The bass wizard found fame with breakthrough album Drunk, but the death of his friend
Mac Miller forced him to confront hard truths about his own lifestyle
If anyone was destined to make our current situation more bearable, it’s Thundercat. Not only has the bass-playing, kitten ear-wearing, genre-blurring musician just released a new album – let’s call it a self-isolation soundtrack. But, having worked with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Childish Gambino, Pharrell Williams and Erykah Badu, he has enough entertaining stories to last a lockdown.
Such as the time he met Prince at one of the late star’s infamous house parties. “I was drunk, dancing, and he walks up and he’s got them platform sandals, and he’s got his shirt all shiny and stuff. And he goes: ‘That’s not how you do the James Brown [shuffle].’ And then he promptly did the James Brown in sandals, but I think he had just had hip surgery. So I think he may have moved a little too quick.” Or when Joni Mitchell mocked him when she saw his leg tattoo of his bass hero, Jaco Pastorius. “They were close friends and played together. She said to me: ‘Man, I loved him too, but I wouldn’t get him inked on me.’ And everybody laughed.”