The bassist that Geddy Lee said has insane bass solos

A fundamental part of Rush, Geddy Lee is the band’s vocalist, keyboardist and bassist. He is certainly one of the most influential bass players of all time, especially for musicians who love Hard Rock and Progressive Rock. His bass lines are still a huge influence for groups from thos sub-genres and were important for the development of that sound.

Over the decades, Lee talked about many of his peers and even named one bass player that, in his opinion, has insane bass solos.

The bassist who Geddy Lee said has insane bass solos

Although Geddy Lee is also a singer and keyboardist, he really loves the bass guitar and even wrote a book about the instrument. So he always paid attention to new good bass players and one he praised many times was Flea. He really likes the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist and said in an interview with Music Radar in 2021 that he has insane bass solos.

“I guess I have to mention Flea here, especially now we’re talking about Californian players. I dearly would have loved to have talked to him for my book. But I ran out of pages and ran out of time. Also, he’s more known for solid-state amps and contemporary instruments, which wasn’t quite a fit for a book about the ’50s and ’60s basses.”

He continued:

“I was in the gym just the other day and heard ‘Give It Away’ playing. He’s such an original player; he can play up top in a way that doesn’t get in the way of the vocal. In fact, it enhances the vocal. It helps that Chad (Smith) can lay such a fantastic, solid rhythmic backbone for him, and John (Frusciante) or whoever is playing guitar has such a clear sound. The bass has full license to be expansive; he can go low and high. I’m a massive fan of how he works it up high, as counterpoint to the melody of the song.”

“His solos are insane from a technical point of view. Like Les (Claypool), he has this rhythmic thing that is from a different generation to mine. But he combines it with all these other things. You can see how much he loves to play – he’s having the best time. I love to see that in a bass player. He never takes for granted the opportunity to get out there and wind it up. Any bass player that’s allowed to play too much has the best gig in the world,” Geddy Lee said.

Geddy said Flea is the best bassist of his kind of music

Talking with UDiscover Music in 2019 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), Geddy mentioned Flea when talking about who would be the greatest bassist of all time. The Canadian artist explained that it’s impossible to say who was the greatest, because it depends on the musician’s style. So he mentioned Flea, saying for his style of music, he probably was the best. “If you look at Flea’s playing for his style of music, it’s fantastic, he’s an amazing player. I have great respect for his bass playing. But how can you compare that to what Chris Squire (Yes) did. It’s a whole different genre,” Geddy Lee said.

Michael Peter Balzary, best known as Flea, was born back in 1962 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He started his musical career in 1982 when he helped to form the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Alongside the vocalist Anthony Kiedis, he is the only member of the band who was part of all their discography. Besides being an accomplished bassist, Flea is also a trumpeter and keyboardist.

He also is an actor and had small parts in many incredible movies over the years. Some of them are “Back To The Future” Part I and II, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, “The Big Lebowski“, “The Chase” and “My Own Private Idaho”.