0:00

Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

0:06

Hey all, It's on pay Bill from Team Supreme. For

0:09

this classic episode of Questlove Supreme, we are speaking

0:11

with the incredible, the Only George

0:13

Cliffe Parliament Funkadelic Part one,

0:15

George updates QLs and something's going on with

0:17

his music while taking a look back at an incredible

0:19

sixty five year career. This was taped

0:21

in mid twenty twenty during those early days of the pandemic,

0:24

so Team Supreme was still learning to get along virtue.

0:26

But the quality of the conversation is amazing.

0:28

I love this one.

0:29

I hope you enjoyed.

0:30

The Ladies

0:41

and gentlemen Funk upon a Time

0:44

and a galaxy far away and

0:48

the land of cheese steak Utopia.

0:51

Well, well,

0:53

the five year old April

0:55

head boy with dreams, aspirations

0:59

and power hour of creative

1:01

abundance, and he wished upon

1:03

a star one day that this young and would

1:07

utilize his talents so that one

1:09

day he could bug and pester from

1:11

the Jesus out of his musical idols

1:14

who raised him. And this is

1:16

that moment. Ladies and gentlemen, you know the show,

1:19

and you know the crew. You

1:21

know Fonte. You know six Steve unpaid,

1:23

Bill Laya. Let

1:26

us get into it. This is the moment I've been waiting

1:28

for all my

1:31

life, my first real

1:33

conversation with God

1:35

himself.

1:37

George Ship, Yes,

1:40

yes, all of that, uh

1:45

North Carolina building.

1:47

How that sounds like

1:49

some ship I wanted to say to Smokey Robinson

1:52

and I was growing up. Man.

1:58

Now you know, I know,

2:00

man, this is This is a rare moment where

2:03

you know, I have access to somebody

2:05

that has had major input

2:08

on my all of

2:10

our creative juices, I mean all of us are everybody?

2:13

We all your sons?

2:17

Yea illegitimate?

2:21

All right. I'll try not to make it this like it's

2:24

your eulogy, but you know this is definitely

2:27

Where are you right now?

2:29

I'm at home. I'm in Tall, Florida.

2:31

I'm sitting back and kicking it, and I'm been

2:33

painting and shit, I've been chilling. This

2:36

has been the RESTful part of my life.

2:39

Really good.

2:41

I ain't going nowhere.

2:44

Stay in that bubble wrap.

2:46

No, I'm cool.

2:47

Is this the first real rest

2:50

that you you've gotten?

2:52

You know, since I was a teenager. I

2:54

put it like that, We've been on the road since

2:56

we was twenty two when Testifact

2:59

came out, right, Okay,

3:01

I had never left the road since then. We

3:04

lived on the road and moved to city to

3:06

city and you know, raised

3:09

kids, get married, moved country and c you

3:12

know. But this is probably

3:14

the longest that we've

3:16

been down and not doing anything.

3:19

And you're not at all, are

3:21

you?

3:21

Oh? Hell no, because I had to

3:24

do it this time. So I take it

3:26

like, I don't stress myself. If

3:28

I can't do nothing about it, I do the best

3:30

I can and funk it. You know.

3:32

I have a good excuse to

3:34

paint, and we make music

3:37

now. I mean, we were sending ship back and

3:39

forth on nineteen studio only

3:41

about five miles from here. But I send

3:43

this ship down there in back.

3:45

I don't even chance that ship. But

3:48

I don't know. I'm I have I go fishing.

3:51

Yeah, I was gonna say, I know you're big on fishing. Like,

3:53

are you doing a lot of that now?

3:56

Oh? Oh hell yeah, that's the only I sneak to

3:58

the boat, get on the boat, we mask

4:00

up. But I do a lot of that.

4:03

Okay, I've been I've been chilling

4:05

for real, just and you know, luckily

4:08

been chilling that you know, ready

4:10

for it this time, right, because

4:13

we got a lot of ship that's getting ready to come out when

4:15

this thing is go down. We

4:18

was working on some bad ship, you know, with the

4:20

group the kids, they was killing them.

4:22

We was getting ready to do some hell of ship.

4:24

But it's good because it gave us a chance to sit

4:26

down and get it together and do it properly.

4:29

That's good.

4:30

At the same time, you know, I just got a lot of

4:32

my catalog back, you know, yes,

4:39

oh yeah, I got it back. Now I'm going getting

4:41

ready to go through some things that publicize

4:44

it. You're gonna see it. Ben

4:46

Crump is my lawyer, you

4:49

know, civil rights part of it.

4:51

Right right? What

4:55

would this mean for funketeers

4:58

everywhere? Like, are we all?

5:00

I'm a matter of fact, I want everybody that has

5:02

worked with us that that's gotta

5:04

be got a beef, you know, the

5:07

contact Sheila Jackson, Lee,

5:10

we all we're all doing together. She wants

5:12

me to get all the people that has a beef together

5:16

so we can make a one

5:19

proper announcement. All those

5:21

people get their copyrights back. They

5:23

can get them back right now. They you

5:25

know, recapture their copyrights. Said

5:29

although this is this I'm telling this is the civil

5:32

rights. This is gonna be a civil right.

5:34

Yeah, like I said, yeah,

5:37

how long is this? Well,

5:39

I've been I've been in the battle almost thirty years,

5:41

but I've been, you know, fighting

5:43

to get it to that level of you

5:45

know, get it to where the Congress.

5:48

I was with John Kanye's he took

5:50

it up for a long time. You know, we

5:52

couldn't get up the past. But now every

5:55

you know, it's the copyright capture

5:57

thing is over now. So I got a lot

5:59

of min in on time, and a

6:01

lot of other people got theirs in. They just don't

6:03

know it, and they're not telling and

6:06

they're not telling them that they got

6:08

it. They trying to make them think that they have to fight

6:10

it something they don't have to fight. It's theirs

6:12

now. So we're gonna make a

6:14

big announcement, especially

6:16

everybody with us, but not only us, a lot of people

6:18

that work with us, even the

6:20

people that sample the music. They've been in long

6:23

enough now for some of their rights

6:25

to be coming back to them. Yeah,

6:27

you know, Prince Prince got his back,

6:29

you know. So it's that it's

6:32

that time and this generational

6:34

wealth. It's what it's about you

6:36

can't you can't pass it onto your airs

6:39

if they tie you up, which is what they're trying

6:41

to do, right, you know, trying to make

6:43

it. There's a whole new law thing

6:46

going on that you know, you they

6:48

tell you just how they do it. And we got

6:50

the help. We got the writer report, the

6:52

Child Jackson need to explain all

6:54

those things that needed done. So if

6:56

you know anybody that's stuff that's that's

6:59

having a problem with the copyright recapture,

7:02

yeah, they should definitely get in touch

7:04

with Ben Crump and

7:07

Child jacksually or myself.

7:09

Wow, So does this mean that

7:11

for the first time your

7:14

post seventy six funk

7:16

a deck delic catalog will finally see the

7:18

light of day, Like Yeah, Nomina

7:22

One, Nation on the Groove or Uncle Jim or

7:24

Hardcore Jolly.

7:26

I got that album that masterback,

7:28

Kneed Deep, I got those back. I own

7:30

those two. I

7:33

was I was hesitant to put them out till

7:35

I got them all off the market

7:38

people that was putting them out illegally.

