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Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

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What's Up Everybody, It's unpayvill the Team Supreme

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For this classic episode of Quest Love Supreme, we're speaking

0:09

with the incredible, the One, the Only, George

0:12

Clinton, the parliament Funkadelic. Last week

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we reissued part one of this conversation. Now in part

0:16

two, did a deep dive and asked these sorts of rabbit

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ble fan questions that make QLs week. This

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was taped in mid twenty twenty during those early days

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of the pandemic, so Team Supreme was still learning

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how to get along virtually and in general. But

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the quality of the conversation is amazing. Make

0:29

sure you check out all our interviews with Booty Collins,

0:31

Larry Blackman cameo and the.

0:33

Late George Brown.

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Cool Gay QoS loves bringing you that

0:36

phone and it gets no better than George Clinton.

0:44

You mentioned Boosie.

0:45

I just wanted to ask you since we had him on the show and

0:47

he told some awesome stories about you.

0:50

But one of the stories he mentioned.

0:52

Was something involved y'all creative process

0:54

in the was it the Bermuda triangle?

0:59

He said that you used to do that, but he never knew

1:01

why that place and

1:03

to like be creative, can you please?

1:05

You went fishing in the Bermuda Triangle.

1:08

Yeah, yeah, you know that.

1:11

We was the only one after the Mothership

1:13

connection, you know.

1:17

You know. The whole thing was we

1:19

went to Bemani and to hang out

1:22

and the number one Bemani Road and

1:25

everything I saw all of the fish advertisement.

1:28

Mister Wiggerdworm was a lure that

1:30

was collecting information for the

1:32

Motivooty affair. Wow,

1:35

he didn't know what we were talking what I was doing. You

1:37

know, I was just gathering the topics,

1:40

you know, from that topic and.

1:42

It all came together pretty good. You

1:44

know, we was on a roll.

1:46

You had no fear of drowning and the Bermuda

1:48

Triangle at all.

1:50

Oh, I mean, it's

1:53

all I need to fear. That gent everywhere

1:55

we wanted. He tells you that we

1:58

saw spaceship.

2:01

He tells you something happened to.

2:02

Yeah, he told us about this.

2:06

Now that's for real.

2:07

I mean we drove up there from Detroit

2:10

after finishing the album, got there

2:12

with and went by Gary's house.

2:15

It was like ten o'clock in the morning. Now we

2:17

just got there.

2:18

We saw a light that looked like laser

2:21

you know, or light, but it was a straight being

2:24

and I said, you see that?

2:26

He said, what was it?

2:27

Now?

2:27

I don't know. Five minutes later,

2:29

we get off the highway be going down the country road.

2:32

The same light sounded like two

2:34

blocks in front of us, right through the trees. That hit

2:36

the ground and sparked like like you know, electricity

2:40

on the right side, then on the left side the highway.

2:42

And the third time it hit the car right

2:45

on the driver's side where I was sitting.

2:47

It beat it up like you know, mercury out of the

2:49

thermometer, you know, it.

2:52

Beat it like oil and water, you know.

2:53

That consistency, and

2:56

rolled right off the car.

2:59

What the hell?

3:00

And at that time that what's.

3:02

Weird about it that we didn't realize

3:04

this for years the street

3:07

lights was going off. Now I remember

3:09

the first time we saw this light. The weird

3:11

thing was that you saw light in daylight right

3:14

right, and you can see.

3:15

You can see a street of light in daylight. That was

3:17

the weird to stay.

3:18

But when this when it happened and

3:20

we hit the car, the street light was

3:22

dimming, A car had its lights

3:24

on the back of us. I looked behind us and

3:27

by the time we turn around. The street

3:29

was completely dark. Our

3:31

head lights was getting dark. We

3:34

had to drive like five blocks. What's

3:37

going on? We got five blocks

3:39

and you can look back to your left

3:41

you can see street lights on again. And

3:44

as we pull up it but by this

3:46

time it's nighttime. We

3:49

don't realize this. I don't, We don't talk

3:51

about it. I realized this for years. My

3:53

daughter said, what yelling like, y'all

3:56

seen the ghosts? She said, give

3:58

me, kids, I'm getting ready to go to bed now.

4:00

That should have let us, you know, you know,

4:03

let us know that ten o'clock

4:05

in.

4:05

The morning, she's going to bed at seven o'clock at

4:07

night.

4:08

We did not realize that for years

4:10

that that had taken.

4:11

Place like that.

4:12

That time he last and.

4:15

I called boots of them?

4:16

What time did we get there? When we

4:18

was coming from the student and he remembered.

4:21

And then when I told her what the barbarella?

4:23

What was she doing? She's going

4:25

to.

4:27

Mean that same thing, I said. We

4:29

never thought about that for years.

4:31

That's crazy.

4:35

Trendy chemical substances.

4:39

What people about it. We had just come

4:41

across the border.

4:43

We had just come across the border into Canada,

4:45

so we didn't have no trending chemical substance.

4:50

You have Canadian trendy

4:52

chemical.

4:56

Had Yeah,

5:00

really believe that we are the only beings

5:04

of this level in this entire galaxy.

5:07

No, but the fact that George Clinton's all

5:09

aliens means everything is perfectly

5:11

correct in the world.

5:12

I I

5:15

believe everything he's saying. He thought

5:18

I see them before he did. He saw them.

5:20

They're there.

5:23

Let me ask you, so, what

5:26

is what drew you to? I

5:29

mean, you know, next to sun Ray,

5:31

I don't know any other black figure

5:34

in music that

5:37

deals with oh,

5:40

with the exception earth Fire, that

5:43

deals with afro futurism.

5:46

And you know, I'll say

5:48

that, and I'm glad you brought

5:51

it. And Hendrix, Yes, yes,

5:53

absolutely, Jimmy Andrew and the

5:55

And the thing is is that I'm glad

5:57

you you brought up the UFO story

5:59

because it's like, even in

6:01

preparing for this interview, I

6:04

know that with you with like

6:06

at the time in seventy six, seventy seven Close

6:08

Encounters of the Third Kind and Star

6:11

Wars, I tried watching Star

6:13

Wars. I'm famous

6:15

for falling asleep during Star Wars

6:17

for the I'm sorry, it's just a film that you

6:22

know, Dog I've yet. I've seen Star Wars,

6:24

but I've not gotten through one.

6:26

Concurrent, like that's

6:29

of everything.

6:31

But how are you able

6:34

to get into because I think Richard

6:37

Prye once brought up the fact that you

6:39

know, a lot of black people aren't into

6:42

science fiction because we rarely see ours

6:44

like we're not painted in the future and

6:47

a lot of this production. But you

6:49

were our vision of an

6:52

Afro futurist society.

6:54

So what what brought that

6:57

on?

6:57

Like what made you not

6:59

just want to make people shake their ass and dance

7:02

like most people, Like most people live in the present, I

7:04

feel black music, whereas you're talking about

7:06

I think.

7:07

I think Star Trek. I think Star Trek.

7:10

I was addicted to that by

7:12

the time I saw Star Wars. That was like

7:14

a cowboy and western movie that was.

7:16

Like for kids, but I liked it.

7:18

It was for kids, but already was into the

7:22

mother Ship theories and the sci

7:25

fire that that Star Wars

7:28

had more stories. So I

7:30

was always into that. And when it came time to

7:33

make a record, I want.

7:34

To do a funk opera.

7:36

When that's when we started thinking

7:38

about. First we did Chocolate City

7:41

and one time I saw put Black Places

7:44

where they weren't ordinarily seen. That

7:47

was that was the cool thing to do. So

7:49

the next one, I say, put them in out of space.

7:51

You didn't see no black people, nobody but Aurora,

7:54

see was the only one you saw out there.

7:56

But what about you see this dude

7:58

out there on the spaceship riding.

