Five Finger Death Punch Bassist Influenced by Cliff Burton, Gene Simmons + Ian Hill

Five Finger Death Punch's ‘American Capitalist’ has been taking the rock world by storm, and Loudwire had a chance to sit down with bassist Chris Kael for an interview before their Share the Welt gig in New York City. During the interview, Kael mentioned the musicians who influenced him while he was honing his skills.

“Playing-wise, I like the melodic style of [late Metallica bassist] Cliff Burton, hands down my favorite bassist ever.” He continues, “One of the reasons I started doing music in general was Gene Simmons from KISS, I saw him at a very young age on some T.V. show and I was like “that’s gonna be me some day.”

Kael adds. “I also like Ian Hill from Judas Priest, the simplest of bass lines but so effective and that’s what I try to do in the songs myself is just keep it driving and keep a good solid bass line going.”

However, he says his job comes relatively easy thanks to 5FDP's guitar duo. “When you got Jason Hook and Zoltan [Bathory], the bass player doesn’t need to really be all that flashy. [Laughs] I appreciate the guys that play for the song. You can go a million miles a minute or whatever but I’m not impressed with that, I’m impressed with sticking to the song and trying to enhance the foundation of a great song.”

Stay tuned for Loudwire's full interview with Chris Kael. Five Finger Death Punch are currently rocking stages on the Share the Welt tour. For a full list of remaining dates, go here.