“I got that bass for $50 off this coke dealer. I don’t know what Jaco did to it, but he totally messed up the insides!” How Cro-Mags’ Harley Flanagan went from buying a Jaco Pastorius bass on the street to fronting one of hardcore’s most influential bands

Harley Flanagan.

Harley Flanagan made a home for his furious bass playing and its savage edge in the Cro-Mags, leaving an indelible mark with 1986 debut album Age of Quarrel. He credits Bad Brains’ Darryl Jenifer, Motorhead’s Lemmy and Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler as key influences.

Surprisingly, he also dug into jazz records by the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report. “I used all those ingredients and found myself somewhere in the middle,” Flanagan tells Bass Player. “When I started listening to a lot of crazy shit, that’s when I started getting ideas.”