A, are you one of those people who thinks it's OK to drive stoned, what's the worst that can happen? Right. You end up driving below the speed limit. It's no big deal, right? Wrong. The truth is your reaction time slow way down. When you're high, you not only put yourself in danger, but everyone around you talk about a buzz kill. Stop kidding yourself. It's not OK to drive high. If you've been using marijuana in any form.

Do not get behind the wheel. If you feel different, you drive different. Got it. Drive high, get a DUI. Also, we're sponsored today by Squarespace where you can turn your great idea into a reality. Squarespace makes it easier than ever to launch your passion project. Whether you're showcasing your work or selling products of any kind with beautiful templates and the ability to customize just about anything, you can easily make a beautiful website yourself. While getting help from Squarespace is 24 seven award winning customer support.

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All right, let's do this, how are you? What the fuckers, what the fuck buddies, what the fuck? Nix what's happening? My name is Mark Maron. This is my podcast, WTF. I've been doing it a long time now, a long time, twice a week every week. A new show since 2009. People a new conversation every Monday and every Thursday, a new one always since 2000 and fucking nine. Isn't that crazy? Through all the bad things, all the good things, all the peaks, values, plagues, deaths.

We do it, we do the work here, we don't stop if you're not familiar with the show, are you new to the show? Welcome to the show.

I talk for a while, then I talk to people. That's the deal. How's everybody doing?

How are you? How is the how's everything. You all right? Nothing's all right. I know that. I know nothing's all right. But some things are better, it seems, or almost better. I don't know.

This fucking pig president is on his way out, which makes me happy. And if you find that disrespectful, I'll only respect the office as much as the president in office respects the office. And for any of you fascist clowns out there who decide to listen to me for whatever reason and justify your support of the pig, well, clearly, and I mean this objectively, there's something fucking wrong with you.

Is that is that too harsh? Look, man, we're all just people. Some people are scared. Some people are sad. Some people are, you know, angry inside.

And it seems like the people that are most against the idea that they're being fucked with are the most vulnerable to be fucked with because their triggers are so goddamn easy.

When you're full of sadness and you're full of fucking anger and you're not processing any of your grief or your feelings of.

Trauma, abandonment, bitterness, you've got the easiest trigger in the world, you've got a wide open door into your heart and mind, all you got to do is fucking stoke those fucking coals of contempt. And there you go. The doors just open up and anybody can fill your head with whatever kind of garbage they want and just throw it on your fucking already burning fire.

That's a that's across the board. Shit. Did I mention I didn't.

We have a pretty amazing show today.

Bootsy Collins. You know, I got pitched this, you want to interview Bootsy Collins Fuqiang you do is you can wear star glasses and his top hat. Wow. I interview him and zoom. The answer to that question is yes, he is. He most certainly is going to wear his top hat and star sunglasses while you interview him on Zoom.

But the big topper is he's going to have outer space as his background. Yeah, yeah. That's that's what happens when you interview Bootsy Collins on Zoome. I will say this. He did his ear pods or earbuds or whatever the fuck they are.

Those Apple things, they they kept falling out of his head. So it gets a little it's a little tricky, but what a great conversation if you don't know who Bootsy is. He is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member. He played in James Brown's band The Pacemakers back in the day. He is and was a member of Parliament Funkadelic.

He has lots of his own solo stuff. He's basically the definition of funk.

His new album is called The Power of the One. What a thrill it was to talk to Bootsy Collins. Do you ever look at a website and think, man, that looks good? Well, you can have the website you've always wanted with the help of Squarespace, with Squarespace, you can easily make a beautiful website for whatever it is you're looking to do. Do you want to showcase your writing or do a streaming video show or have a place to sell the things you make?

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Oh my decision to work.

I know, I know. It's P covid. I know it's fucking insane. I took the gig and I'm doing it and for some reason with everything hanging in the balance, you know, I get tested every other day and we're doing the work. It's like I'm having the one of the best acting experiences in my life. I don't know if it's going to be the last one. I don't know why. But, you know, I've decided to do something and I'm doing it because I had the opportunity to do it.

Safely as safe as possible. We'll see, maybe I'll get through it without getting covid, maybe maybe the production will go all the way through without having to shut down because of covid. Happy to be working.

Happy to be talking to you now. Look, I know there's a lot of people in trouble right now. I know there's a lot of people that can't work. I know there's a lot of people who are sick, who have lost people. I've known people who are sick. I don't believe that I've lost anybody personally to cover it, but I know my aunt and uncle just got through it. My cousin's kids had it. I know people around here that have gotten it.

I know it's horrible. I know it's not anywhere near good. I know there's a vaccine. And now it's just sort of like, man, if I get this and kick it because I'm stupid before I get that vaccine, then that'll be a true fucking tragedy.

Why don't you tragedy's around, but nonetheless, I chose to take the gig, but I knew in my mind that if I'm going to be an actor or if I'm going to try to do it, I don't claim to be a great actor.

I'm learning how to do it. You hear me learn how to do it on this show. But I knew how to challenge myself and I knew I had to do something different. I got offered this gig to play a guy who is definitely not me, who is definitely written as a Texan. And who is a different personality than me altogether? I didn't want to do it because I was like, this is crazy. I don't need to be on a set.

It's covid. I don't need it.

But then I was convinced and I've gone through this before that I could that it would be OK to do it, that that sets are going to be safer than the supermarket. True. I believe that's true.

But then there's the other element. Like I buckled the week before I was supposed to do this work.

I was like, you know, God, I hope it gets shut down. I hope they don't do it. I hope the lockdown's will stay.

I was afraid to do the accent. I was afraid to rise to the challenge.

But I knew in my heart before I took this gig that if I'm going to be an actor, I have to I have to take the risk of failing with a character who isn't like me that was set in place.

I didn't know if I was going to do it. But usually when I set it in place, in my heart and mind, this isn't any sort of notebook shit, it's not like manifesting magic.

It's just like I knew in my mind, in my heart that that's what I got to do to move forward creatively in this particular mode, in this particular craft, if I'm going to grow.

And that goes with anything that. POW, I shit my pants just COFCO up and back, I'm back.

So anyway, all that being said, it's been rewarding and you know, I'm been more aware of doing the work.

We did a scene a couple of days ago, me and Andrea Riseborough, who's a genius actress, where, you know, it was a touching scene.

It was really not a sad scene, but it was, you know, an open hearted scene. And both of our characters are slightly sad, a little bit heavy hearted characters.

But this is a hopeful, beautiful moment between us. And we had to play it.

And it was just really kind of stunning to to try to stay in the work to try to put something in place that I could count on take after take to get to the emotional place necessary for this scene to happen. And I tell you, ma'am, we did it. And, you know, the last take, you know, I started choking up and, you know, the director said, cut. Ah. Do you feel satisfied? Can we check the gate?

And I'm like, Yeah, I'm crying. I kind of can't stop crying, and she's crying a little bit. He's like, are you are right. My I am all right. And you know, we're all all right, we're acting here. And we sat out there in the dust of this field where we set up this set to do this bit, and both of us are sitting there in our chairs and our masks with teared up eyes.

And it was like so satisfying to connect like that. And I just had to it was just interesting to be part of it and to keep that fucking feeling going throughout all these takes.