8:00

There like it's a Cadillac.

8:02

That's all of a sudden, it's a place

8:04

to be, you know.

8:05

Mothership connection, that worked,

8:09

you know, So then the Clones

8:11

is the weirdest one.

8:12

Now you want the story. Clones

8:15

was the second one after Mothership. I

8:17

got on a train.

8:19

I got on a train in Dallas,

8:21

Texas. There was a book on this

8:23

train. This is the first day this train

8:26

is running at Dallas between terminals,

8:29

the very first day. The book

8:31

is on the on the seat. Nobody's on the

8:33

plane train for me. I picked up the book

8:35

and Steve Swanson has

8:38

docked on spaceships over fifteen

8:41

hundred times, blah blah blah, but he could

8:43

never get used to these trains

8:46

at the Dallas Airport. So

8:48

I'm thinking this got something to do with this

8:50

train, and there, you know, so I tak

8:53

it. I'm reading it. I gets off the

8:55

train in Portland, Oregon. Every

8:57

book stand that saw had

9:01

the book and that it was called The Clones.

9:04

I thought it was the way I went to the library, and that's

9:06

about what his cloned. And they told

9:08

me it was protected by the freedom of information.

9:11

Now, when they told me that, my whole

9:14

you know, I got nosy for really now

9:16

I almost to know, and that's what

9:19

the whole Doctor Funkenstein. They

9:21

gave me a book called Dr Moreau. Okay,

9:27

Doctor Moreau. That was the closest they can

9:29

give to me without.

9:30

You know, going on. And they said I could

9:32

get.

9:32

A book called The Charot of the Gods.

9:35

Already got that book. And when I read that book,

9:38

that was all my albums

9:40

from then on. Clones uh

9:42

funking telekey

9:45

and motivated, all of them was

9:48

going in that same direction of

9:50

all those theories.

9:52

You know.

9:53

Yeah, I assure you that Smokey Robinson

9:55

was not doing that.

10:01

What he did, know, what he used to do.

10:02

He used to take kids books

10:05

and do all the nurses on the nurse around the

10:07

rap songs from them sound right, It was just it

10:10

was another version of that.

10:11

Though, speaking of which

10:13

I know, I know that you are

10:15

a massive fan of

10:18

sly Stone. I have two questions about

10:20

Sli and I've been you

10:22

know, as of this recording Happy

10:25

People Later birthday. You just

10:28

celebrated your seventy ninth birthday,

10:31

and usually around

10:33

your birthday time, I'll spend a month while

10:36

I'll do nothing but dive into the

10:38

p funkology of your work,

10:41

so especially Quarantining.

10:43

I've probably watched at.

10:46

Least at least ten of the concerts between

10:49

seventy six and the

10:52

mid eighties, like at least four times each.

10:55

I have a question though about

10:57

the p Funk Earth tour now

11:00

knowing what role Slide

11:03

plays in your life as

11:05

a mentor. You you've definitely

11:08

been on record about how witty

11:10

his songwriting was and his and

11:12

his arrangements and whatnot.

11:15

But you know, at that time during the p Funk

11:17

Earth tour, you know, the torch

11:19

has definitely been sort

11:21

of passed and

11:24

you're clearly now the alpha.

11:26

Or the leader.

11:28

And you know, in nineteen seventy six,

11:31

I think that's when his heard

11:33

You miss Me while I'm Back album was

11:35

out, which you

11:37

know, right creatively.

11:39

That he didn't do that, He

11:41

didn't do that, and somebody else did that.

11:43

I get it. I get it. I get it with a

11:45

wink.

11:46

But I want to know how

11:48

do you think that was psychologically?

11:51

Because the thing is is that usually.

11:54

When you're when you're when you are a

11:57

maverick of that level that

11:59

he will, usually you're supposed

12:01

to have a really good history's

12:04

showing that you can have a good eight to

12:07

fifteen year run where

12:09

you're clearly the leader, like jay

12:11

Z has had a fifteen to.

12:13

Twenty year run Prince had.

12:16

You know, I'm gonna obsess some Prince fans as far

12:18

as the genius level like he's had that Street

12:21

Slye. Yeah, guy,

12:24

I'll give him from a whole new thing to about

12:26

small talk. So maybe

12:30

seven eight years, but clearly

12:32

in nineteen seventy six, here's

12:36

the person that should

12:39

be a maverick and he's kind

12:41

of like in depth to you, like he's

12:43

in an opening position, and

12:46

I know that that was your hero. Do

12:48

you think that psychologically that messed

12:51

with him a little bit? That it

12:53

should have been in reverse, like you were the new kid

12:55

on the block and he should have been

12:57

the person that should have been the episode.

12:59

It may have, it may

13:02

have, but at that time we were, you

13:04

know, we were doing other

13:06

kind of drugs into that at that time.

13:09

And you didn't.

13:10

You didn't, you didn't have to contemplate

13:13

like that.

13:14

You know.

13:15

It was less trending for sure,

13:18

you know. And it was hard to actually, you

13:20

know. And he was undoubtedly

13:22

that motherfucker. All the ship

13:25

that he had done, he may

13:27

have felt a little bit. He'd tell you, he'd

13:29

tell you, in a minute, you headline

13:31

this time, let me headline, now you headline

13:34

next week. You know it's not on

13:36

the stage, but just in socializing

13:39

when you have to be the start, he'd asked you,

13:42

and let me be the start right here.

13:44

Really, you know, you don't know, No,

13:47

he's that.

13:47

Kind of real everybody

13:51

know that you're doing letting me show time

13:53

here and let me look good.

13:54

And you know it's some funny ship.

13:56

Because you have to say, yeah,

13:58

you can, but don't do me harsh, because

14:01

he can do your ass harsh.

14:02

When he wanted.

14:03

Yeah, so you have to say, I'm gonna.

14:05

Be starting next week and he left.

14:08

I love motherfucker to know how to get his But

14:11

you.

14:11

Know, first

14:15

of all, I just want to clarify because the thing is,

14:18

this is about the fourth time you mentioned drugs.

14:21

But I almost feel like for you, it's

14:23

more of an enhancer. No, but I don't

14:25

see it in that David Roughing sort

14:28

of doubt like.

14:30

Was it was.

14:31

I was about the right.

14:34

I think for you it's more like a creative juice

14:36

thing than it was. Or either that or

14:38

you just hit it well.

14:40

I hit it well, man.

14:46

I thought that I was too too,

14:48

but I hit it well.

14:49

But I was going through because I wasn't doing

14:51

what I wanted to be doing. So

14:54

I mean, I couldn't get out of that. I was satisfied

14:56

with my own self. But it really

14:59

wasn't when.

14:59

You look back at it. It took a long time

15:01

for me to just say no, let.

15:03

Me come up and do a medicaid

15:05

pro Let me get that and do That's

15:08

hard to do when you get caught up in

15:10

fighting for the rights and

15:12

make music at the same.

15:14

Time, you can lose your

15:16

energy.

15:17

You know what I'm saying.

15:18

You can get ciphers.

15:19

So but let me ask I'm not advocating.

15:22

I'm not advocating, but let me ask you if

15:25

you were Let's

15:27

say half clear, Okay, let's say that whatever

15:30

whatever you've done between the

15:32

stuff with Timothy Leary all the way to you

15:34

know I saw the Chelsea Clinton Chelsea

15:37

Clinton crack pipe story.

15:38

Damn you you've been watching a lot of it.

15:41

Dude, your whole life hold

15:43

on Clinton's

15:45

make.

15:48

Especially.

15:50

Okay, you tell

15:52

the Chelsea Clinton crack pipe story.

15:55

Clear? Clear that up?

15:57

Man?

15:57

Yeah, I'm sorry sorry,

16:02

Okay, tell the story?

16:04

Well which one did you?

16:06

You?

16:06

So?

