In October 2024, longtime Primus drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander surprised both his bandmates and fans alike when he abruptly retired from the group. In a precarious pickle, Primus was left scrambling to find a replacement; a peculiar turn of events saw them place an open call on social media, seemingly the first of its kind for a band of this size, let alone one with a legacy stretching back four decades. This unprecedented situation set off a firestorm of online hype, round-the-clock shedding, and ultimately a flurry of audition tapes from over 6,100 dedicated drummers around the world.
lespecial beat-keeper Rory Dolan is a lifelong Primus fanatic whose own torrid trio has covered the unclassifiable legends more times than he can recall. In a remarkable twist of fate, Dolan was among the final ten virtuosic skin-bashers to be selected to fly to Los Angeles to audition in person with Primus. Dolan’s next couple of months were a whirlwind of focus, determination, energy, and activity, a journey that concluded with Primus selecting John Hoffman from Shreveport, LA to become its new drummer.
On a windy balcony aboard the MSC Divina, mid-afternoon on Day 5 of Jam Cruise 21, Live For Live Music correspondent B.Getz had the opportunity to speak with Dolan at length about this crazy opportunity. Rory got serious and reflective while digging into the entire out-of-body experience from start to finish, a roller coaster ride of euphoria, nerves, daydreams, drama, and many points between. What follows is a condensed version of this conversation.
Primus Interstellar Drum Derby | Ep. 01 – Rory Dolan | Thank You, Brothers
L4LM: Take me back to when you first got word that the drum seat for Primus was up for grabs. How did you find out and what went through your brain?
Rory Dolan: It was a cold, rainy October night when I opened my phone for a casual doom scroll. We were just about to leave for lespecial/ Doom Flamingo fall tour. The first thing I saw was a long text post from Primus. I had caught some insight from the Primus crew a couple weeks prior, that Tim “Herb” Alexander was maybe going to be leaving the band and that they would be looking for a drummer. At the time, I took it with a grain of Himalayan Sea Salt, because I didn’t know if it was credible. I had just seen the band over the summer and couldn’t imagine Herb wanting to jump ship, considering how great I thought they sounded at those shows.
L4LM: Have you seen a bunch of Primus shows over the years?
Dolan: I’ve seen Primus over 50 times since I was 14, starting with Roseland Ballroom in NYC on Tour de Fromage in 2003. I’ll always go to see them whenever I can. This past summer I caught them in Saratoga, NY and the very next night in Portland, ME. Amazing shows, super-inspired playing, and interesting varied setlists. I felt the band was firing on all cylinders. I never would have guessed that come October, two months later, Herb would be leaving the band, for fairly vague reasons provided at the time.
Shortly after there was a bit more insight provided by a Rolling Stone article and interview with Herb. Essentially, he had just lost his passion for the band, wanted to be more present for his family, and didn’t want to do it anymore. I think he said sometimes the gig becomes a job, and isn’t fun anymore, something along those lines.
L4LM: Was that a shock to the Primus community? Were people pissed?
Dolan: I personally felt like “Fair enough, he doesn’t owe anyone anything.” But it was definitely a shock, I think, to the fans and the community and to his bandmates. I also think that it could have been proper for him to have one more send off show, final performance with the band, given their history and his status as such a legendary, influential player. Herb is a legitimate monster player and such an innovator. But unfortunately that didn’t happen. Naturally, when I saw the post, I thought, “Well, seems like I could be the guy for the job.”
I have a friend who works for the band, so I texted him immediately and just felt him out. In their initial posts, Primus had said something like, “We’re gonna be seeking out the greatest drummer in the universe.” There wasn’t much on their socials for a couple weeks after that. I texted some other friends in the Primus organization, like longstanding drum tech and old guard member Tim Soya, and started picking his brain.
Eventually, they put out the audition request, which was basically to submit a video of your recent playing, stressing the need for an affable individual with musicality and a willingness to contribute and be a part of the musical conversation, favoring these attributes over flashy, showy chops. They weren’t just looking for a clone.
L4LM: How did you approach putting that together? So many drummers submitted, it had to be a serious mission.
Dolan: I was a little bit torn putting together my audition video; because on the one hand I knew that it was really obvious we’ve covered Primus a bunch. It’s all out there on the internet, the whole Frizzle Fry livestream we did in 2021. There had been a lot of good reception to that. At the same time, I wasn’t sure if being someone who covers the music so much would necessarily be a good thing in their eyes. Because while yes, you know the music, you don’t want to get a Primus cover band drummer, not that that’s what we [lespecial] are. But from the perception of someone that doesn’t really know the band that well, maybe they would perceive us as that.