And you know what I kept having to do to connect with her, her character, my character, connecting with her character by the last take, I literally was we had to enter a room and I had to get she didn't see me do this.

I was like very close to her just so I could look at her face up close and see her face and see her hair and know that like that, you know, that is tangible. That is a human face hair. We're in this together.

And had I put in a place in my heart how I felt about that character, how my character felt about that character, and then you'd go into this and you arrive in the present, if you're lucky.

But I had the almost like smell her fucking hair to get in it.

Now, I don't know what technique that is and I don't know what I'm using. I've talked to a lot of people. There's a lot of ways to go. I don't know how it looks.

But I do know this, that after we shot that scene and we got through it and the director said to me, it's like this character so interesting. It's just like there. So it's almost like no ego to this guy. And I'm like, wow.

Well, that that is definitely not me.

It's just been an interesting experience. And I just want to share it with you. I know that a lot of you you can't work and you're frustrated and you're sick and you're broke. And you're this this time is is horrendous. It's horrendous for everybody. But I'm just sharing what I'm doing. Maybe at least you can get lost in that process. I decided to take the risk and I continue to do it. And I'm just I'm trying to live a life in the midst of all this, in the midst of terrible fear, in the midst of terrible reality and the midst of a lot of things raining down on us that are horrible.

I'm not going to let this part of my life suck if possible.

I mean, you might not feel your best. And I get that. I mean, might feel anxious and maybe depressed or having anger issues or trouble in a relationship. And you might feel like you're the only one. Well, you're not. If you're feeling this way, better help. Online counseling offers licensed professional therapists who are trained to listen and to help. It's simple, you fill out a questionnaire to help assess your specific needs and then get matched with a counselor.

And under forty eight hours, then you can easily schedule secure video or phone sessions, plus exchange unlimited messages to communicate with your therapist at your convenience. Everything you share is confidential, obviously, and you can request a new therapist at any time at no additional charge. Join the one million plus people who have taken charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced better help counselor. Talk with someone who can help you today. Trust me, it helps talking to people.

I do it for a living and I do it for help.

Better help is an affordable option and wtf wisner's get ten percent off your first month with the discount code. WTF get started today at better dotcom slash wtf. Talk to a therapist online and get help. Dimentia roasted a chicken. So here's the deal with that. I've done it a lot of ways and I've never been happy really because I always think it comes out too tough or too dry and I think I'm overcooking it. But I've tried it on sweet, I've tried it on a higher heat.

I've got the temperature right. But I think it really matters if it's if you can get a fucking fresh chicken. I think some of these chickens you get like a Whole Foods that are already packaged in the fridge aerator, they might have been frozen before, I don't know. But I just got like a fresh one. And all I did, I poked around with some recipes. Here's exactly what I did from a couple of recipes that I gleaned.

I put the I put the oven on four seventy five. All right. And and then I salt and pepper to chicken thoroughly inside and out. And then I let that chicken set in the fridge. Salted and peppered for like 45 minutes, and then while that was happening and the oven was heating up, I stuck a large cast iron skillet into the oven to get it heated up to four seventy five. And then I took the bird out of the fridge and I pulled the skillet out of the oven at through the bird in there.

And the the breast side up is it. Yeah. But before I put it in the pan I stuck a wad of Rosemary fresh rosemary in there and just put it in the pan. Sizzle, sizzle, stuck it in the oven for like an hour.

You know, until the juices run clear, you stick a thermometer in 165 to 170. I took it out.

It was fucking perfect if because if you cook it high, I thought that automatically makes it tough for dried out. No, it makes that fucking skin nice and crispy.

So I don't know if I can repeat it. I've been trying to repeat these recipes I'm working on to make sure that I, you know, that it's not a one off, but it fucking came out beautiful. And tonight tonight I'm going to I'm going to dredge some sand dabs in cornmeal and fucking cook them.

Yeah, that's right. I'll be dredging sand dabs.

What are you up to? All right, Bootsy Collins, you guys, this is serious, as I said before, we're having some audio issues during this talk. He couldn't get the ear buds to stay in his head. Those little ones, those Bluetooth earbuds or whatever the fuck they are, ear plugs, what they call them. So the quality goes up and down a bit here, but it's still a solid connection and a good talk. And it's fucking Bootsy Collins.

And if you want to picture it, he's wearing his fucking star shaped sunglasses and his top hat and he's talking to me, trying to keep his earbuds in. And behind him is a outerspace. This is me and Bootsy Collins I want are ah, yes. Oh, how are you doing buddy.

That's good. You know, Bootsy Collins, how's you know, where are you at?

Where am I talking to you from?

I'm in Cincinnati, Ohio. That's your hometown. Yes, yes, yes. And you know what can I say? We are not back yet. And, you know, hey, nothing ever change.

So yet when you're in lockdown, how do you like do you find yourself playing? I mean, you got a lot of time over there. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Well, actually, that's that's the main thing that pretty much keeps saying around here is, is the music. You know, we got a you know, we've got a studio here and then we got one across the way. You know, we try to stay very creative because this is definitely a good time to to be creative, you know? Yeah. That's really that's really all you got to focus on is trying to keep it together and be creative.

And I think that being creative and putting out the stuff, it does definitely help you keep it together and not think about how how seemingly terrible everything is all the time.

Yes, yes, yes.

And, you know, that's what this album really is all about. You know, just, you know, trying to put some some at ease in the uneasiness of what's going on. You know, it's you know, it's pretty deep. Nobody nobody expected it, you know, and it hit everybody at once.

So it's like, yeah, no one's getting out from under this. We're all on the same page. Yeah. Yeah. We're all equally fucked in this plague time. Exactly.

Exactly. But, you know, it's like I don't know, you know, I guess is probably good for us in a way in a in a in a crazy way. But, you know, I don't know, you know, they stopped they took all our gigs. I mean, you know, it's like, yeah, okay. Nobody go to work. I mean, you know, especially the musicians. I mean, everybody is in the same pot.

But were you going to tour on the record? Well, we was going to try to put some things together. But, you know, when that kind of happened and start snatching everything, all the even the the great ideas stuff, snatch it, all of that, because, you know, it was like, you know, we can't even focus on that no more.

So when you do it when you do a record like this, I was listening. It's weird because yesterday here's what I did yesterday. I listened to food for thought.

I've got I got the GB's food for thought. Oh, wow. And then I listen to the power of the one yesterday and today. So now I got the beginning in the end here.

Right, OK, yes. So I did so too.

I heard I listened to you at the GB's, you know, at the beginning of whatever you were becoming. And then, you know, I listen to the power of the one and you've got the people that you work with. The to me, the interesting thing about the bass. Yeah. Is that I imagine when you started, you know, the bass, you know, you're a support instrument. And then at some point, yeah, in some point you evolved into the instrument and then but you still like you know, because you define something, you get people who you've influenced who owe you a great deal of creative debt, but also people who like to play with you.

I mean, on the new record, the power of the one. I mean, I didn't even I didn't even know George Benson was still around.

