00:00Yo, this is George Dr. Funkinstein Clinton, and you're listening to Life Minute TV.
00:06At 84, soon to be 85, legendary funk master George Clinton shows no signs of slowing down.
00:13He took a break from mixing new music in the studio recently to tell me all about the inaugural
00:18P-Funk Festival he's planning for later this month, plus his decades-long career working
00:23with everyone from Prince to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and why the best is still yet to come.
00:29This is a Life Minute with George Clinton.
00:33So April 11th, the inaugural P-Funk Festival.
00:37Tell us about it.
00:38I'm going to be there with a whole bunch of the family and family groups of P-Funk.
00:44All the people that probably played with us are probably going to be there.
00:48I know we're going to have a great time, and it's right down the street from my house in Tahassie.
00:54Yeah, so it's going to be wild, and everybody's going to be playing the funk all day long.
00:59So I'll probably be out there with some of the grandkids early in the day, because I'm going
01:05to have a good time.
01:06That's a, you know, I'm going to take, use it as an excuse, ham it up all day long.
01:12And we'll probably be able to do a lot of songs that people never heard us do, because we
01:16have all day to do it.
01:18Something to do every year.
01:20That's amazing.
01:21And good for you, your 85th birth year.
01:23I can't believe it.
01:24You don't look it.
01:25You look amazing.
01:26You're one of the godfathers of funk.
01:29How does it feel to be revered that way?
01:32I feel good.
01:33It's a good excuse to get out here and still be a part of what's going on.
01:38No, you know, it definitely feels good.
01:40Let me lie if I didn't say, but I try to entertain that later on when I'm finished.
01:46I ain't finished right now, so I don't want to sit around and gloat on how good it is.
01:51I got to do some more in order to be out here.
01:54That's fair.
01:55Did you always know you wanted to be a musician?
01:57How did you get into it?
01:59It was embedded in my brain.
02:01I wasn't going to do nothing else.
02:03You know, I did hair just to keep me afloat and in style.
02:07No, no, I knew this was it.
02:09Music and, you know, songwriting and creating, that was it.
02:15In 1955, 1956, rock and roll was just being born.
02:19So I was around right from the beginning of that Bobby Sox blue jean phenomenon.
02:25And we just got television.
02:27All of that stuff came.
02:29It imprinted me really deep at 13 when Frankie Lyman came out with Why the Fool's Fall in Love.
02:36And I saw that, you know, he was the Michael Jackson of that era.
02:40And Plainfield, New Jersey, it seems like a lot of the music scene came from that area.
02:45Why do you think that is?
02:46Yeah, Plainfield.
02:48I lived in Newark.
02:49I went to Plainfield every morning for the barbershop.
02:53I think it was in the water because I got a band out of there two times, you know.
02:58Hazel, Billy Nelson and Bernie Worrell.
03:01I'm excited, Cordell, Marston, Glenn going.
03:05I mean, just on and on.
03:07And they was all right there.
03:08You know, like 10 years old, hanging around my barbershop.
03:12Wow.
03:13And tell us about the start of it, a doo-wop group, right?
03:16The parliaments were the start of it?
03:19Well, that's where we were doo-wopping it.
03:21The barbershop was the, you know, like I said, it came from the, you know,
03:28I used to go to the Apollo Theater every week and watch all the different Cadillacs,
03:34the heartbeats, and that was, you know, my first love.
03:38Until 59, Smokey Robinson and Motown came out with Shop Around, Temptations, My Girl.
03:45That kind of like what we did in the barbershop and played it.
03:50So we'd doo-wop until we were able to get our first record out, which was 67, I Want to
03:58Testify.
03:59I just want to testify what you love.
04:04You're a star for me, everybody.
04:08By that time, Motown was, you know, getting ready to go to California,
04:13become a movie company with Diana Ross.
04:16So we were there with a hit record, and the whole scene was changing from Motown to rock music now.
04:22You got Led Zeppelin, Beatles, and that type of stuff.
04:26So we hooked up with the MC5, Iggy Pop, and we was on the Detroit scene.
04:32I mean, we, oh man, and we became a rock band.
04:36That's where you see the maggot brain and the funkadelic side.
04:39That's where we changed into that, like 71, as funkadelic and Parliament.
04:44I mean, Bootsy comes on at the same time.
04:47So we got a Bootsy now, the Parlour Funkadelic Mint thing with a Bootsy and a spaceship.
04:58Yes, the spaceship.
05:00How did that come to be?
05:01We got a hit record, We Want the Funk.
05:04And we had a, the owner of the record company, Castle Blank, was Neil Bogart, who I had known over
05:11the years,
05:12who was a hustler promotion man.
