Primus' Les Claypool on Friday's tribute show in St. Paul: 'We're Rush fans ourselves'

They're a cult-loved rock trio with fans who nerd out over bass solos and eccentric, story-driven albums. So, it really should come as no surprise that Primus opted to pay tribute to probably the ultimate band that fits that same description.

Still, even Primus frontman Les Claypool admits he was a bit surprised that his band's A Tribute to Kings Tour — playing St. Paul's Palace Theatre on Friday night — actually came to fruition.

"It started really more as a joke," Claypool recounted. "We had played our own albums in their entirety, so it was kind of like, 'What's next?'"

The answer was Rush's 1977 album "A Farewell to Kings."

Considered a landmark record in prog-rock circles — though it's far from Rush's most commercially successful LP — "Kings" is being performed from start to finish on Primus' current tour, alongside a set of the younger trio's own material. For everyone who's been dying to hear "Cygnus X-1 (Book One — The Voyage)" performed on the same night as "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver," this one's for you.

Still, there's a more serious side to the endeavor now that Rush is no longer an active band, following drummer Neal Peart's death to cancer in 2020.

The Canadian rock heroes had taken the Californian psychedelic punk jammers under their wings in the early-'90s and recruited them as an opening act. This was in the heyday of the grunge/alt-rock boom, when Primus also traveled on the Lollapalooza III tour with Alice in Chains, Rage Against the Machine and Minneapolis' Babes in Toyland. Strange days, indeed.

On how the idea became a reality: "It went from a joke to we got around to thinking, 'Maybe we really should do something like that?' This was a few years ago, when Neil was still on the planet. And it just took on a whole new meaning after [he got cancer].

"We had talked about doing 'Hemispheres,' but then we thought, well, we can't do 'Cygnus Two' before we do 'Cygnus One.' And the '2112' and 'Moving Pictures' records seemed too obvious. So we settled on 'A Farewell to Kings.'"

Why this album: "It was the first Rush record I had ever heard as a kid. It's hard to pick a favorite Rush record if you're a true fan. It's like a 'Star Trek' fan trying to pick their favorite episode. But I've always had a real soft spot for 'Cygnus' myself because my first concert was Rush. It was the 'Hemispheres' tour, but when they played 'Cygnus,' I remember it blew my 14-year-old mind."

Why this is the most well-rehearsed tour of Primus' 35-plus-year career: "People think because we can wiggle our fingers and do this kind of fancy stuff that Primus is this incredibly well-rehearsed band. We're really not. We're actually lazy bastards that rarely get together to rehearse.

"To do this tour and play this record, we really wanted to nail it. So we rehearsed more than we ever have. We're Rush fans ourselves, so we know how particular Rush fans can be."

"When we were rehearsing, my son was right there outside our rehearsal space working. He's a Rush fan too, so he was listening to us, and he said to me, 'You know, Dad, maybe you shouldn't try to sing it like Geddy. You should sing it more the way you'd sing it.' Which was basically him saying, 'It's getting a little cringeworthy.' But I took it to heart."

On having Lee and Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson turn out for Primus' recent show in Toronto: "It was good to see them, just because they're really dear friends of ours, and we got to spend some quality time with them having food and beverages and whatnot. Then, of course, playing the music for them and having them say they enjoyed it was a gratifying and chest-puffing moment.

"What was funny was: The first night at Massey Hall when they were there we played it really well, and the second night we totally flubbed it, or at least I did. So at least we got it right on the right night."

On how this tour helps restart Primus after a far-from-prolific period: "We really didn't do [expletive] as a band during quarantine. We couldn't travel, and we live on different ends of the West Coast. And for me, it was sort of a dead period as far as music creativity. You'd think there would've been plenty of time and thought fodder to be creative, but I was just so frustrated with the state of things, whether it was COVID or the political scene.

"I ended up buying an excavator and clearing fire roads on my property, because I live in California where things are now catching on fire on a regular basis. I actually found that very cathartic, spending many days and weeks out there moving dirt around and kicking down trees. But I don't think I wrote a single song during COVID."

Where: Palace Theatre, 17 W. 7th Place, St. Paul.

Tickets: $50, axs.com.