Yeah, yeah. You know, we kind of kind of keep in touch, you know, like by phone or or we can, you know. But yeah, man, it was like it was like he was somebody that I always wanted to do a record with and, you know, and never got around to it, you know, it's just because I got stuck on a phone, you know, starting out. And it was at once I got with James Brown, it was kind of like solidified that.

That's what I do. That's all I do. That's all the music I like. You know, it's like you get right. You get like ten point in whatever you're doing. That's what you are, you know, which you know, that's cool.

Well, it's not like but you definitely leaned into it. It's not like you're fighting it at all.

Exactly. I don't know. I was loving every moment of every moment of it. But, you know, I kind of grew up around a whole lot of different genres of music. And I was loving a lot of different genres.

But when you were a kid, because that's really my question, because I don't I know a little bit about some music and not so much about other music, but there seems to be a point.

Where, you know, funk was invented and you seem to be close to the source of that because like, you know, I don't know where that jump from R and B to soul to funk happens, but there is definitely a groove shift that occurs.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I totally agree. Now, when you were growing up, what were you growing up around in in Cincinnati over there.

Oh, man. Well, I'll tell you the guitar influence that I really looked up to with Lonnie Mack. Oh, you know. Yeah. Him and my brother, because my brother was like, you know, playing a lot of Lonnie Mack stuff. Yeah. And and if you remember well, you might you may not have been around in that time, but Lonnie Mack and a lot of other guitarists was like doing a lot of instrumentals. Wes Montgomery, you know, I mean, these cats was like Freddie King.

Yeah. The top of their game. You know, speaking of Freddie King, he was you know, he recorded here in Cincinnati. Nokia. Yeah. And so I got a chance to meet him over King Records. And speaking of King Records, you know, that was like a whole meltdown of all kind of genres of music.

Oh, that's right. So King King Records was in Cincinnati. Yeah. And that's well, that's that's how I got hooked up with James Brown, you know. Yeah.

Because all those first day I like cold sweat that's on King record. All those early James Brown records on Cameron who ran that place.

I see it, Nathan, he owned, owned and operated and had everything under one roof. That's the thing that really, really got me through some of those other artists.

So you were a kid. When do you start playing?

I started when I was like eight, nine years old. And I was I was messing around with it because my brother played guitar and he was like eight years older than I.

So he was a teenager, you know, and so he was deep in it. Oh, he was deep in it. And, you know, big brothers, you know how they treat the younger, younger kids. So I was always not allowed. I was always rejected.

Annoying. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like and his responsibility, you know, because I'm going to play that momma like, you know, not mess with our baby, you know.

So so it was like I was caught in a in a way like I've always wanted to please my brother. But I know you don't like me to be around.

I know you don't want me to touch his guitar, but I got to got to know.

So so when he's off doing his paper route, you know, I'm I'm you know, I don't get his guitar out of the closet and I'll just wear it out. I listening and learning that and I'm just playing the guitar. Learn a note for note, you know. Yeah. And and and you know, anything I could hear or see. I couldn't see too much anything around that time because I was too young. I tried to get in clubs, you know.

Sure. And and so, you know, it was a different time than now. Now, you know, you got you got music everywhere, you know, but but then you had to have your own radio. Every photograph and transistor radio hadn't even came in yet.

Damn. So was your brother playing in a band in high school? Not a band in high school. He had a band of he just put together, you know, because everybody was, you know, not everybody, but a lot of people were just corner musicians, you know, like out on the corner. Right. Playing on the corner, you know. Yeah.

And that's that's the style that I picked up very early because I didn't like hanging around with kids my age, because to me it just wasn't really about nothing. What was about was those jazz players, you know, Wilbur Longmire, Wes Montgomery, all these cats that hung around and played in these clubs. I wanted to be around these cats and my brother had had to pass code to get in. You know, everybody loved him because he was supposedly the one of the great guitars out of Cincinnati.

Wow.

I'm sure I got a lot of people that that gave me, you know, like a pass card, not only because I was a young kid trying to learn how to play, but because my brother.

Well, that's interesting because I never really thought about that until just now, that that the sort of like the through line of what became funk was really more jazz bass than blues bass, wasn't it?

I was I would think so. And I would I would say it was it was kind of like a combination of those elements, because that's what I was kind of absorbing at that young age. Even without even knowing it, you know, you're not, but it's not like this because you're like if you were in Chicago, you'd be taken in wolf and muddy and all those that and that's a whole different thing.

But but I love listening to Wolf. I mean, yeah, of course. Of course. I got to hear all of this because of my brother. Wow. Right. Because he was like eight years old. You need that guy.

Yeah. See, you had the records. You had the records around the house.

Yeah. And we finally got something to play them on, you know. So it was like, you know, I was always at the mercy of somebody else when a record for me. Yeah. Like the people down the street. Right around the corner. Listen in the hallway. Yeah. Always at the mercy, you know.

So that's a part of being funky, you know.

Right. Right. When you always at the mercy of somebody else allowing you to hear.

So down the hall across the street upstairs, sticking your head out the window, it sounds kind of sounds like, you know, someone as Tom Waits once years ago, I read in an interview someone asked Tom Waits what his favorite music was, and he said an AM radio across the street, hey.

Hey, man. That's so true. That is so true.

And that's that's the way, you know, I was learning stuff.

So when did you pick up a bass? How did you how are you on guitar now? Did you decide you didn't want to play guitar?

No. What happened was I wanted to play in the band with my brother and he was my whole inspiration.

We didn't help Phelps, Collins, Catfish, Collins, Catfish, Collin. He was my whole inspiration. You know, it was my mother, my sister and my brother. That's what was in the house so well. And so and I was the baby, you know, I'm the baby boy. So, you know, so momma, you know, Momma wasn't going for when when Big Brother was like, you know, wear me out, you know?

Right. Right. When he caught me with his guitar, you know, momma had to stand in the middle so that I would get crucified, you know.

So she had a train train your brother to treat you nicely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But did you eventually become pretty close up well after the accident.

Yeah.

You know, he had to learn that I was serious because not both of us was Delcourt, you know, first of all. And then and then, you know, I would say I want to do this and I want to do that. I want to be an artist. I want to draw. I want it, you know, and and I and those are the things that I did do even before I did playing music. I practiced. Yeah, I was I was drawing and things would come to me in my head.

I would want to paint them and put them down. So I was so interested in art.

Did you do any of the cover art on any of the records? Uh, not not as far as personally doing it yourself, but the ideas have different ideas. I was full of that. I mean, you know, that was it was going everywhere. So to get to get down with the guitar thing, what happened was my brother needed a bass player. Yeah. And one night, you know, one night it was like, you know, my bass player can't make it.

I can't find another to sit in the you want to play bass, you know? And it was like, do I want to play bass, you know? So that was like the best question in the world. The only thing that that was worrying me was I didn't have a bass. Right. So then I had to go real funky on him. I had to say, well, if you could give me four bass strings, I will be your bass player tonight.

And sure enough, he got me four Bass Strait. And that's Silvertone guitar at twenty nine dollar guitar. Yeah, I put four bass strings on it. Yeah. One unwind. You know, the strings at the top where you put the string in the hole doing it. Yeah. I unwound that, put them all on there and turned it up and I said let's go watch. My brother couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe it. He said OK, so you know, and I had never played bass before but it already sounded funky then you didn't even have to do nothing.

