George Clinton on Discovering Bootsy Collins, Producing Red Hot Chili Peppers, and What He Thinks of His Legacy
Parliament-Funkadelic founder George Clinton turns 80 on July 22nd, and to celebrate, we sat down with him for an in-depth conversation that looks back on decades of musical innovation. In the interview, Clinton reminisces about the earliest days of Parliament and Funkadelic, and he explains how his music was influenced by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Vanilla Fudge(!), Louis Jordan, his friend Sly Stone, and others.
Though Clinton grew up in New Jersey, Funkadelic’s style drew heavily from New Orleans. “To me, the only genre that wasn’t taken was that New Orleans version of R&B,” Clinton says. “They were really funky, funky, funky. And we could actually get away with that version of it.”
Clinton also talks about his recent return to the road, his new career as a painter, discovering Bootsy Collins, his time producing the Red Hot Chili Peppers, what it was like collaborating with (and being sampled by) Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, and much more. As for his legacy? “I don’t give a fuck,” Clinton says.
blogherads.adq.push(function () {
blogherads
.defineSlot( ‘medrec’, ‘gpt-dsk-tab-article-inbody1-uid0’ )
.setTargeting( ‘pos’, [“mid-article”,”mid”,”in-article1″,”mid-article1″] )
.setSubAdUnitPath(“music//article//inbody1”)
.addSize([[300,250],[620,350],[2,2],[3,3],[2,4],[4,2]])
;
});
To see more episodes of the “IndieLand Interview” and other exclusive videos, check out IndieLand’s YouTube channel.
