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A few days after Primus announced the abrupt departure of Tim Alexander, the drummer has explained his exit in a new interview with Rolling Stone.
In the interview, Alexander expanded on a statement from Primus’ Les Claypool and Larry LaLonde that the drummer had told them he had lost his passion for playing.
“A lot of times, you do something you love for a long time, and sometimes the passion turns into a job, and sometimes that job doesn’t feel like it’s your being anymore,” he told Rolling Stone.
He added, “Over time, I started realizing that it was affecting my physical life, it was affecting my mental life, and it was affecting my family life, and my heart just wasn’t in it. When I discovered that I’m struggling with all these things, I had to sit and think about exactly what am I doing. I don’t think I’ve ever chosen my path in life, I think I’ve just always thought ‘I’m a drummer, I’m just gonna do music,’ and things came to me, accepting whatever happens.”
As far as notifying his bandmates, Alexander explained, “Initially, I wrote this letter from my heart to those guys, to let them know [I was leaving] … It was very heartfelt, it was very loving, I said positive things about how much I appreciated them and how much admiration there was. So it was very surprising that only certain parts would be released to the whole world.”
Alexander suffered a couple of heart attacks in 2014 and 2016, but says he’s “feeling really good” these days. “I’m dealing with all the aches and pains, but I’m doing things to strengthen my body and to strengthen my relationships and to strengthen my mind,” remarked the drummer. “I’m the happiest I think I’ve ever been. I’m not looking at this like, ‘I can’t function anymore, I got to quit.’ I feel good, I feel strong, but I’ve had to make these changes to get to this point.”
Primus have a couple of New Years Eve shows in Oakland, and even though Alexander lives in the Bay Area, he told Rolling Stone he has no interest in playing those gigs as a farewell to fans.
“I wouldn’t being authentic to myself,” he reasoned. “I would be doing it with everyone thinking that it’s a send-off, but I’m already off. And I really, really don’t like playing drums where every time I hit a drum I’m like ‘Ugh, this isn’t where I want to be.’ It doesn’t feel good, it feels terrible on the body.”
In addition to those two gigs, Primus are set to join A Perfect Circle and Puscifer on the “Sessanta V2.o” tour in the spring (pick up tickets here). As of now, Primus have not named Alexander’s replacement.