Just by coincidence. You you're playing those that bass is probably getting picked up on two of the two of the string pickups. Right. So there's a big fat string.

What is great sound like it sounded great. I mean, nobody nobody I'm serious.

Nobody believed the sound I was getting out of it and I wasn't even trying to get a sound out of it.

I just want to play with my brother. It was convenient. You add to it. Yes, yes.

Yeah. And then what was really so stupid was once once I played with my. And he started liking it, you know, I was already loving it, but my brother Scott accepted me. Yeah.

Like, Wow, how old are you? How are you? How old were you then?

I was I was like 15, 14, 15, OK. And and, you know, I had I had started growing up. I had been playing guitar in a church, you know, in churches with different friends of mine and had a group called a Christian is that's really Christian or so gospel gospel.

So that's that's where it comes from, too, I would say.

I would say it came from Navroz. At 11 years old, I was playing in gospel in a gospel quartet.

But you know what I'm trying to figure out, like at some point, you know, there was only a couple of blues guys it would do, you know, maybe one chord, maybe throw in that four and then come back to the one. But don't do the five at all. Right. So right. Right. But with gospel and with church music, that groove of of moving, you could stay on that one chord all day, all night.

You know, when in doubt, when wouldn't doubt that. And yeah. And that's what it was all about. That grew. Right. Right.

Right. That's it. OK, so I see that's where you got the foundation of of your guitar playing, but now you're doing now you're playing with your brother and he's and he's playing the Lonnie Mack covers are what he's playing Lonnie Mack.

You know, it was like a top 40s thing on bands, you know, had to play music that people was listening to, you know, and what was what was really grooving to to people. And, you know, most musicians paid a lot of attention to what people liked. Right. And then they would play that in those the nightclubs because there was a lot of nightclubs. And that was the thing was to be in a band, to play in a band at nightclubs and anywhere else, you know, you could play it.

So you were like 15 when you were doing that? Oh, yeah.

I started off definitely. They thought I was 18, 19 because I was tall.

And you're playing you're you're you're Silvertone with four bass strings on it for bass strings.

OK, how long do you play that, that Silvertone with those bass strings.

Until I got what actually James Brown should wait.

Your brother's band. Was that pacemaker's. Yeah, he started the pacemaker's so that was the band you were playing in, in the clubs doing covers and stuff.

Yeah. You never did a record. Pacemaker's never did a record.

Nah nah not not that, not that I recall we. No. Yeah yeah. No no we never we know you know but but what happened was we started to play in Charles Berlinguer and our guy. Yeah. From King Records was searching for new and upcoming rhythm sections and musicians. So it came back to club and check us out and was pretty, he was pretty blown away and all we were doing were playing covers, you know. Yeah. And so he wanted you wanted it.

But we were tight. I mean, we were tight. We practice every day. I mean, so our whole thing was music, everything that was around music.

So this was the this is the late 60s. Yeah. This is like sixty seven. Yeah. Like in sixty six. Sixty seven around.

And so shit was getting pretty crazy. Right. Music was getting pretty crazy. Rock music was getting crazy, you know, soul music was getting crazy. So James Brown's he's already kind of shifted out of that, that old timey thing into a bigger, a bigger sound in a kind of a more groovy present.

He's coming he's coming into artists. I got a brand new bag. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's when we started hanging around King Records.

So the another guy says come by. Well, he he wanted us to come by so we could be his band, you know, because he was producing so many different artists. He dug it. Right.

He needed he needed a studio band. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To make the so so we come over there and start doing things for him. And people started hearing about us and James started hearing about us too. And so he wanted to test us out and we had no idea what was going on with James Brown production, but he wanted us to go out on the road with Hank Ballard. And so that was our first and real test was that was like going out for the first time with Funkadelic.

Right. You know? Yeah. I mean, going out with Hank Ballard, you would think it was pretty sane. You know, that's pretty cool. You know, it's harmless. You know, he's just going to sing, you know. Yeah, but the.

You know, behind the scenes was so deep, you know, like a like I say, it was like going out for the first time with Funkadelic every time you out would hang you out with like and you don't know exactly what's going to happen that the day of the show, the night of the show, that night after, I mean, it was just what like what do you like like like what happened.

Well, OK, so for instance, we are on the way to the gig, you know, driving, you know, we'll get an ethnic balance in the front seat. And, you know, you got four of us in the back and then one of the car think on one hand would if he saw some girls like in the car next to it, this actually happened. Yeah, we were going through the accident and it was a car pulled up next to us full of girls.

Yeah, I saw the girls. He jumped out of the car and he didn't even notice girls. Yeah. Jumped in their car. And we didn't see him that whole weekend. And it was his show. It was his show. So he didn't show up for the show.

He didn't show up for the show. Yeah, we did. We did the show without without Hank Ballard. That was my introduction to the first time on the road with the rest of them was all downhill from there.

Uh, yeah. What were his big hits at that time. What what were people coming to see? You know, he did the twist, right. You know, that was a really big thing. That was was the twist. But that's from the 50s. Well, I mean, that's I mean, you know, I get it, but.

Yeah, but you're going out in the 60s. He's got to be doing some other shit, right? Yeah.

Oh yeah. He was doing I just I just remember the song right now, but what a twist, huh. But the twist was I think his biggest, his biggest hit. It was a whole different, different thing and something that was so much fun. I mean, you know, it was just fun. We weren't even looking really to get paid because we was doing this with James Brown. But where was James?

I mean, James. I mean, James, you know, Hank, right.

Hank was under James Brown's production, OK? And he was a James Brown artist.

But James, not on the road with, you know. No, this is some a part of his eighteen. You know, he does sit out there with us. I go, yeah, they're really on us, you know, unbeknownst to us, because we didn't even know he was thinking of us as his band. Right. We never get any signals like that.

So so James is he's kind of spying on you. He's testing you guys. What do you like, eighteen or nineteen now what do you.

I'm I'm like eighteen. About eighteen years old. Yeah. Yeah. And I would would Marvin and hang and then meditate on James and I really figured out OK, I think I can, I can handle these boys, I can control them because he thought, you know me, me being so young he going to be able to control me. Right. You know the way he does his name. Right. I mean he was right. He was right in the end.

But, you know, this is some stuff that he always thinks he always thinks ahead of the curve, you know, and he was way ahead of us before we even thought, you know, we was going to be a part of. He actually said his. In the coming years from Cincinnati to the gig in Columbus, Georgia, he sent Bobby Byrd on a plane to pick us up from a year. We was doing a fundraiser, you know, and what nobody did with us and the bartender, you know, working off, you know, and then Bobby Berry calls.

Yeah. You know, said he's on the way to get us because we had we had befriended Bobby Byrd. So he was our bloody own free. You know, those were our boys. You know, we met them over King Records. Yeah. You know, I knew they were like know.

So NATIO Maseko was he was James's guy for a long time in the horn section. And these were these are old time James Brown guys. Yeah. So you didn't know it was going to happen and he just he just summoned you.