For my audition video, I created a highlight reel. I just took a bunch of short clips from live lespecial videos, mostly Red Rocks clips, my playing with Mike Dillon & Punkadelick, as many different things I could find that weren’t just playing Primus songs. I included one little Primus clip though, the frantic, epic ending from the tune “Frizzle Fry” and also cheekily started and bookended my video with my interactions with Les [Claypool] on the Primus Tracks podcast.
Long story short, Les and I both guested on this podcast where I was analyzing and demonstrating drum parts, and he proceeded to quiz me on different things, and ended up being quite complementary. I figured that added a humorous element that would be welcomed. Shout out to Josh and Frankie at Primus Tracks Towers! After much combing over the edit, I had to cut myself off and sent it out. I checked with Tim Soya and confirmed they got my submission, so that was all good. Then the waiting ensued. That was right around Thanksgiving. It was a full month until I heard anything.
L4LM: I imagine you were buggin’ out a bit during that time. How could you not be?
Dolan: I was really curious [laughs]. As December went along, I was thinking it was less and less likely I would get an audition at that point, having not heard back. But two days before Christmas, I got a text from the drum tech asking to confirm my email address. Even though he already had it, I took this as a good omen. Shortly after that I got a message from Primus management saying that they’d like me to fly out to L.A. and audition. It became clear that there had been over 6,000 video submissions. And they picked ten people to audition in person. Apparently [Larry] “Ler” [LaLonde] and Soya went through every single submission, and Les reviewed the top picks. So that was pretty cool and felt pretty special.
Rory Dolan’s Primus Audition Tape
L4LM: Are you kidding dude? That had to be an unbelievable feeling.
Dolan: It felt pretty cosmic and meant to be, even though it was still very surreal to even have this opportunity. The whole notion of a band of their caliber doing an open call audition, just didn’t seem real. The preparation for it was not as intense as one may think, because three out of the four audition pieces I had performed with lespecial numerous times, performing both vocals and drums! So just playing the drums wasn’t a big deal.
I actually had to kind of untrain myself from the muscle memory of doing the vocals and the drums, because there’s natural things you do when you adapt doing both at once. My tendencies as a player, I would do the drum part a little bit differently to accommodate the vocal or vice versa. I also made sure I was not just playing Primus songs in the practice room, but staying well oiled and inspired, playing music and vibes that are Primus adjacent and core influences of their sound—like Rush, King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Zappa, etc.
Primus management asked me to submit videos documenting the preparation for my audition. They wanted all the auditioning drummers to submit videos of how you’re getting ready, how you’re getting inspired, how you’re feeling, yada yada. I’m definitely not a selfie, talk to my camera guy, at all, but I recorded myself going to the practice room, what I was working on, how I was setting up my drums and why. Like “It’s a cold, snowy day in Connecticut and I’m driving 40 minutes both ways to go practice” [laughs]. I also filmed portions of my practice for self review and subsequently posted them on my socials. I made sure I got my hours in, which was similar to the prep when I did the Umphrey’s thing [subbing for Kris Myers back in 2023].
L4LM: How do you lay out a plan for preparation of this nature? To temporarily join—or tryout—with an established band who makes challenging music and has dedicated, often critical fans.
Dolan: I knew that I had to put in an adequate amount of preparation to know that at the end of the day, I did everything I possibly could to prepare myself—after which, everything else is going to be out of my hands. There’s nothing worse than preparing for something and then if you get to that audition, the big event or the big show, and you go walking on stage or walking into that room, whatever it is, and you think to yourself “There’s something I could have done better to prepare myself for this. I should have done this, should have done that.” You can’t have any of that crap in your mind or it’ll distract you from the task at hand.
So, all things considered, I felt really good about my preparation. A lot of that also had to do with just mentally and emotionally preparing for it. Getting this audition was such a huge milestone for me as a longtime fan of the band and a serious student of this music. As casual and laid back as I tried to be, this was a huge deal and I was trying to tap into those feelings so I didn’t bug out.
I had to psych myself out going into that room, to not be too much of a fan, even though I obviously am a huge fan. I think it would be a big strength in hiring someone like me, who knows their music so intimately, knows the ins and outs of the culture and the fanbase and the band itself. At the same time, I think that maybe they were looking for the opposite of that.