7:40

I had to clean it up first, So

7:42

I got I owned those been on those for a

7:45

long time, but lawyers

7:47

was keeping me from getting to them. You

7:49

know, but I got those and especially

7:51

need to be in one nation. That's why you hear

7:53

so much about Antomic Dog, even

7:56

your capital stuff. I got

7:58

Atomic Dog, the computer

8:00

game.

8:01

So loop Zilla all that stuff.

8:03

Yeah, so now we put all

8:06

of them in. And that's what we're making sure that

8:09

that whole catalog recapture thing is.

8:12

You know, it's it's true for Elvin's president

8:14

and his family. It's true for John Lennon

8:16

and his family, So it need to be true

8:18

for everybody that that

8:21

don't got nothing to do with race.

8:23

So what does this also mean for the westbound

8:25

catalog?

8:27

Same thing?

8:28

Yeah, same thing.

8:31

So is armand but lady and is he still alive?

8:34

Is he still alive?

8:36

He's still alive. He's still alive, and

8:39

and all that. That's all that's from

8:41

a big issue. It's gonna be a

8:43

big issue because it's you read the

8:45

book, the book I put out, You

8:48

read the Jane Peters thing in the back.

8:50

That's you got to explain to

8:52

the audience. Yeah, and that's the thing recapture.

8:56

So I want to treat.

8:57

I'm gonna try to not ask such a your

9:00

questions because this is

9:02

not just might be

9:04

a book. So I might have to break it

9:06

down. Can you explain to them the situation

9:09

right now? I'm so elated that that you own

9:12

this stuff now, I know you've been trying for the long.

9:14

Yeah, I had the book, the

9:17

brother's video, like George, ain't that phone count

9:19

hard on? You know? That came out

9:22

and it was out for a while, and they

9:24

took me to court on that book. So I'm still in court

9:27

five years later for

9:30

the book. Yeah, I mean the

9:32

thing was to kill that information,

9:34

to kill the information in that book. They

9:37

said that the deformation of the

9:39

farm because I told everything that was

9:42

he already said himself, you

9:44

know, in deposition. But

9:47

yeah, they got me in court right now. The main

9:49

thing is to keep it slowed down

9:51

to where I can make no moves. You

9:53

know. Long. I've been in court for the last

9:56

fifteen years with my lawyers

9:59

and and him and Armor and

10:01

the major record companies. So

10:04

all of that's coming to a head now because

10:06

they're gonna investigate the whole copyright

10:09

recapture. We got our back, but

10:11

we need everybody to get out of the way to

10:14

let us make those collections because it's

10:16

still hard to collect from the different societies.

10:19

If you know, if you ain't got your powerful

10:23

set of people behind you and lawyers.

10:25

You know, that's pretty hard for them because they got to be

10:27

in business. They got business with the

10:29

companies, so they mess up their business trying

10:32

to protect you, especially a catalog as

10:34

big as ours. There's a

10:36

lot nobody don't nobody want to

10:38

get at us. But they've been stealing with that, you

10:41

know, But they'll go down

10:43

fighting. That's a lot of you're

10:45

talking about a lot of years, a lot of careers

10:48

of people that sample those songs,

10:50

use those songs, license

10:53

those songs that we never not only

10:55

myself, but none of the band members.

10:57

You hear them all something. No, they didn't get

11:00

money. I agree with them, they didn't get

11:02

it.

11:02

So I'm sorry, just for claborication.

11:04

You're saying that you guys never received

11:06

anything from any of these songs until.

11:08

No, No, I ain't gonna say never receive anything.

11:11

I'm talking about that sampling and

11:13

that license, and no we don't.

11:15

We're not. We don't be participating

11:18

in that at all. You

11:20

know, we got Atomic Dog recently in

11:23

that three years. Okay, but

11:26

no, no, the money. Even

11:29

since I got it, I've been fighting my own

11:31

lawyers to get the money

11:34

that's owed to me for it. The

11:36

main thing was to get it out of

11:38

my possession right and

11:40

you know, and they did that for a long

11:42

while. But I thought it, I got it.

11:45

I got it back, paid four

11:47

million dollars to my own lawyer. You

11:50

know, take that, pay

11:52

got it back.

11:53

Just to clarify it, what I was going

11:55

to say is probably the most

11:58

endearing thing about your personality

12:01

is the fact and your business acumen was

12:03

the fact that you were so open

12:07

to working with rappers

12:10

because unlike your counterpart,

12:13

and I use this word lightly,

12:16

of course, you know, people consider the pillars

12:19

of soul music and funk, you

12:21

and James Brown. James Brown's

12:23

attitude towards it was well, I hate samplers,

12:27

sampling, you know, rapper sampling my music and

12:29

all that stuff, but really not

12:31

seeing that that's going to

12:33

just bring it back and make it. And

12:35

you called it early in an interview, like even

12:37

in the mid eighties that no, I

12:40

like, they asked you, like, what do you think about you know, day lost

12:42

soul taking you know, needy for me

12:44

myself and I and you were so

12:46

open to it. You're like, that's great because what it

12:48

will do is it will lead a whole flock

12:50

of people to my music and to my concerts

12:53

and whatnot, Like you saw the vision of it.

12:55

So it's not that you're anti

12:58

sampling and reached structuring

13:00

the music, but the fact.

13:01

That pave me my money.

13:03

Yeah, so many people have.

13:07

To you know, right part

13:11

of it, the sampling part of it,

13:13

I welcome. I welcomed the sampling

13:15

part of it. You know, they

13:17

got them too. Most of them didn't get paid

13:20

either.

13:21

I've gotten bit by armored

13:24

a few times almost.

13:26

And we never got anything that and he

13:28

was doing that on behind of us. He's

13:31

supposedly we never got

13:33

any of it, got any of it.

13:36

So now that's what's happening. And

13:38

now that's getting meant to be open

13:41

up and everybody will be able to see that

13:43

nobody in the band got their money or

13:46

the other artists that had you know, all

13:48

the companies band together on those

13:50

sampling because nobody wanted to acknowledge

13:52

it. So now it's going to come out because we didn't

13:55

fade the wait, we didn't die all. We're supposed

13:57

to be out of here by now. But we

13:59

said one nation and the group. We meant that

14:01

we uncle Jim's Army. We was on the March

14:04

then, and the clones with

14:06

the sampling, to me was just the clones. You

14:08

have to have DNA clones to make

14:10

something new. That's what making the music.

14:13

When we said clones of Dr Funkenstein,

14:15

we meant that that far back we

14:17

knew it wasn't gonna be music

14:20

on television. How they sell those

14:22

k tail packages that

14:25

you didn't have to worry about that, no more, nobody got paid

14:27

for that. The new thing was gonna

14:29

be samples. And they didn't know how far they

14:31

were gonna get away with it. Not the artists

14:33

that do. A Kid's gonna make music whatever way

14:36

they can, whatever new way they have to,

14:38

they gonna make music. And I'm welcome that. I

14:40

just have to learn how to participate, how to hang

14:43

in there. But the business people

14:45

around that used us against

14:47

each other. You know that he

14:49

don't want you to sample it, he charging

14:52

you. Most artists wouldn't even talk

14:54

to me. They were scared to talk to me because they

14:56

thought I was mad about the samples. They

14:58

told them, you know, and and I'm assuming

15:03

you so everybody knew that.