He summons this is the band to come down and play on his show in August and he needs to come now, not in Columbus, Georgia. He need us to come right now. So once we get there, Bobby Berry takes us to the front door. And, you know, I'm denounced. It is people are aimed right at me, you know, so they're like upset because James is late, you know, the band has hit and where is the band?

So we walking into this, you know, so we. We wanted you know, and, you know, we have no idea this is going on and you hear all this ruckus, we won't. Yeah, well, you know, and where is the base? Where is you know, and we walking in and somebody looks around and say, hey, there's the dad. And, you know, we look at we're looking around to like talking about.

And so the security pushes us out because they look like they're going to mob us. Yeah. Because they really think we're the bad. So we go around to the back of the stage and they open the door, let us in. And then obviously we're going to take you back. You're going to see Jim. So he takes us back to, you know, and we go in and he says, Son, I tell you, you know, before I jumped ahead a little bit before I got to the airport, we walked in and at least we saw the faces of Maceo and Free Ride cause we saw their faces and they were not happy faces, you know.

So we were looking at each other like what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And by the time we got back to James, you know, it was like he was laughing and smiling and grooving, like, you know, like, you know, glad to see you. And, you know, I want to play with me tonight. And we kind of looked at each other and it was like, OK, we rehearsed, you know. Yeah.

What are you talking? I mean, you know, it's like, yeah, well, I'm OK. Get on stage. I'm just gonna the songs out and, you know, I don't really know, you know, the songs. And I was like, yeah, yeah. Well you hit me on the wall, hit me on one hand when I go and they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know. And we said, OK, so he called us out on stage, you know.

Yeah. Isn't it goes with it you know. Yeah. And we went through that whole show would have come and our songs and we planned it the way we heard it on the record. Yeah. And that's the way everything started, you know. But we were like shocked because our band, our heroes were like getting fired and we had no idea. We ran down there like kind of in a state of shock, like what did James also.

So you didn't know that like what he was doing in front of the band he was about to cut loose was all this, you know?

Yeah.

He didn't want us to know because he thought you guys would have been loyal to Maceo and those guys we would up at the time, you know, it was like they were considered friends, you know, because he first of all and then we looked at him, we wanted to be as tight as they were, you know. And so, you know, any chance we could get to get around them? When we were over the Kings, we got around them, you know, they'd be in the studio doing a tie.

And then when they come out, you know, we take them to the restaurant, take them up the street to the store. There's a lot, you know, that kind of back. So. Right. So when James did that, he knew what he was doing. We just didn't know. And then.

And then. And then what happened? Those guys, they go home. Yeah. They finally went home, you know, or something. You know, I never really knew what happened, you know, like after that, because once James got us back in the room and start convincing us that we was going to do the show, you know, it was like everything else. We kind of forgot about everything else, you know. And James knew he knew what he was doing, you know?

Yeah. And he said he was going to introduce us as the band, his new band. And I mean, you know, he said all the right thing. Yeah. Once we got out there and he start calling us out. Yeah, yeah.

You know, it's great. No sign of life. Yeah. We forget everything.

So when when you're when you're sitting there talking to James, I mean, he's charismatic, you know, as James Brown and you're like, we're in now and he's saying your name. You're like, holy shit. Now we're the guys, right? Yeah. Yeah. How long do you play with him? I'd say about a year and a half. Uh, about a year and a half because. Because that was about all we could take because, you know, he was so into control and every factor of, you know, decisions, you know, welcome.

Yeah. Frying cold. Oh really. To leave your team. Yeah. That whole thing, you know, and you know, the old band, you know, they went for all of that because, you know, I think they had responsibilities. We weren't responsible for nothing but the music. You know, we had no responsibilities other than the music to play good music. Right. And. So all of that other stuff you find for is you for that none of it worked because it's like you're a different generation.

So those old guys were the original guys. So they were all like it was all there, all Gasiewicz Stockholm syndrome. They were afraid.

Yeah, right. Yes. Yes. Men like. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, right.

And so, you know, we were coming up and he pulled us right off the streets of the riots, you know, so Lahham and Ali was talking about, you know. Yeah. Talking back. And so that's the era that I grew up, you know, and and, you know, James, wouldn't you know, he wasn't budge. Right. And which was cool. And, you know, at a young age, I understood it.

But at the same time, it was like, you know, bands were coming up front, man, to be like the singers and playing and all of that.

Well, you know, the the JB's record, I have the one the food for thought he's not on that record. It's just you guys. Yeah.

Yeah. But is it. You know, that's true. That's true. And that's what he called himself building. He been a little for that kind of you know, he sacrificed.

Oh. So he said you guys can do your thing, but, you know, you're my guys.

And if you notice, when did that come out and didn't come out, 68 maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, so it was like, you know, he was trying he was trying in his James Brown way to appease the band right now. It just, you know, people were just growing out of that style.

Right. So what did you know that. Right. And then it's sort of interesting because, you know, that's a you know, he was a type band leader style. And you guys were going to play James Brown songs and there wasn't much room for for necessarily personal expression. And then when you move into somebody like like George Clinton, he's like, go for it, man.

Yeah, well, even before we got there, even before we got there. Yeah. It was like here I am on the back of James Brown bus playing Jimi Hendrix. Yeah.

And James, I go on for that, you know, like, what are you doing on my bus playing. You know, that ain't gonna work. Yeah. And so and so when when the snitches start telling, you know, Gaensler Pop on the bus, it's like, who do you think you are on the on the back of my bus.

Blairism. Jimi Hendrix. Yeah. You know, I mean and he was furious. I mean he was furious, you know, but none of that stuff really scared us. You know, it was just it was funny. Yeah.

Like, what's wrong with the old man? Look at him getting all worked, right? Yeah. And he was really work, you know, and and once you start seeing that, none of that stuff really affected us because, you know, getting paid, we never we never got paid for pretty much nothing. And the gigs we were doing before, Dave, we never got paid. So what he offered us was so great. But at the same time, you know, it was like you didn't really even have to pay us.

We do this for nothing, you know?

And and what did you like in terms of like, you know, what you eventually were becoming as a player? What did you learn from working with him musically?

The one. The one. Yeah, I learned the one because. Well, you know, and I miss the main story that I wanted to tell you. Go ahead. About the bay. The Silvertone. Yeah. Guitar. Did I turn into a bass? So when I first when I'm first get the. I played it that night. Yeah. The first night that we are in Georgia. James said after the show we call it.

No, let me tell you that. I love everything, but that damn Green Bay's got to go. I hate that. May he say what kind of buddies you want?

So I said, you know, and I always was in love with that Fender Jazz bass. Yeah. And here's a man, you know, my my superhero asking me what kind of bass do I want? I'm like, oh, I've got to go for it. I got to go for it. I have to defend the jazz bass. No problem. No problem. We have it for you tomorrow. What color you all. That's the sunburst.

Oh no problem. We had at the bar you know. But meanwhile I use the net dating back to the house somewhere. Get rid of Berendzen. I don't want to see that nanomoles. OK. OK, right. So. So I got rid of that, that bass and stop playing. If you see, if you see any footage from back in that you'll still be playing the jazz.

You got it for you James. Got that. Yeah. Yeah. Dave, let me let me just get ahead of you a little bit. Yeah. Well we got canned, you know, his whole thing was, you know, I don't get what you going to make sure you lead a bass back. Oh.

