MonoNeon

The Questlove Show

iHeartPodcasts

Music, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2026

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Electric bass visionary MonoNeon joins Questlove to trace his journey from Memphis church kid and second-generation musician to Prince’s last-hired bassist and a viral internet force. He breaks down his flipped right-handed bass technique, neon-soaked persona, and Dada-inspired art mindset, plus the albums that shaped him. MonoNeon and Quest' dig into his speech-to-music videos, collaborations with George Clinton and Mac Miller, the lessons he took from Paisley Park, and how embracing “mistakes” and self-doubt became the engine of his ultimate goal: total musical freedom.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:02.5	Guaranteed Human.
0:04.6	The Questlove show is a production of I-Heart Radio.
0:16.5	All right.
0:17.8	I promise you people that I haven't treated drumming in for bass, but what a coinkie-dink. Here we are yet again on the Questlove show, highlighting yet another ass kicking bassist. Maybe I'm looking for a collaboration. This is like the audition process, but this isn't any average run-the-meal
0:40.3	influencer slash bass players we're talking to, you know, trying to make ripples on the internet.
0:47.3	Flea himself has declared our guest today, air quote, the greatest fucking electric bass player. And I'm inclined to agree, for my own band
0:59.0	has covered his tunes from his many records or his many viral videos that you've seen on
1:07.0	social media because they are irresistible ear candy and funky as hell you know the list
1:14.7	is expensive of course prince knows what's up mac miller knows what's up davis staples
1:19.9	george clinton uh sudan archives george ad maldraudette ne Nause, everyone knows the deal.
1:35.3	His last project, The Dirt Loves Me More Than You, of course, blew my mind and I was left with no choice.
1:47.7	But to have our Quest Left show, QLS, Fem, Brittany and cousin Jake, get on the case so that I could chop it up with the one and only mono neon. Welcome to the course love show. I appreciate it. Thank you. Oh, man. So I will say that I got
1:58.0	hip to you. Well, late-ish, I'll say that a place called fantasy is where, like,
2:05.1	I really jumped aboard like, oh, shit. I was in a record store once. I think I was in
2:11.2	LA at Amoeba, and I heard all I ever wanted to do is be a mystery.
2:20.4	And, you know, what I'll later discover about you is your method of songwriting.
2:27.4	Like your courses and your verses, to me, are mantras and affirmations very much similar to like another native of your hometown of
2:40.8	Memphis, Mr. Maurice White, the way that he used affirmations and mantras,
2:47.2	essentially tricking their large fan base into positivity, which is always a good thing.
2:58.2	And for me, just always listening to the courses, I think for that song, you did the, you find that freedom inside yourself.
3:10.4	And I think when I heard that, it stuck with me in a way that I didn't plan it.
	...

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