16:06

Basically, Chelsea Clinton

16:09

goes to a first p funk show and

16:14

you know, his last name is Clinton, her last name is

16:16

Clinton, and they're like, hey, guys, take a photo

16:18

together. And George was sort of on the spot

16:21

and had a pipe

16:24

in his hand, and he decided,

16:27

yo, perfect,

16:29

it's not going to look cool with a

16:31

crack pipe next to the first daughter.

16:34

So he hit it, but he had to hide it

16:36

by fisting the crack pipe,

16:38

which was burning his hand.

16:40

And that

16:42

photos in People magazine.

16:46

Wow, they know?

16:48

Did the Clintons know the real story behind?

16:53

Okay?

16:53

I just mean I just didn't know if you had actually interacted

16:56

with them, No, they didn't know.

16:57

They didn't know.

16:58

Then her and holler Field gave

17:00

me a birthday cake.

17:01

On the stage.

17:02

Well, wow, and

17:05

while we own drugs, that

17:07

you actually doing the bump on the

17:09

the munch colar color the

17:12

placebo versus placebo syndrome,

17:15

where like, uh.

17:18

Is that you?

17:19

It looked it looked pretty convincing.

17:21

Yeah, it looked pretty convinced.

17:23

No, I didn't do that, Okay, I

17:27

was, I was, I was.

17:28

I was pantomiming, though, Okay,

17:31

don't.

17:31

I don't even know if you know the first time

17:34

I ever smelled secondhand smoke?

17:37

What kind of.

17:39

Yeah, the sea word, Oh yeah, that's your state.

17:42

Yeah it was.

17:46

It's like a skunky type thing.

17:48

Yeah.

17:49

I walked into George's room one second

17:51

and I took with the second hand smoke,

17:54

and I thought I was going to die.

17:57

I ran to everyone like, so

18:04

how did you get clean? George?

18:05

Like, how how did you? Because we looking at you now, I

18:07

mean you look you yes,

18:11

yeah, how did you? How did you get clean? What was that process?

18:13

Like? I got a good wife first

18:16

of all, that was a good help.

18:17

But after you know, I got

18:20

sick one time, and it don't take me

18:22

one time to get sick. Yeah, cause

18:24

I thought I was superman, I guess, but I

18:26

got sick one time and then I realized, damn

18:28

you you're seventy two

18:31

years old. You

18:33

seventy two seventy

18:35

one rate, and I said, no, you got

18:37

you got a lot of work to do. You get I

18:40

came out. I never looked if

18:42

what you realize you have enough time to

18:44

rest. Been in the hospital a couple of days

18:48

and you realize you have enough time and the rest. It's gonna

18:50

take a long time to get this ship straighten

18:52

out. The legal business. That's what got me

18:54

going. Once I started getting

18:56

on the mission of trying

18:58

to get my legal business, I

19:00

started thinking about the airs and

19:02

who I'm gonna leave, what I'm gonna leave.

19:04

I got to get these copyrights straight So

19:07

from then on that took up

19:09

all my energy.

19:10

And once I did that, I started feeling

19:12

good about myself. And then when

19:14

I started making records again, like I said,

19:17

shake the gate and I wrote

19:19

the book, all of those was

19:22

part of my plan to

19:24

be on this movement until I get the copyrights

19:26

back, and that started feeling

19:29

like nineteen seventy

19:31

five again.

19:32

When I started that. You know, when I.

19:34

Medigate Fraud, I was really really

19:36

proud of that album.

19:38

Noord it was yeah,

19:40

just the fact that it was we got a new

19:43

album from you, and it sounded

19:45

current, but it didn't sound

19:47

like you were pandering, like trying to do it kids,

19:50

trying to catch up.

19:51

There it was, but it was still you.

19:54

That was the hard thing, the balance

19:57

that being up to you know today

20:00

and what we were

20:02

about. But I had my grandkids

20:04

in the group, so they know, they know

20:09

what's going on today, they know

20:11

what was going on with us. So they helped

20:13

me bridge the

20:15

things and I can put the concepts in it,

20:18

and they helped me bridge it with their friends,

20:20

you know, and we got such a

20:22

crew now they was killing before

20:25

the pandemic thing happened. We

20:27

just playing with the Chili Peppers. Ninety

20:29

thousand people in Australia

20:32

and it was like damn, it was like the mothership

20:35

was landing. And that happened for a

20:37

whole year and a half. For the last two

20:39

years.

20:41

I was going to ask you about producing the Chili Peppers,

20:43

because you produced them, how did you.

20:45

Land Bricky Styly? Yeah,

20:47

and the party plant.

20:50

They were they were you know, they wanted to be Funky

20:52

Deli. They you

20:54

know, they put their work in so

20:57

it's easy to work with them. You know, they

20:59

was already for Caadelic fans and they

21:01

knew what they wanted to do.

21:04

But they wanted to do it punk. They

21:06

wasn't trying to be sick.

21:07

They could actually play slick music, but

21:09

they went out of their way. They played some really

21:12

good they make erase it. They

21:14

wanted it to sound like punk. They was

21:16

kind of like Garcia them, you.

21:18

Know, they didn't want to learn it no better. I

21:21

mean, plead them.

21:22

They actually like jazz music, right,

21:25

They wasn't trying to play it, you know

21:27

what I mean, Hey, hello,

21:30

he could actually really play, but he

21:32

went out of his wave. Yeah, he went

21:34

out of his way to No, you.

21:36

Ain't saving that ship.

21:44

I didn't get my question out because we got sidetracked

21:46

by

21:49

can.

21:49

You please tell us?

21:50

Can you please tell us the David ruffin

21:53

Sly story.

21:56

It was a precursor to Clinton story.

21:57

Yes, just the question is

22:00

commercial for quest of Supreme enough.

22:03

That that was the

22:05

fun of me. That's that's that's some superstar

22:09

drug stuff there. You know, once

22:11

you once you've been a star and

22:14

you're down, you don't realize.

22:16

That you're a star no more, especially

22:18

if you drank your drugs.

22:20

And and I felt that we

22:22

was a typical, the three of us was a typical

22:25

of that particular thing at that time.

22:28

We was going to see a friend of mine who's

22:30

the dealer who loved us, who will

22:32

give us anything we wanted, and

22:35

so we just had to like play cool and

22:37

let him do anything. But David

22:40

wasn't in and no, you know,

22:42

moved to be being nice to him.

22:45

He was, he was, he was still a temptation,

22:48

but he.

22:49

Wasn't in his mind right.

22:51

Yeah, you know, So we

22:54

tried to get him not to ruin it so

22:56

we don't get out dope, and

22:59

he's like.

23:03

And slide trying to He's

23:06

trying to referee.

23:07

Telling them no, George Gotta he's right there.

23:09

You got to listen to the juge.

23:11

I said, boy, if you could, we had a picture of the three

23:13

of us here trying to do this.

23:15

You know, this is a funny ship. I

23:18

don't think it's a funny, man, Let's

23:20

go get the ship.

23:21

Fuck it.

23:24

It sounds like the scene in Boogie Knights with the fire.

23:26

I know exactly what that

23:30

is. This the story with the real to real tape

23:32

with Sly.

23:33

Oh no, no, that's.

23:34

No, that's another story. Thought, this is the whole

23:37

story. No, no, that's I meant

23:39

the real tape.

23:40

Yes, oh man, No, that's the

23:42

dope dealer that he had the dope

23:44

dealing.

23:46

He the I'm

23:48

gonna let you keep my real.

23:49

This is real to my album. Give

23:52

me some dope one credit, you can hold the album.

23:54

But it wasn't nothing on the reel. So

24:00

we do that a couple of times.

24:01

But I'm getting scared. I'm getting

24:03

scared.

24:04

So you know, I said, no, I

24:07

don't ain't nothing on the tape.