Oh it's like that. Yeah.

So it was a ruthless cat, you know. You know, and I was a youngster, you know, I'm a youngster trying to understand why this man is treating this like this. You know, it's like, man, I thought you got me to Bass, you know. Yeah. Yeah, I did. Well, you there. Oh great. Oh, OK.

OK, so I'll go back and find your Silvertone little man. Yeah.

No, it's ever done waiting on you at home.

OK, so what is the one.

Oh man one As James explained, it is the first count of every measure.

One for you sir. You do. Yeah. Well that's, that's, that's the one. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And he wants you, he wants me to give him the one and then play it and everything you want to play. Because I like what you're doing son. I love how you played it. But you never give me the one. Yeah. Give me that one and you can play in it. That's because he knew that he didn't know what to tell me to play because I was playing a whole lot for a bass player.

And he could he didn't he couldn't wrap it around what I was doing. So, you know, his whole thing was as long as you give me the one you can play in NSW so he can go, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm glad I thought of it. Yeah, I'm glad I'm OK. I go.

And he actually did that in the studio quite a few times and we all cracked. We I'm glad. I'm glad I thought it. And he was serious. Yeah. That was, that was the comical thing. Anything that we would think was what was funny. He thought he was sick of me. He was serious. Well he was right. It's about big ego. Narcissistic guy.

Oh. Oh man. Come on. I mean, the biggest he invented everything.

Everything you guys did. He invented it.

He invented it. And is who you name on it. Who dat on the record. You ain't on it.

So, you know, it was it was all like that and and you know, we had to learn what that was all about because that was something we hadn't been introduced to. It was a whole new way of doing things. You know, you talking about the mouth? Yeah.

I mean, that was a real mouth, but you only stay with him for for a year and a half. And we did. He played a lot of dates, so. Right. So you got some you got some road mileage.

It was seven days a week. Well, there you go. You are for three or four shows on Sunday.

So you went to school? Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. I mean, the James Brown School of Hard Knocks and it was hard knocking for real.

Yeah, but. But it was good. It was it was good. It was fun. It was good. We got to see the world. We went all over Europe, Africa. I mean we went out to all these places that we would never have went to, you know.

Now, did I read it right? Weren't you afraid of flying at one point? Well, that happened at. That happened like after I went solo. You have to go with George now, and I had this experience on a flight actually going over to Europe. This was the first time Bootsy's Rubber Band and we went to Europe and had with the headliners. So we did outgrew the part of Parliament Funkadelic. We were actually headlining shows right at this point in nineteen seventy eight.

Yeah. And so by that time, you know, Bootsy's Rubber Band had started doing they were the headliners of the show, so we got to England and France, all those places. So, you know, we were flying over there and that was a whole expedition in itself. You know, they ss you remember that that the Concorde.

Yeah. Yeah. When it first came out. Right. Well, that was my dream flight. You know, it was like whenever we go, that's what I want to fly. Yeah. And sure enough, manager hooked it up for me and me and the manager. And I think it was one of the most take somebody we all got on their flight to go to Europe or, you know, I'm on the SS and I'm when I got on it, you know, it was like, man, this thing is awfully small.

You know, I had no idea that small inside. You know, actually, it reminds me of James Jet, you know, when I got in and it's like, you know, and so we got about forty five minutes into the flight. And all of a sudden I'm sitting by the window, yes, and I like to look out, I like to see the ocean, you know, I like to see the clouds.

Next thing I know, man, first of all, the boom hit is going south. Sonic boom. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So that was cool. The captain came out. No problem with this sonic boom goes m m three l m for mach three or four.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we hit that. Everything's cool you know. Yeah. And and soon as we crossed the line and it's about forty five minutes into the flight.

Yeah. Soon as we crossed the line I saw fire jumping out from the engine you know. And I'm like no this can't be happening. You know, I'm at the peak of my career, you know, I'm getting ready to head like when you're this cannot be happening and and the pilot comes on, you know, the captain, he comes on.

Is that all right? We have a problem. Know he was trying to be cool, but you can hear in his voice. Yeah. That he was unsure, you know, and it's like you don't want nobody phone with your phone calls, aren't you? Yeah. And so this bug is so I'm sure, man, you know, and then then I'm freaking like, OK, I'm trying to figure out, OK, if we land, if we hit the water rock and we just we just had been seeing it, you know, Giles was out, you know, that was like a big hit back in the day.

Yeah. And I'm like, OK, we're going to pull through the crash, the crash landing. We're going to make that. Oh, good job. Yeah. I don't know how we go.

Get away from them, you know.

Yeah, I was messed up. He has messed up and the pilot turned back the back around and we actually started flying at an angle like kind of sideways. Oh my God. Yeah.

Because the engine was out on his actually three Indians without engines. You got three of them went out. So we flying sideways like this all the way back to New York. Like I said, we were about forty five minutes out.

So we turn around back and once I got off of that plane I said, I will never ever get back.

Caught up is the daylight. I don't know Europe, but.

But you know what I like because it got them to hit me up with some lounds, you know, little, you know, hit me up, you know, and we had to do the tour right now. We had to do the tour. We had like a three week tour.

And, you know, you got to figure it's not going to happen twice. If it happens twice, you know, you don't know about it.

I wouldn't know about it. No, I made sure that. I made sure.

All right. Well, you got over that then.

But once I got back, I actually kicked into no more land for me. And, you know, I started doing the bus everywhere, the bus and the and the boats, you know?

So you after you get out from James's band, how do you hook up with George?

First we got to figure out, you know, like, OK, are we really far? You know, that's the first thing. OK, we going home. We leave it from James Brown bag.

Right? You got no bass. We got no bass, you know, and we we have started to get kind of used to getting paid. Yeah. You know, it's like, OK, what do we do? Because me and my brother, we was good at saving money because we were used to not having the. Yeah. So, you know, we saved a little money and once we got home, you know, it's like, OK, we're going to start practicing because we got the abs.

So we got to come up with a new name. Yeah. House House Guest was going to be our name, formerly the JP so we had to put a little not only a bad know, we had the bank, we had to put our act together.

So you still at King Records?

Actually, no, not not after we left. James Brown actually took us from King Records. Oh, OK.

You know, once we got with James Brown, it was no more what we was doing, no more sessions for King Records.

And and that was his plan all along. He was way ahead of us. And so.

Well, in terms of in terms of like if you left him, you got nowhere to go.

Yeah, we had nowhere to go, you know. Yeah. I mean, nothing. You can't do what I did.

Would you know, so would everybody else. He was pretty much right, you know, but with us, we was just we felt like we was just getting started. Yeah. You know, dates and even seen. You know, that's the way we would feel it, you know, and so, you know, we get home, we start practicing, and then we start to have to get a plan, you know, to get out of Cincinnati, you know, because we had started playing games and stuff around, you know, and building up a following.

So we start feeling like, yeah, yeah. You know, we we better, you know, start feeling like Richard Pryor. We better. Yeah. You know. Yeah. So we decided that we should you know, we should maybe go to Detroit, you know, and somebody mentioned the spinners and sure enough, they needed a bat, you know. So I thought we talked to Billy, who was the leader of the spinners at that time, and he said, Yeah, man, I'll bring you all up.

