http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/adDetails/201The Ripper Bass – Designed To Rip Your Ears Off!I want to thank Duff McKagan for the props in his column. And I want to extend my appreciation of his bass playing – especially in the introduction to “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” The interplay between the guitar harmonics and bass set up a big song perfectly.When I played in Flipper, I was also in the situation where I played someone else’s bass lines. At first, it was like playing a cover song but I had to remind myself that no – I was in Flipper! That realization compelled me to try and play the lines as faithfully as possible. I wouldn’t dare trying to change the music of a band that’s so important. Plus, Bruce, who did all the vocals in the version of Flipper I was in, played bass half the time in the old version of the group. He’d switch with the late Will Shatter. In other words, the bass player I was replacing was standing right next to me!I wrote about Dio in Black Sabbath in my last column. There’s also real cool Sabbath record released after Dio left to do his solo work. I love Born Again, their album with Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan. The stand out tracks are “Trashed” and “Zero The Hero”. Check this out: when Sabbath toured the album, they performed the Deep Purple tune “Smoke on the Water”. So there you have it – the Sabb’s, at that moment behind Gillian doing someone else’s riffs!!!Flipper tried to do the Nirvana tune “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” but it never really came together. I do have to say that it was nice to play a Nirvana song.I’m glad that Duff is in Jane’s Addiction. He’s playing with peers. Even though they didn’t sell a lot of records, I felt the same way with Flipper. It’s about the music. Joining a longstanding band is stepping into a new relationship among many old ones in the group – so that’s a challenge in itself. My “new dude” feeling wore off with Flipper and after a little while I felt at home. Don’t forget that Duff is tight – both on bass and as an individual so what a score for Jane’s.