Drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander has once again quit Primus, a decision that shocked his bandmates Les Claypool and Larry “Ler” LaLonde, per a statement posted to the band’s social media. The post revealed that Alexander had informed the rest of the band of his abrupt and immediate departure via email.
“On Thursday, October 17th, we received an email from Tim ‘Herb’ Alexander expressing that effective immediately he would no longer be involved with Primus,” the band wrote. “It came as a complete shock to all of us here in the Primus camp.”
This announcement comes after several months of heavy touring for Primus. In the spring, the band made up one-third of the Sessanta Tour lineup with A Perfect Circle and Puscifer in celebration of Tool singer Maynard James Keenan‘s 60th birthday. In the summer, Primus hit the road with Coheed and Cambria for a co-headlining amphitheater tour.
“On the heels of a wonderful Spring & Summer of touring and some fabulous plans ahead, it has been a bit bewildering for us that Herb would so abruptly opt out,” the band continued. “After several attempts to communicate with Herb, his only response was another email stating that he has ‘lost his passion for playing.'” The note added, “As disappointing as that is, we respect his choice and it’s forced us to make some tough decisions.”
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Herb’s sudden decision has left Primus without a drummer as various high-profile tour dates approach. Up next for the band is a two-night New Year’s Eve run in Oakland, CA billed as The NYE Fisherman’s Chronicles Costume Ball. For these shows, Primus will now pull percussive support from Claypool’s Holy Mackerel and Fearless Flying Frog Brigade bandmates. As the note from the band explained, “this will be an exciting special, one-time event.”
After that Primus will head to the Dominican Republic in March 2025 for the inaugural Tool Live in the Sand featuring Mastodon, Coheed and Cambria, Eagles of Death Metal and others, in addition to two nights of Tool. For that all-inclusive destination event, Primus will once again call up Tool drummer Danny Carey to fill in. Carey previously played drums for Primus on a string of shows in 2014 after Herb suffered his first heart attack.
From there, Primus will once again team up with A Perfect Circle and Puscifer for Sessanta V2.0, celebrating Keenan’s 61st birthday. For that six-week trek, the band explained (somewhat cryptically) that it plans on searching for the “greatest drummer on earth.”
This marks Herb’s third departure from Primus in 30 years. From the band’s inception in 1984 by Claypool, guitarist Todd Huth, and drummer Vince “Perm” Parker to the formation of the band’s most well-known lineup (Les/Ler/Herb) in 1989, the Primus drum stool operated like a revolving door. During that time, the band cycled through Peter Libby, Robbie Bean, Tim Wright, Jay Lane, and Bryan Mantia on drums before finally landing on Herb.
Alexander first left Primus in 1996, a parting of ways that Claypool described at the time as being “like a marriage that just slowly decayed to an end.” After Primus returned from a hiatus in 2003, Herb once again joined the band. In 2010, Herb was replaced by Jay Lane when the latter left Grateful Dead offshoot Furthur to rejoin Primus.
In a 2011 Rolling Stone interview, Claypool expressed that the post-hiatus Primus was essentially a nostalgia act and that Herb was resistant to recording the new music that became 2011’s Green Naugahyde. At the time, Claypool said, “Larry LaLonde was very passionate about doing Primus again. Unfortunately, Tim Alexander wasn’t as passionate. It was still the element of this creative stagnation.” Interestingly, that quote is reminiscent of Herb’s latest response to his bandmates that he “lost his passion for playing.”
In 2013, Lane departed Primus to focus on touring with Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir‘s band, RatDog. Alexander rejoined the band for the second time on New Year’s Eve 2013, ironically at the same Fox Theater in Oakland where the band will now play its first show without Herb (again). Since New Year’s Eve 2013, Herb has played alongside Primis through its Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory phase, the group’s seventh album The Desaturating Seven (2017), a Rush tribute tour with full performances of A Farewell to Kings, 2022’s Conspiranoid EP, and the South Park 25th Anniversary Concerts with Ween and show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
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