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As a standing tribute to the late Paul Gray, TG presents this never-before published interview with the Slipknot bassist.

Recorded at Download 2009, Paul talked to TG about his solid playing style, his reason for being a bass player and his tips for making you play better. Total Guitar has not edited this interview, deciding instead to leave as much of Paul's personality and character in as possible… RIP Paul.

© Scott D. Smith/Retna ./Retna Ltd./Corbis

How long have you been playing bass guitar for, Paul, and why did you choose bass as your main instrument?

"I think I started playing bass in 1990, which is what? 19 years ago… Wow, I'm getting old! Actually I played guitar first – hang on, my sunglasses are totally fucking up here – I played guitar first and never picked up a bass, wasn't interested in it at all. Then I moved to Iowa and I didn't have any friends there, I didn't know anybody, and I was in this music store and I overheard this dude talking about needing a bass player…

"I was listening in on their conversation, eavesdropping, they were talking about doing covers of Slayer and Metallica – all these songs that I knew how to play on guitar. So I was like, I've moved to Iowa, I don't know anybody, so maybe I should jump in and say I play bass and try to meet some people? So I went over and said, 'Dude, I play bass' even though I didn't have a bass guitar and never picked one up. I figured that it couldn't be that different to playing guitar, but later on I found out it's a totally different thing.

"It was weird because when I started practising these songs on bass, I didn't know any of them. I knew the guitar lines and could have jammed those, but the bass parts were totally different and I was like, 'Fuck!' I had to go back and listen to them. Doing that actually made me fall in love with bass guitar and that's why I became a bass player."

Do you remember what your first bass guitar was?

"You know, the first one I bought was a Charvel, a weird reddish purple Charvel… It was not that great a bass. But the first bass I used to try out for this band, because I didn't have a bass and I'm left-handed, was some no-name bass but kind of like a double cutaway so it kind of looked like an SG maybe? So I switched the strings on it and it kind of looked OK, like a left-handed bass if they'd put the knobs on the top. When I tried out I constantly turned myself down or turned the tone knob down by accident.

"After that the first real bass I bought was an Ibanez Soundgear and I still play Ibanez now. But in the beginning, after we got our record deal, I went to Warwick actually. They were the first company to give me a deal and Warwick basses are great – I'll never talk crap about Warwick because they're amazing basses and an amazing company too and super great guys.

"We were on Ozzfest and I had the one Soundgear bass, which was really old, with no back-up guitar and we were playing all these shows. If that bass went down that was it. After the third or fourth show I met somebody from Warwick and they sent me out a Corvette or some model and it was awesome. They gave me a full deal and they treated me really good, which was great because we had no money at that time and I couldn't afford anything.

"But then I ended up going to Ibanez on the last album because – I can't remember where we were – but I went to a pawn shop and picked up this Ibanez ATK that they've stopped making and I just loved the way it played and sounded, so I started playing it too and Ibanez approached me to offer me a deal. They started sending me Soundgears but I didn't want to play them and I said, 'If you start making these ATK's again like this one, I'll switch companies'. I didn't think they would, but they called me up and said, 'Here you go!'"

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