And, you know, I need a man, you know, I need to be the man. And we said, well, we got Phillipi feel so welcome with us, too. And he was the singer, you know, who who eventually wound up being their lead singer. Most people don't know the spinners.

So what they did rubberband man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's that's Phil. So Walker who came to Detroit with us, you know, who who we went with once I met with George Clinton. And George didn't need feel, you know, like now we've got enough singers, you know, it's like, OK, so and we were trying to get away from playing behind singers anyway. We didn't really want to go to Detroit to play behind the Spanish.

We were just trying to get in Detroit. Right. So we could see what we could do. And once we got there, you know, met George and was like, oh, man, you know, talk to him. That was like a perfect fit. I felt like, you know, he was going to be honest with his work. You know, he said if I helped him with the songs and get on the road with them and be Funkadelic, you know, you know, you'll allow me to get a record deal and help me, you know, get my own thing together.

So but his but he that was great. But he but his his concept was almost a communal concept. Right. I mean, he had it was like an orchestra concept. It wasn't like I'm the I'm the front man. It's like everybody's going to play their part, right.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's that's the way it starts. It starts. So what you're doing is mix it up to start with the idea. OK, but you know, it's how you got to that end, you know, which is the deep part. I don't even think George knew that he wanted to be a front frontman. Right. He knew he knew that he wanted me to be one because I guess he felt like every time we did a show, even if the spotlight will tell you this, even if the spotlight wasn't on me, the people were looking at me and, you know, and it wasn't just because of what I had on this is George's words, you know, it was the vibe or whatever that vibe were.

And George told me that you can't just be a part of the band. You know, you got to front your man. Yeah.

And I'm like, oh, God, you know, I'm like, no, man. You know, I did not want to front the band, you know, I just want to be in the band. Yeah. He's like, man, we got to get you a deal, you know, cause George knew, like, you was just saying, you know, it was a whole universal conglomerate. Yeah. It wasn't just George, you know.

Right. So and he wanted it like that. You know, he didn't want people to know who George Clinton was. You know, you have to come in and figure out, you know, cause all these miles looking crazy. Yeah. So, you know, and he loved that, you know, that's what I loved about it, you know.

Is that where you do is that where you just got the star guitar? That's the that's the the time I get the opportunity to get the star guitar and the star glasses because I had to come up with my own identity. Yeah.

As where I felt that's what I felt in the in the in the Parliament Funkadelic universe. You had to become your own God. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And and I felt great, you know, it felt good to be able to do that because as soon as we started out with James, it was like bands would you know, bands would just bands, you know. Yeah. You know, you wouldn't you wouldn't like first class citizens. You would like, you know, the bottom of the totem pole, especially bass players, you know. So, you know, it was time Tammy came where things would change and bands were changing.

Basses were being noticed. Yeah. And coming up to the front, I mean, I didn't notice at the time, you know, I didn't know that during my time was one bassist was going to start coming to the front. And I know I was going to be a big part of that.

What he did, what your sound was changing. I mean, when when did you evolve into that space based business?

When I when I got a chance to start recording with Parliament Funkadelic. Yeah, that's when I got it. George allowed me the chance to experiment. Right. And, you know, I was free I was free to do whatever I was here right now. And that's what sound and plan with James. I just got a chance to play what I felt. But with George, I got a chance to play what I felt and play the sounds that I was hearing, you know, and what you know.

And George allowed me to get on the drums. I mean, Jane would never allow me to do that. Yeah.

You know, so, you know, and then I play guitar with my brother Catfish. We would put tracks together, me and my brother, you know, on guitar, you know, and George, you know, he was loving. I mean, you know, he was so behind all of that.

It also speaks to the time, you know, James was never going to make that jump. But George was a psychedelic dude. Yeah.

Yeah. And, you know, he wanted whatever you had to bring to the party. George wanted some of the.

I take it, you know, it's like it's like, you know, and that was very encouraging at the time because people were so, you know, like locked in on themselves, you know, and coming into your own getting your own identity, you know, and which was a good thing because George even did the song. I got to thank you. Got it. Everybody got it. Yeah. You know, so it was like it was like we were making that true.

It was a true thing, you know, like, you know, and it was beautiful, you know, free your mind and your ass will follow. All of this stuff was like, you know, we live in it, you know, we living in it. Yes.

Like, so it was so beautiful to be able to make your own world within the world, you know? And I got a chance to to go back and do my star glasses. Drama star glasses. Yeah.

And not only drama, not only drama star starbase, but actually find somebody to make them, you know, so it was all a process, you know, wasn't like, bam, here it is, the evolution.

Yeah.

And it was like when I was doing the record stretching out, you know, I didn't even have the bass ready yet, you know. Yeah. And so I had found the guy to make it. And if you notice on that record, if you look hard on that record stretching out, you look at the bass and you can see that it ain't finished, you know. And, you know, we put some fake knobs on it. Yeah.

Fake Pickar, because all we had was a star shaped out. Yeah. Or the bass was our shape out and everything, but it wasn't playable. But it looks like, you know, it looks like. Oh yes.

And then I'm still trying to figure out how to pay for it. Right. Because I'm working with George Clinton, you know, and it's like a whole empire.

Yeah. Of mugs that, you know, we work for drugs. You know, you don't have to you know, we don't need to be paid. We just, you know, whatever we got this hit us, you know, what was your drug, what you like.

Oh, well, at the time, it was LSD. Yeah, you know, so that's where they come up with the pace. Yeah, yeah. That was the cake.

That was the king. That was the king's dream. Right. I did LSD. So.

So you think that that's that's interesting. So you think that, you know, the way you're hearing what you sound, what you wanted your bass to sound like was probably influenced by that, huh?

Yeah, yeah.

It was a lot about that.

And everything else was great because it sounds like that man there, some of that bass sound like LSD, underwater boogie.

But I mean, you know, we had so much. Well, it was so much fun at that particular time when, you know, we got the chance to go in the studio and record whatever we felt, you know, and whatever whatever it was.

And then to have somebody cool like George loved every minute of it.

So he was totally supportive pushing you. George was good at. Well, he was very creative with the lyrics and in all of that. And he was very good with knowing what people was that and knowing how to push certain buttons. Yeah. And and all of that, you know, which James was good at it too. He was great at it, but he would never let you know that, you know, he's digging anything, you know, because it was all about it was all about James and what he had.

Yeah. And and he wanted to control the sound, whereas it seems like George was sort of like, let's get weirder. Yeah. Let's push the envelope. Right.

Let's see what else can you come up with? It's more of a jazz thinker. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

The Sun Ra. Yeah. Some Ralphy.

So but did you know, like, you know, ultimately now you have this amazing control over the instrument and you actually invented, you know, certain sounds of that the bass can make that were never made before.

And then that stuff gets carried on, you know, it gets carried on through through Fli and through thunder. What's his name again. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean like like you, you are the you are the portal through which those guys were able to create themselves, you know. Yeah.

Yeah. Well you know, it was like somebody's got to be for it, you know.

It's like, it's like, I mean take for instance, take for instance the Larry Graham, you know, he he to me actually started at the top in the plug, OK. And a few other people would say, no, he went the first one.