05:14So I knew he knew what a gimmick was about.
05:16He knew how to get the right props.
05:19Pink Floyd was really big with their props, you know, and they were the only one doing that at that
05:24scale.
05:25And hair and all of that was influencing us, you know.
05:28So we saw that our show could be a play.
05:31So I said, well, we got a hit record.
05:33I got an owner of the record company who don't mind height.
05:37Get me a spaceship.
05:39And with that, I'll promote the next four or five albums.
05:43He did that.
05:44And we did.
05:46We promoted Bootsy, Parliament, Brides, Parlette.
05:50Everybody was promoted with that one spaceship.
05:53And it lasted longer than we thought, because as soon as we came back with the spaceship, hip-hop come
05:59along and start sampling the stuff.
06:01And off we go again.
06:03Yeah, and you were the first to do all that stuff.
06:06The big hair, the costumes.
06:07Oh, yeah, the barbershop there.
06:09And like I said, we were there from the beginning of rock and roll.
06:13So we watched it as it gradually grew through Motown and through the Beatles and all that.
06:19But so we kind of like knew where we were going if we got a chance.
06:23And we had a pretty good team that helped us through it.
06:27What do you consider some of the highest points of your career?
06:31Now?
06:32Now?
06:33Why do you say that?
06:34I haven't finished what I'm doing.
06:36So that's the way I look at it.
06:38I still feel like it's ascending.
06:41You know, we had to leave the planet out of a spaceship and waiting for everybody to get ready to
06:46go.
06:46So I'm thinking it's getting close to the time for us to do that.
06:50Well, you know what they say.
06:5285 is a new 55.
06:54I'll just reclone myself and keep on going anyway.
06:57You're still a youngster yet.
06:59How do you feel about the massive influence you've had on the younger generation?
07:03Like you said, especially hip-hop artists who've sampled everything.
07:07It's the DNA of, you know, all booty-shaking music.
07:14It's the DNA in music, period.
07:16Funk is a bit of funk everywhere.
07:18We just keep it together.
07:20We try to help be the definition of, you know, of what we are doing.
07:24We try to be involved with the interpretation people have of us.
07:28So we don't never leave that up to just the PR or the public or definitely not the record companies.
07:36We've always tried to manage our own direction.
07:39And right now it's pretty good because you can do that on the Internet real good.
07:44And we know how to clown.
07:45We know how to trend.
07:47And that seemed to be, back in the day, you had to work hard to trend.
07:52You had to go out and get a PR firm to do all that stuff.
07:55Tell us a little bit about your producing career too, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, for example.
08:04That was, it still is probably a prize, you know, because they're friends, you know, right out of Michigan too.
08:12And they stayed true to the funk.
08:14And we, you know, I was Philly's best man at his wedding.
08:17So they're really, you know, funky, like, you know, like they were when they first started as kids.
08:23They, you know, I don't know, a lot of people don't know that with Roger and Sapp.
08:28We did stuff with Thomas, Dobie.
08:32I did, oh, I did one with Prince, Paradigm.
08:36A lot of people should look online.
08:37That's one of my favorite songs.
08:45Being around Detroit and Motown, you had a chance to see the greatest producers in the world.
08:51You know, Stevie as a kid, you know, Holland Doja, Holland, Barry Gordy, Smokey.
08:57It was a, it was like a college of producers and writers.
09:01So that became like part of our whole thing.
09:05Bootsy, Gary Scheider, Bernie, Clint Payne.
09:11The band is still like that to this day.
09:14Danny Bedrosian, you'll see the band we have right now is as hot and as lively as we ever were.
09:21I'm going to make you sick of me.
09:24Then I'm going to give you the antidote.
09:27What does music do for people?
09:29It's got to be some kind of communication.
09:32And it's got to be a lot more than we can actually interpret.
09:36I mean, I'm all the way into the belief of frequency is healing and all of that.
09:41That it has a property about it that we don't even understand scientifically yet.
09:48That we just dance to it and listen to it and feel good.
09:52So it do something on that level, spiritual and all of it.
09:55But I think it's got something else, you know, that's directly connected to the planet.
10:02Maybe it'll come take us on a spaceship and take us away.
10:06Yeah, it's going to do all of that.
10:08Where did the name Funk even come from?
10:11Well, I don't know.
10:13You know, musically, you know, you had a lot of blues and jazz musicians who, you know, felt it or
10:23said the word funky.
10:25And I don't know, it always have made you frown your nose when it gets real good and it's really
10:33funky.