24:09

Man, I tell the dude, ain't nothing on the tape.

24:12

It ain't nothing tape. Yeah. So

24:14

I mean this, after we did it two or three times, the

24:17

dude tell me, don't you have to love him?

24:19

Don't you just love him? Nobody was

24:21

getting mad at nobody can get mad at it.

24:25

You know that it must be a

24:27

metal not for nothing. And I said this to Bootsy

24:29

too. I was like, y'all are like medical marvels. Like not

24:32

only do you look the way you do, but you also

24:34

your memories are like perfectly intact,

24:37

Like what.

24:37

Did you I understanding

24:40

because he reminded me of I forgot

24:42

I put all this shit in the book.

24:44

Yeah, but the words you was

24:46

like, oh yeah, I know what you're talking about, like it was yesterday.

24:48

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I forget. Yeah,

24:51

yeah, that was some funny ship.

24:56

Go ahead, what is your question?

24:58

Oh?

24:58

I was just going to ask you of

25:01

all the just the lyrics that

25:03

you've written. You know, you were a

25:05

big inspiration to me as a as an

25:07

MC because you would have just

25:10

all these amazing plays on words and these

25:12

puns and you know, this fishtail

25:14

begins with most fishtails in like all that

25:16

stuff.

25:17

You just did really inventive stuff with language.

25:19

And I just always wondered, did you have like

25:21

a journal that you would write this stuff in or

25:23

would it all just be off the top. What was

25:26

just the writing process for your lyrics

25:28

like I had?

25:29

People would probably you know the band

25:31

members the keen Up. Anytime

25:34

you heard me say something or

25:37

laugh and I hear something and I repeat

25:39

it, he would write it down.

25:41

And all I have to do is say it.

25:44

And he would in the studio. When I get ready

25:46

to go in the student, he just give me a list of things

25:48

that have nothing to do with each other that

25:50

I said, and and then

25:52

we get a concept. We didn't start throwing

25:55

puns at it and using

25:57

like I said, using the little smokey Robinson

26:00

of you know, pun on top of pun,

26:03

but.

26:03

We had two more to it to make it absurd.

26:06

You know, we use synonyms,

26:09

antonyms or harmonyms, it

26:11

didn't matter. We just used all of

26:13

it. If it sounds the same, we

26:16

throw it in there. And and we can actually

26:18

get especially with Bootsy, we

26:20

could say anything the boots and if

26:22

he said in that boy, you know,

26:24

it would.

26:25

Actually work, you know,

26:27

like.

26:28

Be my beach right.

26:32

You know he says some of the

26:34

stupidest stuff and the dumber

26:37

it was the funny it was if

26:39

you said.

26:39

It because he had that overtone

26:41

like Jimmy and the whole

26:44

walking on your boat.

26:47

And I had and

26:49

all that stuff.

26:50

Yeah, yeah, oh my god.

26:54

So is he making that up at

26:56

the microphone? Is there's just a list of We've.

26:58

Been feeding it to him in his boom.

27:02

We just said to him and he said after so

27:05

he laying if the knick a bill was

27:07

fun, but I would be doing it to Boogie,

27:09

would be doing it to And once we got a

27:11

concept, we can just say anything.

27:14

Now a song like Ryan Stone Rockstump

27:16

Monster with Dub Baby Babba, I would

27:18

write those parts all the reality.

27:21

I asked him this question.

27:22

Now I got to ask you probably

27:25

you know in the history of all

27:28

the songs that you've written. I don't

27:30

think that to be alive in nineteen

27:32

seventy eight when that song

27:34

was that its most popular. I've

27:37

never seen it, and I was seven years old at the time.

27:39

But if a seven year old knows that song,

27:42

then you know it's something. Why

27:44

did you guys just not call that song

27:47

wind me Up? Could

27:51

have just called it wind me Up? It

27:55

took me good to find it because I didn't know what Bootzilla

27:58

was, Like,

28:01

why did y'all not call it wind me up?

28:04

He was a rock star monster for

28:06

doll Baby.

28:08

That was a that was a toy.

28:10

That was a toy called boot Billy made

28:13

by to make us the funky things to play with. That

28:16

was a whole concept.

28:17

You want to as a toy, but not as

28:19

the as the hook.

28:21

Okay, no, no, the

28:23

toy. But then he got scared.

28:25

I forgot if we got so big.

28:28

I told him, it's gonna be hard to live up to

28:30

this, you know, So don't don't equate

28:33

yourself with being this character, because

28:35

way it's way bigger than you're gonna

28:38

possibly because we was on a roll then

28:40

I had done it with we love to funk

28:42

you funking style and said you can talk about

28:45

yourself and not believe it. The

28:47

main thing is, don't need this ship because

28:49

if it works, you're gonna be in a hell of a position

28:52

to try to live up to it.

28:54

Just do it and even long. And

28:57

that was hard for.

28:58

Him because, like I told him, the boots

29:00

got bigger, the glasses got

29:02

bigger, everything get bigger till this too.

29:05

Heavy to carry.

29:06

Part two of this question. Part two of

29:08

this question. Do you think part

29:10

of him kind of wanted to sabotage

29:12

this boot was made for funking because

29:16

that album was the complete opposite.

29:19

Oh that's when that's when he

29:21

went out.

29:23

Yeah, that's what he Definitely he wanted

29:26

to control and I let him have control him

29:28

of that album.

29:31

It was it was different though he wasn't.

29:33

The same, Yeah, but the

29:35

thing was it was so like

29:37

ah, I always wanted to Like I listened to

29:40

it. I appreciate it now forty

29:42

years after the fact, but back

29:44

then it was I was like, wait,

29:46

something's different about this record than the other

29:49

three.

29:50

And what did he

29:52

say?

29:53

No?

29:53

No, no, I mean I never asked him about it. But

29:55

I think as I got older, I

29:58

was thinking like there was a point

30:00

where Boots he could have actually overshadowed

30:03

the entire p funk.

30:06

He chose not to. He

30:09

had started, we.

30:10

Had started to let him headline

30:12

the shows. That's when it had

30:14

got to that point, the way he was that

30:17

you know, at the time

30:21

when they scared him, he answers scared of him, he got

30:23

shingles. That's when he got this tingle on his

30:25

very first date by himself. But at

30:27

the same time, you know, we had the political

30:29

business of the trolls

30:32

was entering the picture trying to tear the

30:34

part, and it was getting too big. There wasn't gonna

30:36

be another motown. The industry

30:38

had made up them out. There was not gonna be another motown

30:41

and we were at that level to that

30:44

was beginning to be.

30:45

You know, after we get.

30:46

Uncle Lami, they atwy

30:48

was gonna have a Shaka and Larry

30:50

because.

30:51

All of us was together by then.

30:53

Yeah, right, you're on the same label.

30:55

I forgot that.

30:57

Speaking of clones, always

30:59

wanted to know what

31:01

were your thoughts on all

31:05

of the p funk music that

31:08

didn't come from the p funk camp

31:11

that was obviously so derivative

31:14

of the p funk sound.

31:16

And I'm talking about I'm

31:19

talking about gat Band, I'm talking about

31:22

joy Stick by George

31:26

George. I mean the

31:28

thing is that that you scared us, that

31:31

really really Yeah.

31:33

I told you you know

31:35

your you know your thing that one.

31:37

Close, reach

31:42

for it, reach for it.

31:44

Yes, yeah, I.

31:45

Said, damn, did you steak up and do a record

31:48

with them or something?

31:51

I felt like it was gonna get me to

31:53

be a genre I

31:56

wanted it to be.

31:56

You know, especially Ohio Players.

31:58

They were like that. They were

32:00

like one of the punkiest ones, you know,

32:03

but them and then Prince you

32:05

know him, like Stevie,

32:08

they was inclined to do pop music, but

32:10

they could be punky as all hell, you

32:13

know, and you know, they just knew that they could

32:15

get away with doing the pop music and

32:17

that's where you know, the money was at.