Right. Right. But I would have to say, you know, because I was kind of firsthand right there. Yeah. I would have to say he was the first one, you know, with something.

So. Yeah, yeah. And so now, you know, bass players have taken that, you know, they have taken the sound, you know, the sound that I come up with. Right. They've taken the top and plotting and they're making it their own, you know, which, which I think is, is, is cool because they've taken it to other levels. You know, we just introduced it. Yeah.

Well, I love that. Like, you know, I remember that like I like that. I love that Keith Richards solo album.

And when you come in on that, like it's like it's like it's like Keith was like, I want Bootsy and then it's like, that's all Bootsy. Oh yeah. You did not disappoint.

Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, when you get the you get the the the green light to go ahead and do your thing, you know, that's like the same thing I got with George. You know, it's like the green light and go ahead and do whatever you think and whatever you feel. And that's what I try to give to all musicians or creative people. You know, don't let don't don't let me influence how you are feeling.

Do what you are feeling. You know, I even had to tell Bobby Womack that, you know, because once you get called into areas you know of, OK, well, they do it like this now. You know, once you get into court into that, sometimes you forget who you are, you know, and what what you're good at and what people like you for. So, you know, we were doing a song together and Bobby was trying to be new.

Right. You know, and I was like, no, Bobby, you know, you can give me give me Bobby Womack.

Yeah. Yeah, that was the people love. Well, that's like, you know. Yeah, I think that's what working with someone like George for so long gives you is a certain confidence, whereas. A lot of guys, they get to a certain age or a certain place, they get insecure and they don't think they can cut it anymore.

Yeah, well, you know, it's like I run into that a lot, working with a lot of different people. And, you know, it's like it's my it is my duty to make sure that a musician knows is cool. Go ahead and, you know, give it a give it a shot, you know, go for.

Well, that's what's great about the new record. Like all the records that you've made, just the Bootsy records, they're all little different.

And some of them are more of you. Some of them are a little less of you. But it's so clear that on this one, the power of the one is that all the dudes you got on this record, even the people that you know, we all know from other things like Snoop or George Benson, they know you from you. So you guys are meeting in the middle of both of what you both do. Like, you know that like that first tune with Benson.

It's like it's all Bensen and it's all you at the same time.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that was that was the idea, you know, you know, because we always would bump into each other on festivals, on these tour dates and always talk about doing something together. We never did. Yeah, we never did. I was always stuck in my thing when I was doing. He was always stuck in his doing what he was doing. And you know, the same thing with the other musicians, you know.

Well, that guy that you kingfish Ingram and that guy's got man, he's a mobster on that guitar.

He's rap and yes, he is. And, you know, we met a couple of years ago. Same thing with Tazz. We met we met probably about four years ago because he was like maybe 14, 15. He's like 17 now. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, it was like, you know, like last year I went to one of his gigs and that cemented it for me is like he got to be on.

Yeah. And he's got Branford Marsalis. I mean, you got you know, you can you can move through all forms, man.

Yeah. Yeah. Well that's that to me is the beauty of music. Music does that to be able to to to fuse different genres of music together was like a whole big deal for me because I look at it like I look at this music, like wearing clothes. It's like I can pretty much do it and they're going to call me crazy. And, you know, whatever they want to call me, it don't matter and I can get away with it.

So I figure if I could do that with clothes, I should be able to do well with music.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, you know, call me whatever, you know, praise. Right. Whatever, you know.

But I know that music, you know, can be put together. I mean, you know, it's not something that's, you know, so traditional that it can't be traditional, you know, unconditional. Right. You know, so. Right. So it's like, you know, it's like, you know, this is what I want to do. I want to experiment. I want to make stuff up. I want to mess with things. I don't want to do what's been done so much.

You know, I want to do some some crazy stuff. Yeah. You know, keep it exciting on it. Yeah.

I always wanted to challenge myself. If I you know, if I wanted to do a bluesy rubberband record, I could do that. If I wanted to do a funk record of Funkadelic, I could do that. But I want to do something that's new to me, you know. So you working with all these different people?

Yeah. Yeah. And it and it and it gives you another kind of inspiration. I think when Jimmy said something about, you know, playing those same songs and not being able to do new stuff because the fans are not going to like it or they not going to accept it. I remember him saying that. And then I found myself in that situation where, you know, you had to keep playing the same old song. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's like I don't care about stuff now.

It is more about the music to me. Yeah. It's more about it's more about expressing, you know, people expressing and releasing themselves creatively in any form or fashion they want. Right. Yeah. I don't want to you know, I want to make sure that that door is wide open so people can see that I'm not you know, I'm not the only one that can do this. I mean, anybody could do this. You know, we just have somebody just got to get up on the floor and dance first.

Yeah.

You just got to make the space. Make the space. Yeah. And but I think it's a great record. And, you know, you seem great. It was great talking to you. It's great seeing you, man.

This is this is you ask some deep questions to me as well, thank you. Yeah. And is the power of the one is that a tip to the one and God or what?

Yeah, yeah. It's both. It's like and we got all of it in us, you know, the one is in all of us. The whole thing is we just ain't here. Nobody told us. And when they told us they were preaching at us. Right. They were talking at us right.

Now they want a little something. Something to. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Pass the plate. You know. Yeah.

You know, for me it's just, you know, I want you to know everybody's a piece of this one. You know, we all we own is one planet. You know, we all on this money spinning through space, you know, and you know, it's ridiculous to think that I'm better than you are you better than me. Because when this world goes, you know, we all go on it, you know, because we all on this one to watch.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, we all go together.

So, you know, anything else is stupid. I mean, really stupid, you know. So that's what this power of the one is trying to show us. It's like, you know, just respect your father, you know, respect my father. I respect your you know, and that's really, you know, I mean, they talking about religion says the blacks, the whites, the green.

You know, it really it really ain't about all of that. It's just realized and respected each other what we all think and feel. It's cool right now. I came I came from that from that hippie era. And I got a chance to taste a lot of different cultures and vibes. And, you know, and that's what I have to bring to the table. And I'm I'll continue to bring that to the table, because that's what the one has given me.

And I want to give it back. Yes.

It's the the universal frequency. The deep groove. That's that's what that meant. Now you tell Zappa will tell you about that. Yeah. Man, thanks so much. Great seeing you, man. Take care of yourself, buddy. Hey, you too man.

You. How do you like that fucking Bootsy? How about that James Brown impression, right? The album is called The Power of the One You can get away. You get out and get all the funkadelic, get all the get all the Bootsy shit. He's fucking guy. He's the real deal. He's the one of a kind. He's one of a kind man. And don't forget, if you're feeling depressed, overwhelmed or anxious, better help offers a licensed online counselors who are trained to listen and help talk with your counselor in a private online environment at your convenience.

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Let's give it a try. Don't judge me on my rhythm.

You can judge me on my groove, but not on my rhythm. Hyogo. You know, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up. Oh, OK. O o o o o o o o o o. Boomer lives in Monkey and the Fonda. Cat angels everywhere on. They also have 24/7 customer support, so there will always be someone there to help and you'll never need to do a software update and you'll never have to do a.

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