10. John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones (born John Baldwin on 3 January 1946) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and record producer. Best known as the bassist, mandolinist, and keyboardist for English rock band Led Zeppelin, Jones has since developed a solo career and has gained even more respect as both a musician and a producer. A versatile musician, Jones also plays guitar, koto, lap steel guitars, autoharp, violin, ukulele, sitar, cello, continuum and the three over-dubbed recorder parts heard on Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven".
Jones has stated that, as a session musician, he was completing two and three sessions a day, six and seven days a week. However, by 1968 he was quickly feeling burnt out due to the heavy workload: "I was arranging 50 or 60 things a month and it was starting to kill me." -Wikipedia.org
9. Toshiya
Toshiya (born on March 31, 1977, in Nagano) is a Japanese musician and the bassist of Dir En Grey. He has been with the band since its inception in 1997, although he was not in La:Sadie's, as the other four previously had been. Unlike fellow band members Kaoru and Die, Toshiya has only composed a handful of Dir En Grey's songs, such as "Erode" and "Bottom of the Death Valley". Unsurprisingly, his compositions tend to have a distinct, bass-driven sound. -Wikipedia.org
8. Johnny Christ
Jonathan Lewis Seward, (born November 18, 1984), better known by his stage name Johnny Christ, is the bassist for the American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. Johnny Christ was the fourth bassist to join Avenged Sevenfold in 2002, replacing former members Matt Wendt, Dameon Ash, and Justin Sane. He grew up in Huntington Beach, California.
Johnny initially took a few weeks off from high school during his senior year to fill in for Avenged Sevenfold's previous bassist, Dameon Ash, during one of their tours. These few weeks would become permanent as Johnny dropped out of high school to become the band's current bassist. -Wikipedia.org
7. John Entwistle
John Alec Entwistle (9 October 1944 – 27 June 2002) was an English bass guitarist, songwriter, singer, horn player, and film and record producer who was best known as the bass player for the rock band The Who. His aggressive lead sound influenced many rock bass players. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who in 1990. Entwistle's lead instrument approach used pentatonic lead lines, and a then-unusual trebly sound created by roundwound RotoSound steel bass strings.
He had a collection of over 200 instruments by the time of his death, reflecting the different brands he used over his career: Fender and Rickenbacker basses in the 1960s, Gibson and Alembic basses in the 1970s, Warwick in the 1980s, and Status all-Carbon fibre basses in the 1990s. -Wikipedia.org
6. Les Claypool
Leslie Edward "Les" Claypool (born September 29, 1963) is an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist and bassist in the band Primus. Claypool's funky, creative playing style on the electric bass mixes finger-tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends (unusual on a bass guitar), a Larry Graham-like slap technique, and Geddy Lee influences.
Claypool has also self produced and engineered his solo releases from his own studio "Rancho Relaxo". 2006 saw the release of a full-length feature film Electric Apricot written and directed by Claypool as well as a debut novel South of the Pumphouse. -Wikipedia.org
5. Steve Harris
Stephen Percy "Steve" Harris (born 12 March 1956) is an English musician and songwriter, known as the bassist, occasional keyboardist, backing vocalist, leader, and primary songwriter of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, which he founded as a teenager in 1975. He and Dave Murray are the only original members of the band to have appeared on all of the band's albums, but Murray joined the band in 1976, making Harris the only person who has been a member of Iron Maiden since their inception.
He used to work as an architectural draftsman in the East End of London but gave up his job upon forming Iron Maiden. During the mid-1970s he was a youth team footballer for West Ham United. He still is a talented amateur football player and often has the crest of West Ham on his bass, and he has stated his first ambition in life before music was to become a professional footballer. -Wikipedia.org
4. Geddy Lee
Gary Lee Weinrib, OC, better known as Geddy Lee (born July 29, 1953), is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Canadian rock group Rush. Lee joined what would become Rush in September 1968, at the request of his childhood friend Alex Lifeson, replacing original bassist and frontman Jeff Jones. An award-winning musician, Lee's style, technique, and skill on the bass guitar have inspired rock and heavy metal musicians, such as Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, John Myung of Dream Theater, Les Claypool of Primus, Cliff Burton of Metallica, and Juan Alderete of The Mars Volta.
In addition to his composing, arranging, and performing duties for Rush, Lee has produced for various other bands, including Rocket Science. Lee's first solo effort, My Favorite Headache, was released in 2000. Along with his Rush bandmates — guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart — Lee was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 9, 1996. The trio was the first rock band to be so honored, as a group. Lee is ranked 13th by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal vocalists of all time. -Wikipedia.org
3. Tetsuya Ogawa
Tetsuya (born October 3, 1969, in Osaka, Japan) is the leader and bassist of the Japanese rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel. He also does backup vocals and has composed many of the band's songs, including "Link", "Ready Steady Go", "Finale", "Driver's High", "Stay Away", and "Pieces". In the band, he went by the nickname tetsu, until December 1, 2009, when he started to use his birth name stylized as tetsuya.
Since 2001, his solo work was released under the name TETSU69 (69 is his birth year). On November 26, 2006, he released one song under the name tetsu, and on December 1, 2009, he switched to TETSUYA to mirror the switch he made as a member of L'Arc-en-Ciel. In 2007, he married 22-year-old actress Ayana Sakai. -Wikipedia.org
2. Flea
Michael Peter Balzary (born October 16, 1962), better known by his stage name Flea, is an Australian-American bassist, trumpet player, and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist and co-founding member of the alternative rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. His work with the band incorporates several musical styles, ranging from aggressive slap bass to more subdued and melodic techniques. Aside from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, he has collaborated with many artists, including Jane's Addiction, Thom Yorke, The Mars Volta, and Alanis Morissette. Drawing influences from funk music and punk rock, Flea centers his bass playing on simplicity and minimalism while viewing complexity as a device that should be used in moderation.
Originally a trumpet prodigy, Flea learned to play bass in high school from close friend and future Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak, who required a bassist for his band Anthym. Flea joined the group, but quit several months later in order to play for the punk rock outfit Fear. He soon rejoined Slovak to form an intended one-off band along with fellow high school alumni Anthony Kiedis and Jack Irons; the impromptu collaboration would ultimately give birth to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Flea has made numerous forays into acting, appearing in films that span many genres such as Back to the Future Part II (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), and The Big Lebowski (1998). -Wikipedia.org
1. Cliff Burton
Clifford Lee "Cliff" Burton (February 10, 1962 – September 27, 1986) was an American musician, best known as the bass guitarist for the American thrash metal band Metallica. Burton joined the band in 1982 and performed on their debut album, Kill 'Em All. Burton performed on two more Metallica albums, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, both of which met with major commercial and critical success.
Burton was known for his "lead bass" approach, in which the bass played a melodic and soloist role, in addition to holding down the harmonic and rhythmic foundation of the band. On September 27, 1986, Burton died when the band's tour bus skidded and flipped over in rural southern Sweden. Burton was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Metallica on April 4, 2009. -Wikipedia.org
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