L4LM: Take us through the audition process. From the beginning.
Dolan: On January 18th, I flew to L.A., and I had a day to kind of decompress in the hotel room. I had arranged for a practice space from a friend from Boston who I went to school with. It just so happened he was right down the street from my hotel with his practice space. I went and practiced the night before. Then I just tried to sleep as much as I could that night. But, as you could probably surmise, it wasn’t easy.
I woke up wide awake at 8 a.m. and said, “Okay, I’m not falling back asleep, I’m gonna go get some breakfast.” Got some great coffee, and a good breakfast out in Glendale. Took about a 90-minute walk back towards my hotel, because what else was I going to do that morning? I didn’t want to just be pacing in the hotel room. And I decided I wouldn’t go practice again because I didn’t want to put any other variables between me and getting to the audition at 1 p.m.
It was a beautiful morning, you know, just a really nice California day. Couldn’t help but think of Mr. Bungles‘ California record with the picturesque palm trees. So I put that on the headphones to kind of get out of Primus mode as a healthy distraction. Before I knew it, I was back at the hotel and calling my ride. Here we go! As soon as I got out of the Uber, they had a camera on me. Les’s son Cage was actually the one with the camera, I think he was kind of surprised that I recognized him. They put a mic on me and started asking me questions right away.
I walked into a much smaller room than I anticipated. It’s funny, when you have an idea what these things are going to be like in your head, and you’re building it up. I could have looked up the studio, to see what it actually looked like, but in a way I wanted it to be a first impression. I didn’t want any kind of preconceived notion of what the room was going to be like. Walking in was just totally new. But in my dreams, I was thinking it would be this big soundstage in a big room, but it was a tiny little studio decked out with some artwork and the big Primus drum set back there with the auxiliary kick drum. And I was like “Oh, shit, this is it!” Les’s rig is there, so is Ler’s. I was the very first drummer to audition. No pressure!
L4LM: What did you do right away when you got inside the audition space?
Dolan: I started arranging the drum set to my liking. The drum tech Tim Soya was there, and some other people that we know like Zach who did sound for Cool Cool Cool and Remain in Light, he was the sound guy. Our friend Padge, who worked for Lotus, is their production manager. There’a monitor guy, Tomas. He’s been with Primus for years. I recognize from seeing him on stage, and seeing his name in posts and whatnot . I knew his name, he was like, how do you know me? I don’t know if he was taken aback or surprised, but either way, I felt good that I knew some people in the room and I didn’t feel like a total outsider, or an imposter syndrome kind of thing.
I did some meditating that morning to make sure I wasn’t talking a mile a minute or not being myself. And I think that really helped to kind of center myself and make sure that I was the best version of myself and not acting out of character. In these kinds of situations with your heroes, sometimes that can happen, inadvertently. It’s a result of nerves and anticipation and emotions. Of course you’re not trying to do that, be disingenuous, but these things can happen, especially when someone like Les Claypool walks in the room, which he did, [laughs].
L4LM: What the hell was that like? You’re getting situated, centered, tuning the drums and such. Then the Colonel just rolls into the spot!
Dolan:Well, I thought I was going to have a little bit more time to warm up, to feel out the drum set. Getting the mix together wasn’t a big deal. It was such a small room and I was still on in-ears, because they don’t like using monitors. Looking back on it, this was such a small room. I almost wish I hadn’t had IEMs, because you can play the room a little bit more and be more dynamic.
I hadn’t really warmed up yet. Then Les walks in the room. He’s like, “Hey, dude.” And gave me the classic potato. He doesn’t shake hands. If you ever meet him, don’t try to shake his hand. He won’t do it. For the record, this wasn’t our first time meeting. I had met him years ago on his bus after a Duo De Twang show, but very briefly, then years later we had our exchange on the Primus Tracks podcast, another interaction at a Primus VIP session where he told Herb “Hey it’s the drummer dude from the podcast, hey Herb this guy can play!”, and most recently Luke [Bemand, lespecial bassist] and I had been at a Frog Brigade show in Boston where our Jazz Dad Mike Dillon brought us backstage and we had some words with Les. The fact that I had met and interacted with him before definitely made me feel slightly more at ease.