15:05

But like I said, it's coming out

15:07

now, and yeah,

15:10

and they sued me for the book. In

15:12

the book, you know, I'm the

15:14

last one in five years. Everybody else

15:16

they got sued with me got off, and I'm

15:19

still there, you know, hoping

15:21

I would go away. That's what I did,

15:23

Shake Shake the Gate and Medicaid

15:25

Fraud Dog. I did those

15:27

two albums just to reignite

15:30

my energy, you know, to start

15:32

to get the kids going and

15:35

the and that's how I inspired I

15:37

was. Once I got the book out, I'm

15:40

ready to make brand new music with

15:42

whatever we're going from here. This

15:44

is a new generation.

15:46

You know. I'm glad you mentioned that. Normally

15:49

I start from the beginning, but I think

15:51

for this particular one, I kind of wanted to start

15:53

go backwards. Definitely,

15:57

the Medicaid Fraud Dog project.

16:00

Can you, for one, what is

16:02

your obsession or what

16:04

is the the ideology behind

16:08

dogs

16:09

in the metaphor

16:13

your metaphors for everything. But because

16:15

that album in particular is

16:17

such a clever outlet,

16:20

like political commentary but

16:22

using dogs as your

16:25

main characters, what what was the genesis of

16:27

that album?

16:28

I did called Dope Dogs right, Yes,

16:31

indeed, okay, Dope Dogs. I

16:33

have a whole story for that

16:35

that I wanted to do cartoons,

16:37

animation and everything, but I never would give

16:39

it to anybody because I have all the characters,

16:42

and so I tried to do as many you

16:44

know, dog related songs just

16:46

to keep that concept alive. So

16:49

I use it in Medicaid Fraud dog because

16:51

it was based on laboratory

16:54

studies on dogs, when they used to do studies

16:57

on dogs for perfumes and

16:59

ship like that. That member, that's when the

17:01

dope dogs come from. Not only the drug dogs,

17:04

but this time the dogs were sniffing out

17:06

the political bullshit in

17:09

the in the Obamacare,

17:12

you know, all the different names they want to call

17:14

it. On the political

17:16

drug scene, everything is about dope.

17:18

Everything's about drugs. The whole world

17:21

is talking about how they're gonna get their medicaid, okay,

17:24

and so that whole thing. The dogs are sniffing

17:26

out that information, and most

17:29

of us are being hooked on stuff

17:31

on medicine and create

17:33

new diseases with the drugs they give

17:35

us. They given the certain drugs and those drugs

17:38

to give you side effects, which to be a whole new

17:40

flock of patience. Okay,

17:43

now they do. That's

17:47

what I'm saying, And it's designer, designer

17:50

side effects, like designer drugs.

17:53

That's the era we live in now, where

17:55

we evolve into some you know,

17:57

between robots, androids,

17:59

human and that shit's gonna be a blurred line

18:02

in a minute, you know, it's

18:04

you know and wait, So

18:07

the dog is take a dog to sniff that out.

18:10

The instincts of a dog is primal. You

18:13

know, whether this maiden or whether it's

18:15

sniffing out whatever you're training to

18:17

sniff out, learn

18:21

it. And if he's sniffing out

18:23

the drugs, you get high from sniffing

18:25

on drugs. So the dog's gonna

18:28

have it, so they have to. You know, the

18:30

dogs are doped

18:32

up. So these are the dogs, the characters.

18:34

I got this dope dog. They all

18:36

got their own relationship to drugs,

18:39

whether it's a police dog or

18:41

whether it's a dope dealer who like to make their dogs

18:43

fight. And the dog and the dogs

18:46

are like, shit, you don't you used to give

18:48

me a reward, you know, used to give me a joy,

18:50

true sniff a treat. You

18:53

know, that's how they how they train the dogs

18:56

so that they don't even want to get a dog no treat.

18:59

You know, these dogs get together

19:02

and they got their own like

19:04

you know, remember the Ninja Turtles. These

19:07

dogs are like that, you know, kind of

19:09

like who Tang clan, you

19:12

know. And they they

19:14

got a thing on drugs. They don't,

19:17

you know, they impartial to the political

19:19

book, you know, discrepancy. They

19:22

just deal with drugs. So that's

19:25

my part, My partiality to

19:27

sucking with dogs and drugs.

19:31

Makes sense.

19:31

Now we can't hear the news.

19:33

You know, got more dogs for us.

19:36

I got one that's coming I got one that's coming

19:38

out. That's that's gonna hurt you.

19:41

Oh man, oh

19:44

yeah, who dogs? You

19:46

know it's gonna be they're gonna be stepping on it. You

19:48

know how they be doing dancing to Atomic Dog.

19:51

Yeah, they're gonna stop.

19:53

They're gonna stepping on this. They're gonna

19:56

be stepping up. They're gonna be stepping

19:58

up this and there. I

20:00

dare your booty not to move your

20:03

but your butt, your butt to betray

20:05

you.

20:07

I when that happened, I love it, you

20:09

know what I'm saying.

20:11

From when she shaked by itself and you ain't

20:13

got nothing in voluntary?

20:17

Yeah, can

20:20

How long did it take to make the Medicaid

20:24

Fraud Dog album? You know I

20:27

I thirty eight years but since

20:30

the last Parliament record, but.

20:32

Well between that would shake the gate

20:35

and that it took about three

20:38

years, you know. But I had

20:40

a couple of songs that I was hold on to the I've

20:42

done maybe five or six years ago.

20:45

Then I just kept them, kept them until

20:47

I got them right. I did them a thousand different

20:49

ways, but medicaid fraud. When

20:52

I got the concept together, I got Fred Wesley

20:55

down there, I got you know, Chris

20:57

Days. You know, I knew the people that

21:00

I needed for that outside

21:02

flavor to what we

21:04

were doing now. And we were

21:07

sampling our own self, but now we're

21:09

learned. Everybody else was sampling, and then everybody

21:12

got scared to sample anymore, so

21:14

we started sampling that self.

21:16

You're I think you're your best sample source.

21:18

So that's only right, but you know, it's

21:21

still is it's an art form to picking that shit

21:23

out.

21:29

How many reels do

21:31

you reckon of just unused

21:35

source material do you have?

21:37

And can we have them?

21:38

Yeah?

21:41

Because for me, for me.

21:44

Like my all time favorite p funk

21:46

song is new Spaceship,

21:49

a song which musically

21:51

is created twenty years before you even

21:53

completed it in ninety seven, So how

21:56

many other like uncooked

22:00

is do you have just sitting in the vault that

22:03

could come out today and still work. Have

22:05

you heard?

22:05

Have you heard the sample some of this and sampled

22:08

some of that? All right?

22:09

I have a slight confessional, yes, so

22:12

check this out. I purchased

22:15

sample some of this, sample some of that. Never

22:18

opened it because I think

22:20

in my mind, I always

22:22

thought, well, this probably throwaway

22:25

stuff. And you know, I'm

22:27

sure that all the prime P funk stuff is

22:29

on actual P funk records. And

22:32

so it wasn't until I talked to DJ

22:34

Premiere. This

22:36

is about four or five years ago, and

22:39

I asked him a question about

22:42

a sample. It was a NA sample

22:44

and he says, oh, yeah, these drums I

22:46

got because my favorite premiere

22:49

sounding drums. I asked like, where do you

22:51

get these drums from? And he said,

22:53

the George Clinton sampled some of this, some of that

22:55

PET like, so NAS's represent drums

22:58

come from that practice. All of the

23:01

Hard to Earn album, the

23:03

drums come from that. Some

23:06

of Jaybrew's second album, The Wrath

23:08

of the Math mind

23:11

Blown. And then when I went to it, I wanted

23:13

to kick myself because like it took

23:15

me fifteen sixteen

23:17

years to open up this record. If

23:21

I just had the patience and just sat

23:23

down and listened to it, I could

23:25

have been ahead of the game.

