Alexander's departure is hardly the soft spot I'd expected. Claypool details the event calmly, underscoring the amicability of the split, all the while hinting that control issues might have left Alexander no choice but to pack up and move out. Herb's departure was like a marriage that just slowly decayed to an end. There was no one instance or anything that happened abruptly. The band has always been, on a personal level, me and Ler.
Herb's a lot more of a straight, serious, dry kind of guy.
He's the nicest guy you'll ever meet and a fabulous drummer, but after six years with the band I think he was becoming more and more dissatisfied with his role as just being the drummer. It was making him unhappy, which was making Larry and I unhappy. When it came down to it, we came very close to dissolving entirely, to ending Primus. I went to Ler and said, 'Look, I'm not content anymore. He's got his own thing now.