Music Radar caught up with Rush frontman Geddy Lee, who revealed and discussed the 10 bassists who blew his mind. Following is an excerpt from the rundown.

Jack Bruce - Cream

Lee: "I had the great pleasure of seeing Jack Bruce in the late '60s. But I could not find another person to come watch Cream with me… what’s the matter with people, right?! So I thought, ‘Fuck you’s all, I’ll go by myself!’ and bought a single ticket, sat on the balcony and watched them being godly.

Jack had this super-distorted, big-bottom-y EB-3 that he played and it sounded so unadulterated in this small venue, it ended up being one of the most memorable concerts of my childhood. Cream really influenced those early Rush records, especially being a three-piece. Listen to a song like 'Spoonful' or 'Crossroads', you can hear a band that would start a song and be unafraid to jam, just winding it out.  

Jack grew up playing the double bass and adapted to the electric, using fretless models early on as well as his EB-3. It’s sad he is no longer with us. I also love his solo work; he made some great albums that were under the radar. Bass players, check ‘em out!"

Flea - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Lee: "I guess I have to mention Flea here, especially now we’re talking about Californian players. I dearly would have loved to have talked to him for my book, but I ran out of pages and ran out of time. Also, he’s more known for solid-state amps and contemporary instruments, which wasn’t quite a fit for a book about the '50s and '60s basses.

I was in the gym just the other day and heard 'Give It Away playing'. He’s such an original player; he can play up top in a way that doesn’t get in the way of the vocal - in fact, it enhances the vocal. It helps that Chad (Smith) can lay such a fantastic, solid rhythmic backbone for him, and John (Frusciante) or whoever is playing guitar has such a clear sound. The bass has full license to be expansive; he can go low and high - and I’m a massive fan of how he works it up high, as counterpoint to the melody of the song.

His solos are insane from a technical point of view. Like Les, he has this rhythmic thing that is from a different generation to mine, but he combines it with all these other things. You can see how much he loves to play - he’s having the best time, and I love to see that in a bass player. He never takes for granted the opportunity to get out there and wind it up. Any bass player that’s allowed to play too much has the best gig in the world."

Check out the complete rundown here.