23:27

But you know, Eric Sermon used

23:29

to use it of that too. Yes,

23:32

I gave I gave. I gave him a copy

23:34

of it down at Gallous Austin studio,

23:37

and most people, like you said you said,

23:39

they didn't open because people like, if you give

23:42

it to them, then it's not interesting that they could

23:44

find it. So it took a lot of people

23:46

a long time to even look at it because

23:49

we were saying here, Now, what I was

23:51

saying about that album is that most

23:54

of where those samples came from, we have the

23:56

whole tracks to those songs.

23:58

Those are songs came out in the Family

24:01

Series, but a lot of the them

24:03

came out at all. So those

24:05

that's what A lot of those samples came

24:08

from. The songs that were released, you

24:10

know, except for maybe some of the film

24:12

was in the Family Series,

24:14

which a lot of people don't know about those Easterns.

24:17

Well, I was gonna say, even with the Family

24:19

Series. Okay, so there

24:21

are some captain obvious questions. I'm gonna

24:23

ask you the Junior Marrison

24:26

song on that family series Super

24:29

Spirit, Super Spirit. I

24:32

think that's the most eccentric creative

24:35

moment, and in a life

24:37

that was always eccentric. Can

24:40

you talk about Juni Morrison

24:43

and how like, what's

24:45

his what's the process of his creativity?

24:48

At least how did you? My god, how did you utilize

24:51

it?

24:52

Me and him, we did like person myself,

24:55

I do my part and do you you do

24:57

your party and say it back. We didn't

24:59

question the Whatever I did was lokay.

25:02

Whatever he did, I knew.

25:04

I just had to figure out what my part was, and

25:07

that's to me. We started

25:09

to do and it's a song on that Famihi's

25:12

called Tryune Yes. Yeah,

25:15

that's when we actually was getting

25:17

ready to actually come up with a

25:19

concept. He thought I was

25:21

weird and I thought he was weird. So

25:24

we got along really good on the weirdness

25:27

part of it. And we couldn't

25:30

get quite together, you

25:32

know, because of the political stuff that was going

25:34

on around us that we had no idea

25:37

who was actually being orchestrated, you

25:40

know, And that's a whole other story that

25:43

we could talk about later. But we

25:45

could never get together even when

25:47

we was doing computer games I was,

25:49

you know, of course the you know at the time I was into

25:52

my drug thing. But I always

25:54

commnaged to figure a way the work, to get the work

25:57

done. But you can't get

25:59

the work done and watch people that's

26:02

you know, intentionally trying to keep

26:04

you from getting the work done. That's a little

26:06

more than you're bargaining from what you

26:09

say. I'm getting sucked up. You don't

26:11

realize when you get fucked up, you fuck

26:13

up everything. You know, everything

26:15

around you get fucked up. You know, it

26:17

takes you a minute to grow up, if you know, to

26:20

get out of that, if you unless you can wigre your

26:22

ass out of it. Before the duo,

26:25

but that's what the Junie and I had

26:28

a lot of stuff we was was gonna

26:30

do and even like a medicaid

26:33

fronto. I had to call him get

26:35

him out of retirement. You

26:37

know, you know he's going trying to do

26:39

nothing. He was doing some electronic music,

26:41

but he wasn't trying to deal with the business.

26:44

But I got in the same thing when

26:46

we did, when we did

26:49

the pour a phone, got

26:51

got Booty and him

26:54

the you know the summer swim,

26:56

the some some swim song. I know

26:59

every time I do a song with him, it's

27:01

gonna be a level of cleverness

27:05

and real and you know, intentional.

27:08

He know what he's doing. He can do what

27:10

he wanted, you know, he do what he wants to do.

27:12

Once he analyzed what era w

27:14

in, that's all we have to think about, is

27:17

what era is this? It's not our old

27:19

days. It's knew whether they doing

27:21

that, what is the feel? He analyzed

27:24

it like that, and he used to come

27:26

up with the arranger whatever the kids, and

27:28

we would relate to kids. I think I said

27:30

that before. I always try to relate to nine,

27:33

ten, eleven, and twelve. Then

27:35

the ones you got bubble gum, they get on your nerve

27:38

everything they think about. But if you notice,

27:40

that's the music that always comes

27:43

back, the music that gets on your nerve

27:46

that you know, how could they get away with this? That's

27:48

the way it was. When we came out with powerful, powerful,

27:51

power, powerful, What the hell are

27:53

y'all talking about? That was due same

27:56

thing come along, you

27:59

know, kids, take get back to elementary

28:01

and it meant to get on your

28:03

nerve, to get your os out of the way. But

28:06

if you pay attention to him, how

28:09

danced with you? As I can,

28:12

but otherwise I'm gonna recognize it and try

28:14

to hang at least paying attention

28:16

to what they do. I can spot a young

28:20

artist even knowing anything

28:22

about it. I would have bet my

28:24

life on let's say, Rihanna.

28:26

With S O S.

28:29

Cardi B as soon as I heard her. There's

28:32

certain type of styles that's meant to provoke

28:35

him. But certain people have an artistic thing

28:37

about it. Certain people can

28:39

take like Frank Zapfler, he

28:42

could do he could go all the way out

28:44

with but he was intelligent

28:47

as hell with what he was doing. And

28:50

he wasn't even doing drugs. That's

28:54

that's really out there.

28:56

Was that always your theory because a

28:59

lot of I'll say that, a

29:01

lot of the themes of your

29:04

initial wave of Funkadelic a

29:07

p funk word ice

29:10

yeah, laced in the nursery rhymes and limericks.

29:12

Yeah.

29:13

And me and Bernie Bernie myself

29:17

only throw the cartoons was

29:19

you know, cartoon used classical music,

29:22

Okay, you

29:24

know, so Bernie could play anything

29:26

he wanted to play in them, and at the height

29:29

of it, how intense and intellectual

29:31

would get, he could still play Mary have a little

29:33

lamb in there.

29:35

He didn't that.

29:35

That's how comfortable he was, you know, and

29:38

the jazz thing he had his time

29:40

was impeccable. He was just free to

29:42

do what he wanted to do. And at the

29:44

same time we had Eddie

29:46

Hazel and Billy Bass who

29:48

was probably the Funkys Roys kids,

29:51

and then Gary Side later on. They

29:53

even church kids. They all went the church together,

29:57

you know, Glenn going. The whole neighborhood

29:59

was and they was on fourteen and fifteen

30:02

when I met him, I had a barbers shop. They

30:04

hung out and bought Billy his first guitar.

30:08

Eddie is Eddie had the guitar,

30:10

but I both Billy his person. Okay,

30:13

really, so you brought Eddie Hazel his

30:15

first guitar, not Eddie's first.

30:17

Eddie had one the Big Gipson

30:19

had the Big Gibson, but he was like fifteen years

30:22

old. I bought him his first rock and roll

30:24

and he played the Big Gibson.

30:25

For a long time really, but when

30:28

he.

30:28

Got to the studio, you know, yeah,

30:30

I had to get him all because we didn't know we we

30:32

played with the Vanilla Fudge and

30:35

they had the Damps and they

30:38

let us choose that ship and we heard what we

30:40

sounded like. We went back to Mannies

30:43

in New York and bought everything that

30:45

We spent all the money we had and

30:48

got the loudest We was the loudest

30:51

member of the band in all of the East

30:53

Coast.

