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Rock and Roll is all about groove. It starts with the drums and bass. If your band has a weak drummer or bass player, it’s all over. Ask any brilliant soloist where it all comes from; they will point to the rhythm section. There are thousands of fantastic bass players in rock history who know how to create a killer groove. It is not about complexity or even simplicity; it is about feel.
It doesn’t matter what style of music you play; when a bass player has a groove, you just know it. Groove can’t be written out on paper. It is like jazz eighth notes; you just have to learn how to play them. For some players, it is just a natural vibe. For others, it is a learning process or both. Ask any musician how they have gotten so good at their craft, and most of the time, they will tell you it’s from listening …and, of course, practice, practice, practice. Our 10 Bass Players That Put The G In Groove will, of course, leave so many out that deserve to be mentioned. We are sorry about that; if we included all of them, we would only publish one article a year.
Groove does not mean funk, although that can be a major part of it. Groove is about feel; it is about a feel for the music one is playing. It’s about taking a song and bringing it to life through how you play it, making it the best it can be. That’s what Groove is all about.
The ten listed below are some of our favorites. They are listed in no particular order. Who would you place on this list?
Tim Bogert
We open our 10 Bass Players That Put The G In Groove list with the late Tim Bogert. As far as powerhouse bass players go, Tim Bogert was one of the greatest of all time. He also was an incredible vocalist. His career began alongside his bandmate Carmine Appice in Vanilla Fudge. The two musicians spent much of their careers together. After Vanilla Fudge, they formed the band Cactus. Later, Bogert and Appice teamed up with Jeff Beck in the killer trio Beck Bogert & Appice. Sadly, Tim Bogert passed away in 2021. He has left behind a vast catalog of rock and roll music filled with killer grooves and heavy-duty bass distortion that cut through it all.
Billy Sheehan
Continuing with our 10 Bass Players That Put The G In Groove list, we present the extraordinary Billy Sheehan. Many of the bass players on this list are also known for multiple playing techniques. Billy Sheehan was praised for so many, including his celebration of playing lead bass and tapping. Yet through it all, it was pure groove. His career began with his band Talas. His fame skyrocketed when he joined the David Lee Roth Band after Roth left Van Halen. After the Roth years, he formed the band Mr. Big. The other notable bands he played in included Niacin and The Winery Dogs.
Bootsy Collins
The coolest school I have ever heard of was called Funk University. Yes, it was a real online bass school, created and curated by none other than the funk master himself, Bootsy Collins. Earning his stripes alongside James Brown in the early 1970s and later as a pivotal member of the Parliament-Funkadelic collective, Collins carved out a distinctive niche in the world of funk. Renowned for his compelling bass rhythms and playful vocal style, he went on to create his own offshoot of the P-Funk empire, famously dubbed Bootsy’s Rubber Band. Even though he is best known for the funk genre, his groove-playing style has had a huge impact on rock bass players for decades.
Larry Knechtel and Carole Kaye
Onward on our 10 Bass Players That Put The G In Groove list are the renowned Larry Knechtel and Carole Kaye. While they may not be household names among casual music fans, the songs they played on are known by millions. As members of the famous Wrecking Crew, Knechtel and Kaye’s grooving bass playing helped hundreds of music artists score top 10 hits in the 1960s and 70s. Take a look at the liner notes on so many of the albums you bought from that time period, and chances are you will see the name Larry Knechtel or Carole Kaye next to bass. Some will really surprise you, like the one below.
Michael Anthony
When you’re standing on stage next to perhaps the greatest and most innovative guitar player in rock and roll history, it’s pretty easy to get overlooked. It also doesn’t help when you have a frontman who loves to take all the credit for everything the band does. Michael Anthony was definitely Van Halen’s most underappreciated member. Yet it was his bass playing that helped create those Van Halen songs, some of the greatest rock and roll recordings in classic rock history. Of course, all Van Halen fans will never forget his backing vocals, which were such a huge part of that Van Halen signature sound. The one man who seemed to really appreciate Michael Anthony’s contributions to the musical family was Sammy Hagar. That’s why he took him along when he left.
Flea
At the halfway point on our “10 Rock Bass Players That Put The G in Groove” list is one man we definitely could not leave off: Flea. There would be no Red Hot Chili Peppers without him. He has created his own style of bass playing that helped catapult the band to stardom. He may seem a little out of his mind, but that’s probably what fuels his tremendous groove bass playing.
Larry Graham
Larry Graham was definitely a pioneer in groove bass playing. He first came to fame as the bassist in the band Sly & The Family Stone. His playing on the song “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” would become one of the landmark moments in music history. After playing in the Family Stone, Larry Graham would form Graham Central Station. He would also work with Prince on albums and tours beginning in the late 1990s.
Mel Schacher
It’s astonishing how many people have overlooked Mel Schacher’s bass playing in Grand Funk Railroad. The grooves he crafted alongside Don Brewer helped create one of the greatest rock and roll trios of all time. These guys were phenomenal. Mark Farner’s talents were already impressive, but with Mel and Don laying down rock-solid rhythms beneath his guitar playing and singing, the band became unstoppable in the 1970s.
Chuck Rainey
The next two bassists on this list are probably responsible for half the music we’ve listened to in our lives, and that’s not much of an exaggeration. Fans of Steely Dan are likely familiar with Chuck Rainey, as he has played on many of their classic records. However, his work with Steely Dan is just a fraction of his prolific career. Rainey has collaborated with hundreds of artists, including Louis Armstrong, The Crusaders, Aretha Franklin, Joe Cocker, and Jackson Browne—the list goes on and on. So why have so many artists sought out Rainey to play on their records? One word: “groove.” Just take a listen to his playing on this classic Rascals song.
James Jamerson
We close out our 10 Rock Bass Players That Put The G In Groove list with the most influential groove bass player of all time. James Jamerson was the extraordinary bassist behind most of Motown Records’ hits during the 1960s and early 1970s. Today, he is celebrated as one of the most significant and influential bass players in modern music history. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Throughout his career as a session musician, Jamerson contributed to twenty-three Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits and fifty-six R&B number-one hits. Every bass player I have ever known has always pointed towards Jamerson as one of their biggest influences.
A few players that were bubbling off the list that we wish we could have placed on it would have to include
Paul McCartney
Geezer Butler
Sting
Les Claypool
Tina Weymouth
John Paul Jones
John Entwistle
Lemmy
Jack Bruce
Geddy Lee
Kenny Passarelli
Dee Murray
Stanley Clarke
John Wetton
Donald “Duck” Dunn
Jack Casady
John McVie
Tony Levin
Bill Black
and of course Jaco
Updated August 25, 2026.
10 Bass Players That Put The G In Groove article published on ClassicRockHistory.com © 2026