He said, “How you doing? Where did you come from?” We started talking about Connecticut [Laughs]. “Isn’t that where David Lettermen and his people are?” We’re just kind of shooting the s–t, and asking me about family stuff. We got into that a little bit. Since it was the first audition, I had the impression they hadn’t really been in the room to play their instruments much. So he starts checking his stuff. Quickly, I realized that he’s playing and I’m like, “Well Les is playing bass over there, I may as well just start playing with him.”
We improvised for what seemed like 15–20 minutes. Hard to say. We were just improvising, a soundcheck jam of sorts as adjustments were being made. Had some nice peaks and valleys, different dynamics. There were a couple times where he teased “Spaghetti Western”. I took a minute to catch it, but eventually went into that signature drum beat. We also did a little bit of “Intruder” by Peter Gabriel. They teased “Roundabout”, which was funny. They were joking off, having fun. Even Ler was joking!
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L4LM: What were your initial impressions of guitarist Larry “Ler” LaLonde?
Dolan: Such a sweetheart and a nice guy. I’d never met him before, so that was awesome to shake his hand and meet one of my favorite guitarists.
L4LM: I saw something about Larry and the fires in L.A. Right before your audition, as I recall.
Dolan: Yeah, Larry and his wife had just lost their house in the horrible tragedy out there with the fires, literally his house burned to the ground. I had expected them to either postpone or cancel these auditions because they took place about a week after the fires started. But like a consummate professional, he just carried on with his duties and showed up to work. And you wouldn’t have been able to tell the guy’s house just went up in flames. Perhaps Ler was happy to have that distraction? But Ler is an absolute gem, and a champion of a human.
L4LM: How did you/they arrive at which Primus songs to play with them for the audition? Such a voluminous catalog, with different drummers like Herb, Brain, etc.
Dolan: After the improv, Les said “I guess it’s time to play Primus songs now.” We were off to the races. “Those Damn Blue Collared Tweakers”, “Groundhog’s Day”, “Last Salmon Man”, and “Tommy the Cat.” There was a choice provided in the audition letter where you were able to choose from certain songs. But I prepared all of them. I knew all of them. I wanted to play this other song from The Brown Album, “Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread”, which has Brain on drums. We’ve [lespecial] performed that track a lot; it’s got a great drum solo. It’s in 11.
I really wanted to play that tune, but when Les called out “Alright, ‘Salmon Man’.” I was like, “Oh yeah, or we could do ‘Duchess’. He’s like, “Wait, was that a choice? [laughs] Oh, it was a choice”. Even though he did still provide me with the choice, I felt he was leaning towards “Salmon”, so we decided we’d do “Salmon”. He said, “Let’s do ‘Salmon Man’, that way you can play some JaySki s–t”. That being Jay Lane; Les is on record saying JaySki is his favorite drummer to play with.
Some of the advice that I got from friends like Mike Dillon, Mike said “Play as funky as you can. Try to play like Jay.” Well, that’s good advice! And after we played “Salmon Man”, Les said “I love all the hi hat stuff you were doing, sounds like you’ve studied / are a fan of JaySki.” So I figured that was a win.
For the last selection it was a choice between “Tommy the Cat” or “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver”. As much as I would have loved to play “Jerry” with them, obviously, I couldn’t deny playing “Tommy the Cat”; it was pretty epic. We jammed out a little bit on “Tweekers” and “Groundhog’s” in the spots where they usually open them up for improv. But “Tommy” was pretty scripted. “Salmon Man” had a little space jam in the middle.
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L4LM: Did you flex any of your Claypool knowledge or deep references, just to let them know you knew what time it was?
Dolan: I tried to put a couple Frog Brigade teases in there. I teased “Long in the Tooth”. I slipped a couple other things in there that I thought would be fun, and then that was pretty much it. I kinda regret not egging them on in the talkback mic for more teases and deviations, like they sometimes do “Lacquer Head” in the middle of “Tweekers”, so I could have tried to get Les to start that, but it all happened so fast and I wasn’t trying to overstep. After we finished the audition, we took a group photo, then we chatted a little bit.
L4LM: What was the post audition conversation like?
Dolan: I asked them about playing with Brain over New Year’s, because we all love Brain as a drummer so much. I was curious, as probably everyone else was too, why they didn’t try to get Brain and/or Jay Lane back in the band? Turns out Brain has a successful career in film scoring and video game music. He just did the music for Call of Duty! Brain just doesn’t want to be on the road. I’ve been privy to that for a while, listening to podcasts with him talking about just being cooked from being on the road and not wanting to do that anymore. So it kind of makes sense. And Les said the same thing: “Brain doesn’t want to do it.” And then he said, “We just want something different, someone new.” They’re not looking for a clone, they weren’t looking for a previous drummer, anything like that.