30:54

I mean we Oh, I

30:56

was I wanted to ask you had mentioned him

30:59

in passing Glenn Goings. He was

31:01

like my favorite singer out

31:03

of the coming amazing and

31:05

he died so young.

31:07

What was his story kind of what

31:09

was his deal?

31:10

Him and Gary shot all like

31:13

I said, they all went to church together. He

31:15

was a ram Salent

31:18

freak. Really yeah,

31:20

oh man, that was him and

31:23

him and uh, what's the d J Rogers.

31:26

They saw the background, they saw the

31:28

background for Bobby woo mack

31:30

okay, and they were showing

31:32

out so much in the background. Bobby said, this

31:35

is the Bobby, this

31:38

is the Bobby show. This

31:40

is not y'all show. He fired both of them.

31:42

That's when good, That's

31:46

when Glenn came with us. You know, Gary

31:48

them said, you know he was singing the background

31:51

with you know, Bobby wo mack. He said, but

31:53

he goes he ain't got no job. And

31:56

Gary and Eddie and now Edie

31:58

can sing his ass of him. Any say,

32:00

somebody can say, you really

32:02

want to hear what they sound like? Yeah?

32:08

That dreaming

32:11

right, yeah, dream it's

32:14

up from the down stroke. It's

32:16

a lot of stuff with you hear

32:19

Old Lord, Why Lord, Old

32:22

Lord. I'm sorry to take

32:24

that back father, opened our eyes.

32:27

Yeah, that's some singing backwards. Okay, that's

32:30

that he's saying.

32:31

No, you can you can

32:33

hear forward too, yeah

32:35

for yeah.

32:37

So that okay, because well I know

32:40

that that's open our eyes backwards.

32:41

On like

32:44

you like, yeah, but have you heard

32:47

it forward? Yeah?

32:48

Yeah, I've heard the four person yes.

32:50

Yeah, so that that group

32:52

used to practice in my bomber shop. That

32:54

nade the gospel clubs, they're from

32:57

Newark. They used to practice in the barbershop.

32:59

And so that's why we was parted. We was

33:01

partialshped to that song, you know, uh

33:04

from the gospel clefts they was they

33:06

was a mel and any

33:09

just you know, we would jump from gospel

33:11

to jet you know anything.

33:14

That's what we did when we did free your mind, your ass

33:16

will follow. We were never gonna

33:18

get caught in the position of

33:20

having to follow up. I want to testify,

33:23

you know. Forty five trying to get another

33:26

forty five. We went so far out

33:28

because I mean remembering that we was at Motown and

33:31

that during that time we know how to make a

33:33

straight record. They a clean record,

33:35

and we knew what was we intentionally

33:38

you know, got wrecked,

33:40

got tripped out and just free your

33:43

mind. Your ass will follow, you know,

33:45

we just we You know you got Martha the

33:47

van Bella singing in the background, or

33:49

you know she wanted to what

33:54

Yeah, yeah, I mean we

33:56

was. I'm telling you we had all

33:59

of them, was doing had didn't uh

34:01

what's his name? Did

34:03

his coffee?

34:04

Did his coffee scorpio? Yeah?

34:06

Yeah, he played on I Gotta I

34:08

Got a thing, Yeah, I got

34:10

a thing. He put on quite a few of the songs,

34:13

you know, Dennis Coffee. Really the

34:16

engineers didn't want to have his name put on the

34:19

on the record of Maggie

34:21

Brain because we you know, I

34:23

was doing so much feedback and circling,

34:26

you know, sound on sound, and I ain't know what

34:28

I ain't know what I was doing. I was just doing what

34:31

sounding named Jimmy Hendrix, you know,

34:33

And as long as I keep it out of keeping

34:35

out of the red, you know,

34:38

I was cool. And so I did. I did

34:40

an engineer when when he put his name

34:42

on the record, and years

34:44

later like you.

34:47

Were engineer's nightmare even back then.

34:49

Like oh hell yeah, I

34:52

was.

34:52

Really. They

34:54

were dressing up in those lap coats and still

34:57

trying to maintain levels and all those things.

35:00

Oh they're trying to be you know, keep

35:02

it normal. But I mean,

35:05

all we have to flashlight. I told

35:07

him when we did the handclaps on flash

35:09

light, I wanted they had to

35:11

be so loud that if you ran your

35:14

hand across the CD, you feel the

35:16

bumping it.

35:23

This is yo, this bro, you let them talk.

35:25

This is sixty years of music. Bro, Like we're

35:27

not gonna get it. This rapid

35:30

fire like.

35:31

Just those other kind of those

35:33

are the kind of things that we you know. The

35:35

baseline, Bernie was imitating

35:37

Larry Graham on a move. Yeah

35:41

you hadn't heard no moves do nothing but make

35:43

sound effects. You're going to make sound effects, but

35:46

you didn't Nobody actually play the bass

35:48

line like a baby. Bernie

35:50

had so much interpretation of the mini

35:53

move and the pro

35:55

solos. He could imitate anything

35:58

he could. Joy was up there and they programmed

36:01

it and write it out and he'd be turning

36:03

off while Bernie's playing. And

36:05

he can play like a bass player, like

36:07

on Flashlight. And we made Bernie

36:10

the lead instrument. The bass is the lead

36:12

instrument on flash Light in

36:14

the hand class back up.

36:17

And that's just like you Bernie

36:20

and.

36:22

His brother.

36:25

Whis He told me that he's playing drums on

36:28

Flashlight? Is that true?

36:29

Yeah? He played drums on Flashlight?

36:31

Wow?

36:32

Wow, he played drums on quite a few,

36:36

you know. And our our bass

36:38

player, Boogie played drums on

36:40

quite a few of his balance you

36:43

know the song yeah.

36:47

And Gary Cooper, Gary Cooper,

36:49

he played yeah, yeah.

36:51

Okay, well boy, you brought up

36:53

Glenn Goin's earlier. And there's

36:55

so many singers in the

36:58

p funk year that

37:01

we can name. But dare

37:03

I ask you of all

37:06

of the singers represented

37:09

in that army, and that means Gary

37:12

down the winds, Davis

37:17

for your money?

37:20

Who is your?

37:22

Who is your? Michael Jordan, who is

37:24

your? Who is the singer? And

37:27

this is everyone singer?

37:30

Wow, that singer. It was gonna

37:32

it would be Gary and Juni

37:35

because of the creativity. Not

37:37

only did the you know, the singing

37:40

voice, they could come up with parts

37:43

and JUNI could come up

37:46

with lyrics parts and

37:48

sing it. So, I mean, but

37:52

then there's a lot of me you can't

37:55

take. You with Mayby,

37:59

I mean, she's like excellent.

38:01

When Gary Cooper, you

38:05

put Gary and Gary, you

38:07

get Gary, Peanut and Gary

38:10

and them three together, you can

38:12

do anything. We never got

38:14

a chance to We never got a chance to see all what

38:17

Glynn was gonna do. He did everything

38:19

in about two years that he did with

38:21

us.

38:22

Were you involved in that Quasar album that

38:24

he did?

38:24

No, that's that's when they that he

38:27

was he had three months to live when he got

38:29

with us. He was with us three years and

38:32

then he left and they did the Quasar

38:35

album, you know, and then they

38:37

think they did Mutiny album. I

38:40

didn't have anything to do with either one of those.