10:34Like, you know, Jake Brown or New Orleans or just when it's just so funky, it makes you get that,
10:40ooh, that look in your nose.
10:42So it's a hot, warm, damp place to give life.
10:47It could be birth.
10:49Who's that?
10:50The spaceship?
10:51That's the spaceship.
10:53Are there any new bands that you're into or any new music or just old stuff?
10:57You know, it's a bunch of Hollywood musicians that are, like when I worked with Kendrick Lamar, they had to
11:05Pimple Butterfly, Kamasi Washington, Flying Lotus and Thunder Cats and all those guys out there in that crew.
11:14So I'm working with some of them now.
11:17What's your secret to longevity?
11:20Oh, probably paying attention to the stuff that get on my nerve.
11:23You find some new music that get on your nerve and it's working.
11:27You want to figure out how is that working, which is what we work.
11:30We got on people's nerves.
11:32But that was the intention.
11:34I mean, that was rock, funk.
11:36All of that was to be something that your parents wasn't, to be something that your big brothers and sisters
11:42wasn't.
11:43And, you know, they always seemed like they were trying to be funky.
11:45But when we're going to be funkier.
11:48And, of course, you're inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame.
11:51Were you proud of that or happy about that?
11:53Oh, yeah.
11:54I tried to pretend that it didn't at first.
11:56But, you know, we was around right from the very beginning, you know, when they literally put the building together
12:03and I helped them get a lot of stuff from different people that I was proud of.
12:08I actually inducted Sly Stone in there.
12:10And then Prince inducted us in there, you know.
12:14So it's, I met a lot of friends that I hadn't seen in years, you know, like actually maybe Staples
12:20and got inducted at the same time we did.
12:23The Jacksons got inducted and we hadn't seen them for years, you know, and they had grown up and it
12:30was all of that by then.
12:32And I went back to see the Chili Peppers when they got inducted and they were up there jamming Michael
12:38falling off the stage.
12:43It's all of that.
12:44You know, you don't, you want to be hardcore when you're doing it.
12:47But once you get there, it was good to see your friends and everything there.
12:51Well, they actually got it right with you guys.
12:53Sometimes they take too long to induct people.
12:55What was Prince like?
12:57Oh, quiet, but he knew exactly what he was doing, what he wanted to do.
13:02I mean, the only person I can think like that is Kendrick Lamar.
13:05He was about the same age that I met Prince at and he knew what he was doing.
13:13He'd learned.
13:13He paid attention to ourselves and Earth, Wind & Fire, who was just preceding him.
13:19So he had his business model, mind made up, and he got it right and he's the best at that
13:26part of it.
13:27But he really soft-spoken, but like I said, he worked hard.
13:31He had you working.
13:32You earned that day's pay.
13:34He paid them good, but you was on call all day long.
13:38If he decided to do a show at 3 o'clock in the morning, everybody was there.
13:44And he did that.
13:45What about guitar players?
13:46Who are some of your favorites?
13:49Well, he's one of them.
13:50He's one of them, but I'm definitely going to say Eddie Hazel with us.
13:54Jimmy Hendricks was my time favorite.
13:57Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Lightning Hopkins, Sister Rosetta Thorpe.
14:04She's like the queen of rock and roll.
14:07And how do you keep your voice in check?
14:09Do you do anything?
14:10Just not getting that cut.
14:13I never paid too much attention to that other than when I'm making the record.
14:17Once I get on the stage, I'm hollering and using it on page.
14:21But now I actually, you know, I'm 85.
14:23I got the excuse.
14:24I'm tired.
14:25So I can actually sit down and sing now and be really quiet.
14:29But I'm so hyped that I have to be careful.
14:32I will get hoarse quick if I let my feelings go.
14:36But I got enough qualified people in the band that if you miss a note, 10 people are going
14:42to get it for you.
14:45And that's part of the image of the group over the years.
14:49You never know, but you know all the members by name.
14:52So it's cool to see who do what when they do it.
14:55Well, I can't wait to see it.
14:57That'll be fun.
14:58So besides yourself, who else would be on your Mount Rushmore of funk?
15:04Oh, I ain't messing with that.
15:06Maybe Sly.
15:07I see Sly on your hat.
15:09Okay, James Brown.
15:10Sly Prince.
15:11You're in the studio right now recording.
15:13What are you working on?
15:14Is there something new coming?
15:15Funk?
15:16Oh, it's some funk coming.
15:18Well, we'll have to talk to you again for that.
15:20Thank you so much, George.
15:22Definitely will.
15:23To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast, Life Minute TV on iTunes and all streaming
15:28podcast platforms.
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