But that was pretty much it. After the chat, we said goodbye. As I was waiting for my Uber, the next drummer coming into the audition was Thomas Pridgen! I’ve been a big fan of his playing over the years, particularly with The Mars Volta. I knew that going into it, so I didn’t really psych me out at all. I just thought it was humorous, ships passing in the night, ships passing in the parking lot. We actually exchanged some texts afterwards, he told me he had checked out my playing and was impressed, so that was a cool bonus and nod to get that kind of input from someone like Pridgen.
L4LM: What did you do in the aftermath of the audition to wind down, or decompress?
Dolan: I felt really good about the audition. So I went and met up with my future brother-in-law in L.A., he’s a music engineer out there. Had my first beer in about a month, just to celebrate completing the audition process.
But then slowly but surely over the course of the week, having no video to reflect upon what happened, you start feeling like “Oh s–t, did it really go as well as I thought it did?” Because I couldn’t record any of it, they filmed all the auditions and are making documentary episodes about each tryout.
I’m pretty critical of myself in a lot of ways. Generally speaking, when I feel tight about something or I feel like I could have done better, eventually I’ll look back at whatever it is in question and then be like “Oh, it was actually fine,” or it was better than fine. Things that you perceive as being a big deal, in a lot of instances aren’t. But that’s the double edged sword of being super critical and hard on yourself, is that sometimes it’s unnecessary, but a lot of the times it’s a good sharpening stone, just making your s–t really good and really tight.
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L4LM: Eventually Primus made a choice, and unfortunately it wasn’t you, Rory. How did you receive/deal with their decision?
Dolan: At the end of the day, I did not get the gig, which is totally cool. I took about a day to process it. They gave it to John Hoffman, who is a great drummer from Shreveport, LA. I had been friendly with some of these guys and gals online, some I already knew like my friends Nikki Glaspie and Sam Groveman, and some I befriended through the process, guys like John, Stan Bicknell, and Mike Stone—just to kind of clear the air, so there’s no weird ego s–t going on. Made some new friends that are going through a similar experience.
So yeah, I can totally see exactly why they picked this guy. He’s a very tight pocket funk drummer, and I think they’re going in that direction. I’ve actually had a phone call with him since the news to congratulate him and talk shop. He seems like a really great guy. At the end of the day I love Primus, and I’m happy Primus has found a new drummer because that hopefully means they’ll be making more new music for years to come, and that’s the end game. I’m stoked they found someone they’re excited about and is gonna move the band forward.
Initially, I was a little emotionally torn up about it, but I also have a lot to be grateful for, with regard to the whole experience. It was unheard of, that it even happened. I’m super lucky to have had that opportunity. And to be among ten people selected out of 6,000 is pretty crazy. I should feel good about that. And I have to thank my community of family, friends, bandmates, and everyone else all over for the support. It’s been amazing, and inspiring.
At the same time I’ve got a lot to be grateful for, and to look forward to. I’m thankful that I’ve got a great band. That’s my creative outlet, and I didn’t want to have to split my time or whatever. Though, obviously that could have been a really awesome thing in a lot of ways. I’d like to go on record with a huge thank you and immense gratitude to Les, Ler, all the legendary drummers who have played with the group: Jay Lane, Tim Alexander, and Brain for their incredible contributions, the whole organization for giving me this once in a lifetime experience and opportunity. I will forever be super greatful and happy for this adventure.
On a personal level, I just had two babies, my second and third children altogether. It’s full on dad mode, so I have them to focus on, and be grateful for. I don’t have time to be too upset or cry about the Primus thing, because, well these two babies are already crying! A lot! [Laughs]
L4LM: Thanks for the time and candor in reflecting on this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Congrats on the twins too! Trust, we are all looking forward to lespecial’s ever-brightening future.
As told to B.Getz on Jam Cruise 21.
Catch lespecial in New Orleans during Jazz Fest both at Daze Between New Orleans (4/29, 4/30) and at Toulouse Theatre (5/1). For details on these and other Fest by Nite concerts in New Orleans during Jazz Fest 2025, head here.