38:42

And he died at twenty four. Like to me still,

38:44

it's like when I hear when

38:47

I hear Glenn Gons's voice.

38:57

That's what I'm saying. He had that rants

38:59

Allen on him and he had complete

39:01

controlled over any tone

39:04

that come out of his mouth.

39:06

Wow, back to my

39:09

bone. Gary,

39:11

in my opinion, is your

39:14

best animated voice

39:16

sounding character. How

39:19

are you able because

39:22

you know most music

39:24

fans don't even know that Gary

39:28

is the voice of the group's slide fox

39:31

Let's Go all the Way right of

39:34

which you know that was a big hit in nineteen

39:36

eighty five. And he's singing

39:38

in his natural voice. But

39:42

how are you able to convince your

39:46

frontline army to adapt to these

39:48

new voices? And the same for Bootsy Collins

39:51

as well, Like, how are you able

39:53

to tell them, like

39:56

adapt your voice to more of an animated

39:59

tone, because to me, like my bone

40:01

is has one of the greatest

40:03

animated voices ever.

40:05

Well, when we we was on the roll, when

40:07

and when you got momentum going for you, when

40:10

you're on the road and you in that zone they

40:12

call it, and we had

40:14

the character of Sir

40:16

and those we had the character of mister

40:21

Wiggers uh cash for the

40:23

friendly Ghost. You know, we was

40:25

into making cartoons, Rhymestone

40:28

Rockstar, Monster of a Dour Baby Baba.

40:30

We was into making toy music, you know,

40:33

so it was easy for going to go

40:35

into it. Why

40:38

are you asking that charge? We

40:41

had a thing in that zone.

40:44

We was writing cartoons. Then that's

40:46

what motive. Booty Affair is the motion picture

40:49

underwater, you know them

40:54

the rhythm it takes the you know what saying,

40:56

oh that's from you know. That's when your boy Eli,

41:01

you know, I bid off of that and when I so DJ

41:04

was getting ready to be the thing, and

41:07

that's when we did Mothership Connection. I

41:09

was imitating Frankie Krocker, in

41:11

In Jocko and all of them. So I could tell

41:14

DJ was beginning to be the thing

41:16

because they was cutting them off of the radio. They

41:19

started to play five songs and no commercials

41:22

and you start missing, You start missing

41:24

that DJ talking dedicated

41:27

song to your girl and da da and on that.

41:30

Uh. DJ started getting political, especially

41:33

in Philly Georgie Woods. That

41:35

was my boy, you know. So we

41:38

intentionally played our own record on

41:40

our record, w E f U k

41:43

we funk Cody

41:45

freaking habit. For me, that

41:48

was all the sit that you're on your favorite

41:50

DJ. You wasn't hear it on the

41:52

radio no more, so, I mean let

41:54

me hear it from me. We love dude, funk

41:57

you. All of that was our version of

41:59

DJ. As soon as we did

42:01

that, they started having

42:03

what you call DJ pools. You started

42:05

taking your record to the DJ and

42:08

they would tell you they record pools.

42:10

They would tell you who records

42:12

should get played, you know, radio

42:14

was, and then no

42:17

sooner than that. Then hip hop came along the

42:19

bucket. We just DJ's

42:21

on record.

42:22

And and that's what it's, that mothership

42:25

connection. I have to have

42:27

to ask. It sounds like you got a three on it

42:29

to me, what is what does that mean?

42:32

You know what that means?

42:36

It was cool.

42:41

All all

42:44

that was was that what we called it, a trendy

42:46

chemical substance, whatever

42:48

it's trending at that time, the chemical

42:51

consumption was happening. That's where

42:53

we were at. You know. It was just that language

42:56

that people was conveying with you.

42:58

The street talk they do it nowadays

43:01

to just seem harsh because their kids

43:03

they gonna make it worse than yours. They're gonna do

43:06

your ass no matter how bad you did

43:08

it. They gonna I

43:11

don't even say nothing to them, because if you

43:13

say something to them, you gonna make him do it work. They know they got

43:15

your attention, you know so.

43:18

But that's what it was, trending, chemical septance

43:21

on it. Funk would take a ten.

43:24

That is is it true that for the

43:27

for maggot brain that you told

43:29

Eddie Hazel to play like his mom had died.

43:32

I've always heard that story, and

43:37

he said, fuck you, and I

43:40

knew that once I said it, he

43:42

understood the intense

43:44

because it was a regular three

43:47

quarter blue song.

43:48

Ain't too much. But when you if he played

43:51

it psychedelically like

43:53

he could do it, and with all the echoplexes

43:55

we had on it, and he was beginning

43:58

to manipulate the echo next,

44:00

and I was manipulating the echoplex

44:03

in the studio on top of his. So

44:05

it was just a vibe. He could play

44:07

all of the blues and soul like

44:10

Jimmy was doing all that he wanted,

44:12

and all those echoes on top

44:14

of each other. But that was some brilliant

44:16

shit, especially when you took the instrument other instruments

44:18

out, take the base and drums out.

44:21

You ain't got nothing of the rhythm, guitar

44:23

and the lead. You could take up all the

44:25

space with all those delays, and

44:28

it worked pretty real good

44:30

with it because he was so soulful. An't

44:32

even the sound he made was you felt it.

44:36

You were born in North Carolina.

44:37

Correct in Connapolis, Napolis,

44:40

right outside of Charlotte, Canapolist.

44:42

Oh yeah, I'm from Greensboro, so I know I

44:45

got a.

44:45

Whole bunch of family in Greenboro right now, a

44:48

whole bunch of family. I got a whole bunch

44:50

of family, sisters, nieces, brothers.

44:54

It might be that's

44:57

home. How did you get from?

44:58

Go ahead, say you're born in North

45:00

Carolina, But I've been to Plainfield a lot, and that's

45:03

all they talk about is y'all

45:05

in you.

45:06

So it's interesting.

45:07

It's like it's two different towns that got

45:10

that you the pride of.

45:11

But I came from North Caroline plumb

45:13

about ten years old, to Virginia,

45:16

Chase City, Virginia. In about ten. I went to Newark,

45:19

New Jersey, Okay, And that's

45:21

where I went to school that Nork I

45:23

went to, you know Avon, that was south side, same

45:26

school. Shack went to Mars,

45:29

Okay, I went there. But I had a barber

45:31

shop ten miles outside of New

45:33

York, which is Plainfield. I

45:36

never lived there. I just had the barber shop and shoveled

45:38

there every morning on the bus. The

45:40

surs so funny, and

45:44

Plainfield was like suburbia.

45:46

It was like, you know, for rich folks,

45:48

you know, middle class people, and

45:50

then they got really funk, got really funky.

45:53

Hitting the late sixties in

45:55

the early seventies, you know,

45:57

their riots and everything, but

45:59

it was some soul for folks there. You

46:02

know what. It just hit me.

46:04

I worked with Nona Hendricks on a project

46:07

a couple a couple of years. A

46:09

few decades back. She told

46:11

me that you were her original hairdresser.

46:14

Is that undress I did? I

46:17

did what you mean?

46:20

Said?

46:22

No, no, no, I used to wave here.

46:24

They used to have, you know, waves close

46:26

to the end.

46:27

O used to make the waves, the finger waves.