32:19

Or you could do wide a variety of songs.

32:23

But all of them, Prince

32:25

and Jimmy Jam at the time, all of

32:27

them that was funky Rick then

32:29

all of them was beginning to be, you

32:32

know, a funk Gendre Irwin

32:34

and Fire was popping at first,

32:36

but then they started embracing it as

32:38

funk after a while.

32:41

You know, we asked Philip

32:43

Bailey, what was his thoughts

32:46

on Let's Take It to the Stage.

32:51

He said he'd never heard of it. Philip

32:58

Billy said, he we played Let's Take

33:00

It to the Stage room. He had no.

33:02

Clue that he was being, uh,

33:05

this record sort of not. I

33:08

took it his plateful ribbing. Yeah,

33:11

did anyone did any of those groups

33:13

ever try to approach you?

33:16

You know snoofists and slipping

33:18

the flamily.

33:19

Bricks and smooth

33:23

crazy

33:24

say that's fucked up?

33:29

You see?

33:30

Was cool?

33:30

That was?

33:30

You know, No, nobody never said that.

33:33

It was you know, only people we mentioned with

33:35

people that we like, you

33:37

know, And I think that's what a lot of the people to

33:40

the distant thing when they started dissing

33:42

each other.

33:43

That was like playing the dozens when I was in

33:45

school, and you start getting paid for it.

33:47

You know, that's what you

33:49

know, a jail house rhyming. You

33:52

know, Once that became pop, once

33:54

that became the music. Okay, I saw

33:57

that that that makes sense, especially when

33:59

I heard somebody like rock Kim.

34:01

You know, that's just like, damn, you

34:03

can do it. That's fucking good. And then

34:05

I didn't realize we had mother

34:07

right there.

34:08

In our town, eminem. He was

34:10

fifteen years old and we

34:12

didn't even.

34:12

Pay attention to him. He was like slimy

34:15

shady.

34:15

On our ass, and we knew him. We knew

34:17

he was bad, but we had no idea

34:19

that mother was all that. We

34:22

knew he was bad, but we

34:25

watched him just like right, not

34:27

knows raining the studio?

34:28

Right while we're there, can you tell

34:30

us a print story that we don't

34:32

know?

34:34

You? You weren't probably you were.

34:38

For before we got on Pasty.

34:40

He sent me a tape.

34:42

He sent me a tape he wanted me to work on.

34:45

He sent it to the and so we

34:48

told him we didn't want to be responsible

34:50

for the tape. Send it to the studio the

34:53

engineer. Let the engineer get it set up.

34:55

I would go in there and do a do a party.

34:57

I ain't trusted, you

34:59

know, doing nothing with his you

35:02

know, his tape. I'm gonna go be responsible.

35:05

So we get to the studio and

35:07

I'm getting ready to put my part on it.

35:09

And it was called cookie

35:11

Jar.

35:12

Oh okay, we had already

35:14

did.

35:14

A cookie job, but it

35:17

was different than that. The engineer

35:20

put the tape on backward. You know

35:22

how you roll the tape off back when some people roll the

35:24

tape off tail tail out, and

35:28

so when he put it on, he

35:30

tried to clean the tape to get him some

35:33

you know, clean the tape is to get him

35:35

some clean, some space. But

35:38

it was tail out. He raised half

35:40

of the song on the tail

35:43

end of the song. So

35:45

I gets to the studio and

35:48

he's looking wild and scary,

35:50

and.

35:53

I wouldn't even go in the studio. I

35:56

said, I'm not going I'm not even going in.

35:58

I want this to be I was not. Yeah, I

36:00

had nothing to do, but this is the first.

36:03

Time I had.

36:03

Interaction with him, you know, and

36:06

I know you know, I

36:08

would have got.

36:08

Blamed all of that.

36:09

So I'm not going

36:12

in there y'all and telling what happened and

36:14

let.

36:14

Him know that I was nowhere near.

36:16

Oh my god. And hopefully.

36:21

No, they never they never

36:24

got a chance to do it again. We

36:27

heard the beginning of it was good,

36:30

but about a minute it happened

36:32

to the song that goes blank, and

36:35

that was the only one he had of it.

36:38

Man, damn, I'm glad.

36:40

I let's let's pow

36:42

some water out for that.

36:44

That's not the story you wanted to hear.

36:49

Okay, did

36:51

did he ever play you when you did We

36:54

Can Funk for Graffiti Bridge?

36:57

Did he ever play you the original We Can

36:59

Funk?

37:00

Uh?

37:00

Huh? He did?

37:01

Well? Yeah, I liked

37:04

it.

37:04

I like that that that and so psychedelic

37:06

side, both of those he

37:09

played me both of those.

37:12

Yeah, he told us

37:14

that.

37:15

He told us to go crazy on it and

37:17

and do you know

37:19

what we do in me and Gary just with

37:22

the lunch on it, and then he mixed

37:24

them both together.

37:25

Have you heard the long vision?

37:26

Yeah? I got it?

37:27

Yeah, ah for

37:29

y'all crazy.

37:31

Actually, you know what I was shocked.

37:34

What's weird is that you're

37:36

technically the Weekend Funk

37:39

that you're on on Graffiti Bridge

37:43

is technically the base

37:46

of it is still the eighty four

37:49

version, which to me

37:52

speaks more of how far

37:54

I've headed Prince's

37:56

time.

37:57

Prince was the fact.

37:59

That he could send you a

38:01

real that he worked on probably

38:03

in nineteen eighty three, and

38:06

it still works for nineteen ninety and

38:10

you know, still works

38:14

thirty five years after that fact, you

38:16

know, I mean once once it was finally

38:18

released back in

38:20

twenty and seventeen, it

38:23

still sounds, you know, fresh

38:26

and right.

38:28

Have you ever.

38:29

Have you ever heard of Paradigm?

38:31

No?

38:34

No, wow, you didn't.

38:37

I've not heard of that.

38:39

Check that one out him and just him

38:41

and myself.

38:43

Really, Okay, it's

38:46

on.

38:47

It's one of my records.

38:49

Okay, this is not with TCL

38:51

is on it right?

38:52

No, no, no, not that, it's not.

38:53

No tcl's jokes.

38:55

No,

38:59

but it's on

39:02

how late I think.

39:05

You know what it is? It is? It

39:07

is? I did hear it.

39:08

I heard it, and it was It came

39:10

out in ninety six, ninety.

39:13

Seven, I think no, no, no, no, it came

39:15

out.

39:15

In two thousand.

39:18

There is There is a song

39:20

that while we were still

39:23

working on Voodoo, you sent

39:25

D'Angelo.

39:28

So it was like ninety eight ninety nine. It

39:31

was a CD.

39:31

It was a cassette that he played us.

39:34

I don't know when it came out, but you

39:36

sent a song to him that was you and Prince

39:39

and I think the

39:43

vocals were various

39:45

feeded to sound cartoonist.

39:50

There is I don't know who the title of the song was.

39:53

Check it. Check out this google

39:56

paradigm.

39:57

Okay, I will do that.

40:00

Uh.

40:00

I wanted to ask you a question about the brides of Funkenstein

40:03

and how you came

40:05

up with the concept to put them together the song

40:08

Bertie is just I love that damn

40:10

song. What was the

40:12

what was the concept of putting them together and then

40:14

versus what in your mind as a

40:16

producer was going to be the difference between them

40:18

versus parlay?

40:20

Okay, and that took that we did.

40:23

Neil Bogart asked for a group after

40:26

we were successful at Catablanca,

40:28

and so we gave gave him

40:31

The.

40:33

Brides of Funkenstein.

