the best of Rush on Apple Music and Spotify.
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