46:31

Yeah, and she was she's living

46:34

uh Jillian Trenton. Yeah,

46:37

yeah, I did both of them there and that

46:39

you know, we we we worked together for years

46:41

though known. I didn't know us in parents, you

46:44

know, years later, just

46:46

for you know magazine,

46:49

you know, PR but there

46:51

in Patty Sarah, they

46:54

were like neighborhood punk

46:57

and they were spunking a long time. Eliament

47:00

started fifty six. I think they might

47:02

have started in like fifty nine.

47:04

Really, so you.

47:07

Let me ask you something. Yes, was

47:10

your family Andrew and the Hearts?

47:13

My father was Lee Andrews.

47:14

Yes, okay, I thought so, yeah,

47:17

yeah, I'll go that far back.

47:19

Yeah. When I yeah, when I read that in the book, man,

47:21

I was like, Wow, this is my

47:23

dad would love this, Like my dad gets mentioned

47:25

and divided soul in George's

47:27

book. Well, no, explain to

47:30

me, You're like, I know that the Parliament

47:32

started off in uh

47:35

as a do op group, as typical for

47:37

the day. Could you just explain

47:39

like that that that what that environment

47:42

was like with trying to break into

47:44

do wop? And really I

47:47

want to I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed with Ray

47:49

Davis for me, more

47:51

than Melvin Franklin, more than Barry White,

47:53

more than anyone with a

47:55

deep voice. Ray Davis to me is

47:58

the yeah he was to me, how

48:01

did you guys like form?

48:03

Well? Which form? Like you know most kids

48:05

in grade school? I had two or three other

48:07

people in the band before them, but

48:09

by the time we got to that lineup, we

48:12

went out to Detroit auditioned, didn't

48:15

make it, but I ended up writing songs

48:17

for him. Then I did a song called I

48:19

Want to Testify, and

48:21

I did that song with Ron Banks

48:23

from the Dramatics, Wow, Pat

48:26

Lewis from the Hot Butter and Soul, myself

48:30

and the guy named Eddie from the Holidays.

48:33

That was the background. Course. Parliament couldn't make it out

48:35

to Detroit. We got a hit record on

48:37

that song, and that was the beginning.

48:40

That record carried us out into the world.

48:43

I'm want to test by it. Like I said, Vanilla

48:45

for Lenister guitars nams.

48:49

That changed our life. We became Funkadelic

48:51

that night. Were getting tired

48:53

of with the record companies with the name Parliament

48:56

couldn't use the name, so we took our

48:58

backup band, which Billy Edding burning

49:01

them made them Funkadelli. We

49:05

became their backup singers and

49:07

so you see the five of them on the Funkadelic

49:10

first Bunkadelic album. But that

49:12

that's how I did it with the record company. And

49:15

when funk Partmer got his name back, we did

49:17

a Parliament album called Osmia with

49:20

Hollandoja. Holland stayed

49:23

tied up there for years and ended

49:25

up on Castle Blanca with Neil Bogart.

49:29

How did you How did you meet Neil Boardguard

49:32

and how did you stay out of the disco phray

49:34

because everything that Neil

49:36

did was theater and disco.

49:39

How did you stay before that?

49:41

Before that, Neil was the king of bubble

49:43

gum, thember Neil did. He

49:46

had Buddha Records. Oh,

49:49

Wow.

49:50

He had Border.

49:51

Records, and he had Gladys Knight

49:53

and The Fifty the Stairs Steps

49:55

and Curtis Mayfield and all of

49:57

that. Neil had that labor

50:00

first. Then he had Hot

50:03

Wax with Hollandojo Holland, which was the

50:06

Honeycombs. So he wanted

50:08

us to be on his label when he

50:10

had Hot when they had Hot Wax, you

50:13

know, Hollandoji Holland. But they put

50:15

us on Invictis, so we missed Neil.

50:18

A couple of years later, when we got up for Invictis,

50:21

I looked Neil up and he had a new labor

50:23

called Castle Blanker. He took us

50:26

and Kiss and Donna

50:29

at the same time. Wow,

50:31

and we all went three different directions,

50:34

and he was so hot. They went through the

50:36

disco thing. No, I wasn't going. As

50:38

close as I got to disco was knee deep.

50:41

That was my dad rescue dance music

50:43

from the blogs. You know, I like,

50:46

I like disco, but I didn't want to do

50:48

the same beat on every song. He

50:51

you know, there was a silver Convention.

50:54

I was a civil convention free

50:57

you know, no

51:02

that you know, but you can't. You

51:04

can't do every song like that. That's

51:07

what that was my own thing. They had measured

51:09

your heartbeat. And when you start fucking

51:12

with music like that, no,

51:14

it gets you know the facts

51:17

that shit in you know?

51:19

So is that okay? Because also

51:22

probably the most notable thing about your

51:25

your your concerts versus

51:28

you're probably the only act I know that

51:31

will do a song slower

51:34

in concert than

51:36

you do on the album.

51:40

The anytime I've ever seen Doctor

51:42

Funkenstein performed, and

51:45

any of those like those seventies

51:48

concerts, you guys go half

51:50

the speed of that and each song is like

51:53

fourteen minutes, like longer, way longer,

51:55

and way slower?

51:57

Is there? Like where you get

51:59

we got got that from? You ever see feel

52:01

a Cool? Yes? Yes,

52:05

they used to do songs all

52:07

day long for an hour, one

52:09

one song and

52:12

it start on the song to me in the afternoon

52:14

and be dust and they be still playing another

52:17

version of that same song all

52:19

kind of And we used to do that back

52:22

in the sixty eight sixty nine when

52:24

we first started Funkadelic. It was a

52:26

groove like a boom boom boom

52:28

boom boom, and we vamped

52:31

that ship forever, and people were

52:33

so fucked up that they just

52:35

we always fucked up. Everybody enjoyed

52:38

the groove all, you know, and it

52:40

took us. We

52:43

are reels of the same song. We

52:48

are reel we got. They put up

52:50

another reel and we keep going.

52:53

And you tape them ships together. It's just one long

52:56

reel we got.

52:57

You know how they say they have twenty

52:59

four he had seventy two

53:01

tracks?

53:03

Okay, and a

53:11

man. Now we're doing rapid fire.

53:13

Yeah, I don't

53:15

know other way to do this.

53:17

Can you explain how pedro

53:19

Bell comes into the system?

53:22

And oh, that's good, that's

53:24

good. When I moved to Toronto, he's

53:27

he's a you know, fan, used to write me letters,

53:30

you know, a fan, and he would draw on

53:32

the envelope. On

53:34

the envelope, it looked just like the album covers,

53:37

the whole cartoon

53:40

whatever, even they even drawing. He was drawn

53:42

on the envelope. The postmaster

53:44

general. I thought I was part

53:46

of some kind of organization and

53:49

they were getting upset with me.

53:51

But you know, was I asking me, was

53:53

I part of some And I told him, you

53:55

know, blah blah. But then I said, I want

53:57

this dude to do the album. Now says

53:59

if draw that much attention, and

54:02

it sounded so clever. He was right

54:05

out of high school. I contacted

54:07

him and he did had him do Cosmic Slot.

54:10

Yes. From

54:12

then on it was like I would have to tell

54:14

him the story of what I'm talking about, and

54:17

he would give me his interpretation of

54:19

whatever that meant to him, and his

54:22

and his own weird ass language.

54:26

He could write. He could write

54:28

his ass song, you know.