40:35

That was kind of that was dark

40:38

for him, you know, he was bubblegummy. He

40:40

thought that was a dog. He wanted something really simple,

40:43

the grass Parlet. So

40:47

we took those two girls, Lynn

40:49

and Dawn and gave them

40:51

to Atlantic.

40:52

We did the whole album and that album

40:55

was actually.

40:56

Done for Julia Phillips.

40:59

She did Close k Counters, the girl

41:01

that produced director there. She

41:03

she wanted a disco version of

41:06

Remember they were doing soundtracks of

41:08

all the shows, all the big

41:11

so she wanted a version of

41:13

that. So we did a Warship two

41:15

shot for

41:18

for you know, for her, and we were gonna

41:20

give it to Neil. Neil wanted to

41:22

pop, he wanted Partlett,

41:24

so we gave that record to Atlantic

41:28

and then we did partlet for

41:31

for.

41:31

You know, cats a Blanca.

41:32

That's how we end up with the two girl groups.

41:35

So gotcha?

41:36

Was Neil a traditional label

41:40

head?

41:41

I meant like, yeah, all right, But I'm

41:43

saying, though, are you going to him

41:46

plan uh do

41:49

that stuff?

41:49

And he has an opinion on it?

41:51

Or is record?

41:54

Give me a three minutes and thirty second version

41:56

of You're Fish and I'm a Water.

41:59

Now, he's not just letting you do what you want.

42:02

He pretty much let us do what he wants.

42:04

But he but he do that and in

42:06

the beginning he knew what kind of group he want. Once we

42:08

got there, we could do what we wanted with

42:10

him. But he was so good at being

42:13

a record man that you tried

42:15

to give him what he wanted, you

42:18

know, because you know he's going to put everything

42:20

in the world behind promoting it. When

42:22

I said I wanted the spaceship, he just got

42:24

me a bank and they and they got together

42:26

and they I was able to.

42:28

Get the spaceship.

42:29

You know. He was on Cameo Parkway,

42:32

he.

42:33

Was you

42:35

know, so he was from that school of records.

42:37

He knew how to do from the Cameo

42:40

Parkway version.

42:41

Then Buddha. He was like God.

42:43

He was like the bubblegum king.

42:46

So by the time he got the Castle

42:48

Blanker, he was getting this shot.

42:50

He could do pretty much what he wanted, and he did it.

42:52

He was a real record man that spent

42:55

everything on promotion.

42:57

He was a promotion man.

42:59

That's why I liked and I knew

43:01

I could do a concept called mother

43:03

Ship or you know,

43:05

and even give me the prompts that I need to,

43:08

you know, to promote the record.

43:10

He understood that.

43:16

I should have asked this question at the beginning, because

43:18

you're the You're the you're the you're

43:20

the north star of this whole stratosphere.

43:24

But how taxing is

43:27

it two maintain

43:30

personalities and deal

43:33

with business because

43:35

you're you're dealing with over twelve

43:37

groups and.

43:40

Across like three or four different labels.

43:42

Yeah, it's everyone has their record

43:44

deal and you know, you gotta you.

43:46

Know, calim and Funcadella was the original Wu Tang

43:50

George. George was the original.

43:55

So how how are you maintaining.

43:59

You know, at this member and that that member makes

44:01

your payroll gets in time?

44:02

And we left that at out at the bus.

44:04

Station and getting getting

44:06

to the gigs on time and one of

44:08

the light rigs went out, or the

44:11

drummer someone of the o d backstage,

44:13

like, how are you.

44:16

You gotta deal? You got to be everyone's father

44:19

and collaborator.

44:21

And and still be free.

44:25

And go on get on drugs and

44:27

go on to your wife?

44:30

Right?

44:30

How not? How? But why?

44:33

Why would you ever want to do that to yourself?

44:37

That was my mission. That's

44:40

my mission.

44:41

I mean, that's I started

44:43

this at thirteen.

44:45

And I wanted to be that, you know.

44:49

In this business, and I never changed

44:51

them. When I got motown with my aspiration

44:54

Bill spectrum of my aspiration, Jimmy

44:57

Hendrix my aspiration, you

45:00

know, and then whoever else come in

45:02

and.

45:02

Do it hard. That becomes my

45:04

aspiration.

45:06

When I hit Slide, that was my Beatles

45:08

turned me completely to pug out.

45:10

That's what.

45:11

Oh my god, I wanted to a funk

45:13

opera once I sawd Sergeant Pepper.

45:17

You know from a songwriter standpoint that

45:19

that was impeccable. You

45:21

know, when the lyrics was nonsensical

45:25

and but melodic instill you

45:27

had a mother doing arrangement like big

45:30

band arrangement on a rock and roll band. They

45:33

had a concept that worked Cream. All

45:36

of those things influenced me.

45:37

So are there other genres?

45:40

Are there other genres of music that

45:43

we don't know that you're into?

45:45

Like how big is your jazz?

45:47

But Go Go, Go Go

45:50

Go?

45:50

What I was about to ask about your relationship

45:52

with DC, because.

45:53

Go Go Go, Go

45:55

Go Go just had it a little harder than funk

45:57

me because Go Go is uh

46:00

go Go is religious. They don't want that to get

46:03

out of d C. No,

46:06

No, I mean the d C people wanted to get out.

46:08

But I'm saying that industry don't.

46:12

That's that's something that's some that's

46:14

some other kind of uga.

46:15

We call it uga booga.

46:17

You know that.

46:19

I mean that works.

46:20

I don't care how big a star, but Go Go band get up

46:22

on stage before you.

46:24

You measine that you

46:28

better hope they don't play your record Go

46:30

Go.

46:32

Better than you. Okay, I

46:34

didn't see that happen. No

46:38

men, Chuck, Me and Chucks we worked

46:40

together before he was calling it Go Go. One

46:43

of his first songs that he did was I

46:45

don't care about the COVID when

46:48

you're hot too much. When

46:50

you're hot, your hot. Tiki

46:52

was playing with us then and played there with them,

46:55

and that was they grew for years

46:57

before they became, you know, a go

46:59

go band, the Soul Search you.

47:02

You know what.

47:03

There's there's an interview that I

47:05

heard from you in nineteen

47:08

eighty.

47:08

I think this is when.

47:12

Nineteen eighty what's out, Oh, Parliament's Tumbipulation.

47:18

You did a month long

47:20

residency.

47:21

I think you were promoting during a month long

47:23

residency at the Apollo Theater.

47:26

Yeah, we kept up. We kept the theater

47:28

open. They was getting ready to close it down.

47:30

Yeah, I was gonna say, could you talk about how

47:33

does one do a month long residency

47:35

at the.

47:36

Power We needed someplace

47:38

to rehearse the new theatrical

47:41

show called Popsicle Stick that

47:43

was a Trumpipulation album, and we needed

47:45

someplace to rehearse the pelap papers with us.

47:48

That's when he was Uncle

47:50

Jam's army, So we needed someplace to

47:52

rehearse, and they.

47:54

Needed to keep the theater open.

47:56

Because they was getting ready to tear it down. We

47:59

did a stunt there. Bob

48:01

Marley played it after us

48:04

and James Brown played up there, and that.

48:06

We kept it open. Froze our ass

48:08

off because they didn't have no heat in.

48:10

Yeah, I was what I say.

48:11

Now, now it's nice and furnished,

48:13

and yeah, it's really no more

48:16

rats.

48:16

But back in nineteen eighty, what was it

48:18

that was the labor of love? Was it?

48:20

It was almost it was almost closed it

48:22

And like I said, it was we hadn't been opened

48:24

that much. And

48:26

I forget the people who owned it at the time.

48:30

There was some hustlers. There was some hustlers

48:32

on it, but they kept it alive.

48:34

I'm rappid fire now, I got it. I'm headed

48:37

back to the sixties. Is it true?

48:39

I heard a rumor that you are one of

48:41

the background singers on Barbara

48:44

Lewis's Hello Stranger.

