“A little funky”: why Stephen Stills rubbed BBQ sauce into his strings
Bass players are their own breed. Even a bassist with a notably higher profile as a singer/songwriter/guitarist and multi-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer will often prove themselves prone to some unusual superstitions and unorthodox tricks of the trade. In the case of Stephen Stills—he of the Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash fame—the quirkiest trait involves a very peculiar method for getting the right feel out of a new set of guitar strings.
“I keep bass strings on my bass for two years at a time,” Stills once said. “I play bass so hard that I really thump it, so when I get a new string, I buy some barbecue sauce and sit and rub it in. This is because it’s got to get a little funky, rusty, and greasy in there, so it will start to respond.”
Lest one thinks this was a nonsensical quote from Stills’ rougher substance-abuse years with CSN, the man himself confirmed the quote in a 2023 post on X. “Is that true? BBQ Sauce?” a fan asked. “True,” Stills responded.
Surprisingly, no one followed up with the Texas-born Stills about his barbecue sauce of preference, a topic that can lead to fisticuffs in certain sections of the southern United States. Assuming he is loyal to his roots, we can imagine that the writer of such legendary tunes as ‘For What It’s Worth’ and ‘Judy Blue Eyes’ probably slathered his bass strings with a Texas BBQ sauce as a discriminating good ole boy should.
According to the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts, most Texas sauces are distinct for quintessential flavours such as “chilli powder, garlic, hot sauce, cumin, and Worcestershire. The consistency is thin, but the flavour is earthy and robust.”
For Stephen Stills’ purposes, the flavour probably matters a bit less than the acidity. The goal, after all, is to wear down a stubborn and unruly new set of strings by grinding away their sheen a bit and literally bending them to the bassist’s will.
As for why or how Stills came around to this method, he elaborated a little bit more in a chat with Bass Player magazine. “I wanted [the bass] to sound like an upright – without much sustain,” Stills explained, noting that he used the same 1960 Fender Precision Bass on almost every one of his famous recordings. “So I’d cover the strings in cheeseburger grease, barbecue sauce – even blood – so they’d get nice and dead. I don’t want the bass to sound like a friggin’ guitar!”
While Stills was born in Texas, he was also a military brat and moved around a lot as a kid, meaning his tastes in both BBQ sauce and bass playing styles are potentially harder to pin down. He played in swing bands as a teenager, developing his preference for an upright sound, and also attended high school in Costa Rica, where a very different type of music made a big impact on him.
“Playing with a Latin feel is something I’ve always been able to do well because that’s what I heard all around me going to high school in Central America,” Stills told Bass Player. “Salsa is in my blood – there’s a Latin flavour to everything I do.”
Spiciness, it seems, has always been essential to the Stills sound, even if his actual bass-playing prowess has remained criminally underrated.