54:30

But he did it intentionally the same way he could draw,

54:32

draw. He could paint a picture that looked like

54:35

a photo. Okay, but he was he

54:37

was fed up with that. He didn't like

54:39

doing that, so he did

54:42

his own pagro bell art and his

54:44

own payro bell language, and

54:46

that It was funny to hear his interpret And

54:49

I got him when I did an album

54:51

called some of My Best Jokes of Friends

54:54

Friends.

54:54

Yes, I did that.

54:55

He did what you talk about? I said, you

54:58

come up what you think I think? To think I'm talking

55:00

about? That was the funniest one in the bowl

55:02

because I didn't give him nothing to go.

55:05

He would do the commentary and and all the the

55:08

mythology on it was that you were.

55:11

Me and him. Yeah, tell him what I'm I'm telling what I'm

55:13

talking about. But he would interpreted and put

55:16

it in his language.

55:17

Speaking of cosmic slop. Okay,

55:20

the question I always wanted to know, the

55:24

first time that I ever heard cosmic

55:26

slop was in

55:29

the most unlikely platform.

55:32

I first heard cosmic slop on

55:36

the Cosby Show. Yeah,

55:39

of which Robert and Vanessa

55:42

I remember that are doing their homework and

55:45

I hear cosmic slop and this

55:47

is you know, it's so weird

55:50

because you know, now, Phil, a

55:55

lot.

55:55

Of music does not get a twist. He definitely

55:58

was. He definitely was.

56:06

He yes, he will. That's

56:10

that's one way we could describe it. That's one way.

56:16

That was revenge.

56:18

Okay, So.

56:20

Yeah, and you

56:22

know I let it. I didn't

56:24

know what it was, but it was. It

56:27

was during the era in which like VCRs

56:29

like at first started infiltrating everyone's

56:32

household and you recorded every show on

56:34

the show, and so I recorded

56:36

and watched that episode like forty two times.

56:38

So, uh, my history

56:40

teacher tells me, yeah,

56:43

that's from caadelic cosmic slop, And you

56:47

know, it really didn't hit

56:49

me until I started digging in the crates and then

56:51

once I heard the lyric output.

56:54

Of course, you know, cosmic slaps about a sort

56:57

of a regretful mother that's treated.

56:59

Like a jes because she has to turn

57:02

tricks meet her kids.

57:04

And I'm like, how did this song

57:06

wind up on The Cosby Show? Did you have

57:08

any warning whatsoever that they used

57:10

that song so prominently on that episode?

57:13

No, I was surprised when I heard it too, But I know

57:15

he I know, he like Parliament.

57:18

You know, he was in Detroit for a while

57:20

himself with a record label, so he knew

57:23

of us and it didn't

57:25

surprise me.

57:26

Wow.

57:27

Well, speaking of TV, while we're on the TV movie

57:30

side House Party, you'll count

57:32

your uh your cameo housewrights

57:34

the DJ?

57:35

How did how that play?

57:38

That was really fun? I still see play out

57:40

in Tallahasse. He comes here a lot

57:42

of fam you but Reggie

57:45

husband that was his when he first

57:47

got out of college. Yes,

57:50

yeah, his mother told

57:52

me he was like that when he was a kid.

57:55

So he had posters and stuff. She thought, I, you

57:57

know, because that skirt I had on on one

57:59

of those boats, she

58:02

say in the Wig at the Wig on TV.

58:04

She didn't know what was gonna happen to him. And

58:10

that's the same thing, same thing with Humpty.

58:12

He had that same poster. His mother

58:14

says, she used to carry it around with him. Yeah.

58:20

Boy, So seeing

58:22

all those groups that you influenced, man, Like,

58:24

what was that like for you? Did you feel like inspired

58:27

by? Did you feel like they were copying?

58:28

Like what was your? You

58:31

know, I love it. You know that you're

58:33

gonna feel good as hell, you know. But it

58:35

was always always like

58:38

the one to be like Motown,

58:40

you know, all the different artists that was around.

58:43

That was family that that was a hell of

58:45

a place. We used to just ride by there and watch

58:47

them all in the front yard, so many

58:50

stuffs, And that's the way we felt,

58:52

you know, with Boots scene Roger.

58:55

A lot of people don't know we did Roger more about

58:57

to the Elms, you know, all

59:00

about making that record, like how that

59:02

was Funky Bounce, the song he had called Punky

59:05

Bounce. We took the little snippet of

59:07

the first part of that song and

59:09

cut tate. We copied it, copied

59:12

it, cut it with a tape, copy, copy, cut

59:14

it, and then tape tape and tape it together.

59:17

Second we stampled it.

59:20

They didn't have a sample machine yet, so

59:22

we just know just loop, just

59:25

cut that loop piece until we got

59:27

like ten seconds or

59:29

something like that, and then we looped around a pencil

59:32

round the head of the two track machine and just let

59:34

it loop around it and until

59:36

we got ten minutes of it. The

59:39

ten minutes and then put that on two on the

59:41

twenty four track and back

59:44

and then called Roger back and he hated

59:46

it. He

59:49

hated Oh, he hated it.

59:52

But that was the deal. We gave

59:54

him the deal. Yeah, that's why

59:57

we got him this deal that it

59:59

wasn't We had to use that as

1:00:01

the name because that's his younger brother. I told

1:00:03

him, make up another He didn't want it to be Roger.

1:00:07

Make up another name. You

1:00:09

know, there's some money for you this. We

1:00:12

was waiting. His record was gonna be on Uncle Jam.

1:00:15

Remember Yeah,

1:00:18

his record was gonna be on that. So we

1:00:20

made that just in the meantime so

1:00:22

you can get some money. We put it out

1:00:24

in the record hit so Big, They

1:00:27

had to become zap and he hated

1:00:29

it.

1:00:32

Circle back to you. After that, After hit what was

1:00:34

he was?

1:00:35

They ended up leaving.

1:00:37

They were they were, they were so big,

1:00:40

they were so big. And then then we then they

1:00:42

put out I did grape Vine, You

1:00:45

did that the grape Vine, More

1:00:47

Bounce, and there's

1:00:50

one more Uh only

1:00:52

have eyes for you? Yeah,

1:00:57

I just I just started him to doing it. I didn't

1:00:59

finish with him. But and there's one

1:01:01

that Wilson picking up again with thing

1:01:06

great by midnight hours and I

1:01:09

said, those songs you can always do and and

1:01:12

get you know, get on the radio back

1:01:14

at that time and end up doing them all

1:01:16

and they worked pretty good for him.

1:01:18

Did you work on the Roger solo album

1:01:20

as well?

1:01:21

Or just the first album that was that was that

1:01:23

was the album that was supposed to have been on Uncle

1:01:25

Jam. That was Uncle Jam's album.

1:01:28

We paid so doing Roger do it? All that stuff

1:01:30

is?

1:01:30

All that stuff was done from Uncle Jam.

1:01:35

Wait, hold up, As you can see, we

1:01:37

are just scratching the surface when it comes to

1:01:40

the legendary and iconic

1:01:42

George Clinton.

1:01:43

So I'll tell you what we're gonna do.

1:01:45

We're gonna split this thing into coming up

1:01:47

next Wednesday, Part two of George Clinton.

1:01:49

And if you think you found out something this

1:01:52

episode, wait

1:01:54

until episode two. Yeah, Part two

1:01:56

of our sit down with George Clinton.

1:01:59

Quest Loves of Heart Radio and everywhere

1:02:01

you listen to podcasts.

1:02:08

What's Love Supreme is a production of Iheartened

1:02:10

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1:02:15

more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio

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1:02:20

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