48:46

No, that's not you.

48:48

No, okay, I always

48:50

loved I always loved that song.

48:53

Pat Lewis a friend.

48:54

Of mine who's pretty much singing

48:56

on everything I did. She

48:58

was one of the hot button soul.

49:00

Yeah, she's saying on all of them,

49:04

Dion Jackson

49:07

and Barbara Lewis, all of those songs

49:09

that sounded like smoky.

49:12

Oh okay, okay. I asked

49:14

you this when I was doing the DJ

49:17

set. So're

49:19

you're telling.

49:20

Me that some random guy came

49:22

up to you and said, I can play

49:24

guitar pretty good. If you give

49:26

me twenty five bucks, and just

49:28

for kicks, you decided to let him see what

49:31

would happen.

49:33

Yeah, that takes a lot of nerd and

49:35

takes a lot of nerd.

49:37

And so that first.

49:37

Note that he hit on, get off your ass

49:39

and jam is him.

49:41

That's shrill.

49:43

Yeah, wow, that is my favorite

49:45

shrill noise of all time.

49:47

He kept our attention

49:49

from That's real all the way to the

49:52

song with Phinney's.

49:53

So is that you guys acting?

49:56

Is that you guys reacting to him

49:59

as you because you hear either

50:02

I don't.

50:02

Know if it's Lin Marbury said, God like like

50:05

you hear.

50:06

Yeah, it's almost in

50:09

sample ology. Yeah, that

50:11

her reaction is almost.

50:13

As much as a sample. That's

50:15

what he was playing.

50:16

So you guys are laughing at

50:18

what you're hearing, and

50:21

literally it.

50:22

Just all went down at once. Ship.

50:25

The song wasn't written beforehand.

50:27

It's just like, all right, play anything,

50:29

Yeah, no, just a track.

50:31

We didn't ship.

50:32

God damn.

50:33

I didn't want to get in the way of that. That's why

50:36

I made it so simple. You

50:38

know, don't say nothing, just ship.

50:40

Goddamn, get off your hand.

50:42

And then he left and you never heard from

50:44

him again.

50:46

We wanted to talk to him

50:48

because I gave him fifty dollars.

50:49

I wanted to give you more, man.

50:53

I wanted to ask you about your work with Outcasts

50:55

and the Dungeon Family because they were certainly

50:58

you know, a fruit, you know, from your tree, you

51:00

know, something from the p Funk family, And

51:03

you did a synthesizer on uh

51:05

on stan Conia. But then you also

51:07

did another record wasn't as well known, but I

51:10

loved it. It was called Black Mermaid, but it was on

51:12

the Society Soul out. Yeah, do

51:14

you remember anything about those sessions?

51:16

And I was like, I'm like, they

51:19

reminded me of Parliament, Funk and del too, because all

51:21

of them were the outcast, Dungeon

51:24

Family and Goodie Mob. They

51:26

was all together at that time and

51:28

they hadn't separated into those so

51:31

I didn't know who the record was going to be, you

51:33

know, but all

51:35

Sleepy and all

51:39

of them, big Boy and all of them, they were, you

51:41

know, they just come down the dark.

51:43

You know.

51:43

I stayed pretty much lived.

51:44

In dark, you know, under Dallas

51:47

from the Climax things, and

51:50

so that was like I

51:52

love that my part time in Atlanta.

51:55

Yeah, that was that old old

51:58

Dungeon family. They had a bunch of good song.

52:01

How did you get up with? I

52:04

was going with more King of your hip hop

52:06

cribs? You and Kendrick Lamar

52:08

on Pimper Butterfly. How

52:10

did that come about?

52:13

One of my grandkids said that he wanted

52:15

to do a song with me and that I should do

52:17

it with him, and he was he talked the

52:19

same ship that I told. He knew what that meant.

52:23

But when I met him, he was He's a smart

52:25

kid. God damn.

52:27

I mean, you know, he.

52:28

Went to school and he's still had the street thing.

52:31

You know.

52:32

He was like well aware, you know,

52:34

and I know most of the people from Compton, you

52:37

know, and he was here

52:40

was a whole nother energy from that and

52:42

he's really he put he put work in

52:45

your mind, you of like you like

52:47

Beyonce, like Prince, They

52:49

put work in, Like Michael Jackson put

52:51

work in. He's another one of those people

52:54

that that put the work in.

52:56

Did you say at one point you had the babysit

52:59

the jack when you were I

53:02

don't know if I heard that right. You were

53:04

a staff writer at Motown,

53:08

and.

53:09

No, I would saying baby said it was Carrie

53:11

Gordy.

53:13

Oh, okay, Cary who was.

53:15

When they were when they were yeah

53:17

Carrie, Yeah, when.

53:19

They lived in New York. When

53:21

when we worked at the Brill Building.

53:22

Oh Carrie Gordon, Wait, you worked at

53:25

the Brill Building.

53:26

I worked at the Brill Building sixty

53:29

two three.

53:30

What was that like?

53:31

Joe Joe Joe

53:33

Bett was there. I did not know that

53:37

Joe Bett was on the ninth floor.

53:39

I never knew that till you were running to Carol

53:41

King and Niel said, Terry

53:44

Goffin, Yeah all of that.

53:46

Dude, no one you saw. No wonder

53:48

your lyric game is so tight.

53:50

No, I would don

53:53

Kirshner, Jesus.

53:55

Christ cold pits.

53:58

Really you ever hear?

54:00

Jean Red?

54:01

Yes, cool in the game.

54:03

Jean Red cool. Okay, yeah,

54:06

Jean Red, Cecil Holmes, Buzzy

54:08

Willis. We all worked together before

54:11

they went to work with Neil Bogat

54:13

that Boodha. We all worked for Jean Red.

54:15

He did cool in the Gang, the Soul

54:17

Sisters, and there's and Charlie Fox.

54:20

Jean Jean was that one. That's Penny

54:23

Ford's.

54:23

Brother, Penny four formerly

54:25

a Snap And yeah,

54:27

that's her brother, well of.

54:29

Her own Rights. She used to be on Told Experienced

54:31

Records.

54:32

Yeah, she's

54:35

she's on our album too.

54:37

Wait when did she joined? When did Penny four

54:39

join?

54:40

She was on one of my albums. She's on.

54:44

The on the Paisty Park album.

54:46

Really yeah, this is

54:48

I got the power voice.

54:49

Yes, that's her, I got the one.

54:52

That's her.

54:54

You know you know everything we were talking about. You just don't

54:56

know.

54:57

Okay,

55:00

this is the This is another question I had

55:02

in reflection. The Chronic

55:05

Man was such a flag

55:07

planting album of your legacy.

55:11

You damn near produced it yourself.

55:15

Why have Why have you

55:17

and Doctor Dre like

55:19

and listening to it? I was like, Yo,

55:21

why hasn't George and Doctor Dre

55:24

just made an album together?

55:26

Because he clearly made

55:28

The Chronic as an audition love

55:31

letter to you.

55:33

I don't

55:35

know.

55:36

I would like to see that happen too. I worked

55:38

with Cube and Snoop too. Snoop

55:41

all the time.

55:43

You know what I'm saying.

55:44

But you know, have you

55:47

have you and Dre ever talked about, hey,

55:49

let's.

55:49

Get the We never we never had a chance to

55:51

kick it.

55:52

You know, we just state no,

55:55

we haven't.

55:57

Make it happen to me.

55:58

We got to make that happen.

56:00

Make it happen, man, I

56:02

would love.

56:03

To do that.

56:04

Jesus Christ.

56:07

Men, it's such a

56:10

captain obvious moment.

56:11

Wow, heat the bridge, manat the bridge.

56:14

I'll beat the bridge three questions

56:17

and then I'll stop.

56:18

Can I ask a dumb question before you ask your real smart one?

56:20

There's no such thing as as dumb questions.

56:23

Because I know he's answered it. But I just wanted to.

56:25

I just want to, really wanted to know what was what

56:27

the you mentioned your life changed

56:29

with the copyright stuff and everything, but visually,

56:31

when did.

56:32

Your life change?

56:32

Because I feel like I saw you

56:35

on at the Roost jam in La like years

56:37

and years ago, but that was the first time I saw you in a suit

56:39

with the hat looking fine.

56:42

I thought it was I thought it was Tarik for

56:44

yo. When

56:47

he walked in the door, I was like, wait, teress wearing a suit.

56:50

Oh my god, that's George C.

56:54

Some real ship.

56:55

Yeah, I had to.

56:56

I had to go through that period for a minute,

56:58

a minute, you know, justice playing up for a

57:00

second. But then as soon as I did that,

57:02

C told me that man put the costume

57:05

back on. That what

57:08

made you do it?

57:08

Because you what made you do it period in the first place.

57:11

Well, I'm just figured it it's time to change again.

57:13

I've been changing people

57:15

that you know.

57:17

I think it's a new dude.

57:19

They did, Yeah, we did,

57:20

Okay, Okay.

57:24

I have a question about the twenty grand

57:26

in Detroit. Is there any

57:28

truth to the rumor that

57:31

you yep?

57:36

I did question

57:39

out yet?

57:39

Is there any truth to the rumor that you

57:43

got butt naked?

57:45

Yep, I

57:48

need.

57:48

Question out answerest Gary

57:51

Gordy's table or Dina Ross's

57:53

table.

57:54

I didn't pee, I didn't, Okay, I heard.

57:56

That, Okay,

57:59

I just I pulled wine.

58:01

I pulled wine on my on my head, it

58:03

dripped down my body, so it appeared

58:07

that I peed on the drink.

58:10

I can't even imagine Barry Gordy

58:12

and Dinah Ross at a Funkadelic

58:14

shell.

58:16

They used to call it slumming

58:19

when whenever we

58:21

was at twenty grad you put

58:23

on your jeans with holes in them

58:25

and patches that said fuck you, and you

58:27

go slumming them with pefo. That

58:30

was the thing. They have mink

58:32

song and jeans with holes,

58:34

and they would be they would be coming down

58:37

to get funky.

58:38

But the thing is is that

58:40

Hendricks could not sit. I

58:43

mean, who knows if he would have finally broken

58:45

through the other side had he lived. How

58:47

are you guys in facing black

58:49

people trying to sell

58:52

this radical concept and

58:55

how did it work?

58:56

Because we

58:58

were too black for white folks, too white

59:00

for black folks. But the people

59:02

that Life Us stayed with us forever.

59:05

You get they went slowly, but

59:07

you built slowly. But the one that came

59:10

with you stayed forever. But it

59:12

was too It was definitely too too white

59:14

for black folks, and there was

59:16

too black for white for the most white folks.

59:18

But like I said, the fans that Life Us was

59:21

a cult, and they

59:23

still was. I mean, I got them out there. My age

59:25

right now still want to put

59:27

on a diaper.

59:30

A specific choice to

59:33

keep Funkadelic.

59:34

The more kind of rock side of

59:36

what you're doing in Parliament, the more r

59:38

and b kind of your soul side

59:42

that.

59:42

Was intentional but coming to one

59:45

nation under group.

59:47

Yeah, we get out of we get out of sink every

59:49

once in a while.

59:50

I mean, so that the Funkadelic members feel

59:53

a certain way like yeah, wait a

59:55

minute, this sounds like parliament.

59:57

No, they was all on all the records. Anyway,

1:00:00

we was on.

1:00:00

Everybody was on both records, so it didn't

1:00:03

matter.

1:00:04

So when songs get

1:00:06

released, are you like, okay, this is definitely

1:00:08

gonna like at any point, was One

1:00:10

Nation Undergroove about to be a Parliament

1:00:12

record or you were just.

1:00:14

Like no, that was that was straight

1:00:16

from the moment we cut it. We was cutting from Funkadelic.

1:00:21

Junior had just got with us, say

1:00:23

on One Nation. Okay,

1:00:26

Junior had just got with us, So we

1:00:28

took the equipment out of the box. They

1:00:31

was playing on brand new equipment, so they was enthusias

1:00:33

hell and that track just came

1:00:35

off and we did it was freestyle

1:00:38

this.

1:00:39

A girl gave me that title from d C.

1:00:43

Said y'all like one Nation

1:00:45

on the groove, So I just started singing

1:00:47

that, you know, one Nation and that

1:00:50

was the chant and that was the

1:00:53

quick song and first

1:00:55

Funkadelic like really hit, but

1:00:58

that was yeah, that was gonna be funky

1:01:00

and n Deep was definitely for Funkadelly.

1:01:04

How do you know when a song is done Because

1:01:07

a lot of your songs are maybe

1:01:10

eight to nine miniature

1:01:12

choruses or many parts that

1:01:15

add up to a bigger picture for any

1:01:17

of you.

1:01:17

Comic Dog is like twelve cores.

1:01:19

Like I was gonna say, if you, if you, if

1:01:22

you just type in atomic Dog edit,

1:01:24

I'm certain that you'll find someone's version

1:01:27

of the song and which you'll hear parts

1:01:29

of the song that you never knew existed before.

1:01:31

But like with you,

1:01:33

it's just like any idea works, Just

1:01:36

put it on tape and it'll.

1:01:38

Find a home.

1:01:38

Or like,

1:01:41

how do you how do you structure

1:01:44

what goes here for eight bars?

1:01:45

And I have

1:01:47

to change my theory on that lately because

1:01:49

they they got snapchats

1:01:52

and short songs now and tiktoks,

1:01:55

so they can't be long songs too much

1:01:57

no more. So I have to like

1:01:59

make ourselves stop otherwise

1:02:02

I just I'll just be going

1:02:05

created crazy. And then I

1:02:07

know now that they can edit and take parts

1:02:10

out, so that really makes

1:02:12

me, you know.

1:02:13

No, But I mean you're the originator of that, like,

1:02:15

because you know, if you tell

1:02:17

somebody sing not

1:02:20

just needy, there's eight

1:02:23

parts you can choose, and

1:02:27

there's eight hooks and we all know which one.

1:02:30

That's what That's what Prince said. He said,

1:02:32

man, you got eight songs in the

1:02:35

deep. He said, you can sample them each part

1:02:37

and make a whole song out of it.

1:02:39

Yeah.

1:02:40

Absolutely, that's what made it great.

1:02:42

How many grand babies do you have, mister Quinn.

1:02:45

Man, I'm count them up so I remember

1:02:47

that I got to I got quite

1:02:49

a few.

1:02:51

Okay, he's working. This

1:02:54

is this conversation is long overdue. I

1:02:56

thank you, thank you, thank you.

1:02:58

Thank you. Do this.

1:03:00

Let's do this, man, we will do this.

1:03:03

And congrats on your your freedom and your

1:03:05

your legacy.

1:03:06

Thank you very much and getting your ship back for

1:03:08

real.

1:03:09

If you find if you got anybody

1:03:11

that really wants to.

1:03:13

Join in on getting this stuff, let me know.

1:03:16

Hey, I'm on it.

1:03:17

I'll be called okay, yes, and

1:03:20

I'm Pep Bill answer to Stephen pan Ticcolo.

1:03:23

This Quest Love Supreme, Grand Imperial

1:03:25

Guide himself, George Clinton.

1:03:27

Thank you very much. We will see you in the next

1:03:29

go around. The Quest Love Supreme.

1:03:30

Thanks West,

1:03:39

Love Supreme is a production of iHeart

1:03:41

Radio. For

1:03:44

more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the

1:03:46

iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

1:03:49

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.