Page 16 - the NOISE August 2015

geTTing doWn WiTH george ClinTon, P-funK sTyle
The importance of George Clinton to American music cannot be understated. From his days as a funk pioneer to the countless artists that have sampled his works, the man is an absolute legend who consistently lives up to the hype. His live shows are insane, his music is
unforgettable, and his attire is some of the most wild on the scene today. The Noise caught up with The Funkmaster himself to talk drugs, music, style, and the future while we anxiously wait for the return of Parliament Funkadelic to The Orpheum Theater on August 20.
Going way back, your performance on David Letterman in 1986 was, hands down, one of the most exhilarating ever to grace his stage; however, during the reading of your own top 10 list, they edited out what Dave was trying to score on the street. What was it and did he actually get burned?
Ha! Dave was trying to get weed, but where he was at, they only sold heroin.
Oh no...
They were like, “Get your f%&king ass across the street! Go across the street, you can get that over there.” It was funny, the guy wouldn’t even leave, he just turned his back to the camera.
What was it like recording the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1985?
They were fun kids! we had a ball, they came out to my house in Michigan and we just partied. we road snowmobiles all through the country. They were young kids who reminded me of what Funkadelic was when we first started and it was fun once we got to Detroit to get started. we recorded at Universal sound ... They said they wanted to bring the funk, so we did that!
Your inspiration for Mothership Connection was famously quoted that the last place the establishment wanted to see black people was in outer space. What was the social climate like during that time?
It was not that they would want to see them, but that you would see them. no one had even thought about it. you had Aurora from Star Trek and she was the only one representing, but, at the time we recorded that album, you couldn’t even find them as managers of sports teams. we knew that outer space was going to be last place. After Chocolate City, we said there was going to be a black president, a black first lady, all of that, and the ball was already in motion. I lived in new Jersey where newark was known for having the first black mayor, so I’d already seen that all of that stuff was possible and probable. so we said to paint the white House black. One nation under groove! Obama’s been all of that. even with all the chaos that’s been going on now, like Kendrick Lamar says, “we gonna be alright!” so, it’s been becoming relevant again in all other ways because people didn’t expect it to actually happen.
True! And in the time since, we have had both black astronauts and now a black president. Where would the Mothership like to see society progress to next?
An ethnic female! either a president or vice president ... spanish, whatever, it doesn’t matter! The world is people and the more we can mix as a planet, this D.n.A. is going to show that we’ve been mixing for a long time and just didn’t know it. And if we have to leave the planet to do it, we’re going to do it there, too.
You were charged with paraphernalia in 2003. How did you spend the 200 hours of community service?
I felt really messed up doing it. I went to Houston and had to go around every day talking to people in rehab and the joint. It felt contradictory, in my mind, to tell somebody about something that I’d just gotten busted for. I guess that’s what they wanted, though. Just for people to see it, but I’d tell them that I felt f%&ked up telling you all about something that I just got busted for myself. But, it ended up being fun at the same time because you get a lot of education on how f%&ked up sh*t really was. I did most of my community service in and around Houston and it gave me a lot of connections with people that would help me out later. I was cleaning up just being around people who had already gotten clean. It was my first time in a long time with any experience being clean and it took a little while longer before I was all the way clean.
Is this still an ongoing process?
Oh, it’s over now. I feel so good being on this clean high, but I just try to focus on right now. I ain’t going to say never, you know, never say never.
16 • august 2015 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
inTerVieW By MiKe WilliAMs
Your Wikipedia page erroneously stated that you had a master’s in Biology and Mathematics a few years back. Any chance that spurred you into higher education?
Ha! Hell no! I did write a nice song about math, but that’s about as far as that went. It was called “Mathematics,” but, hell no, I ain’t no mathematician. That’s funny.
You’ve had some amazing hair over the years and even owned your own hair salon. When you first started out doing doo-wop in a barbershop, what kind of hair were your rocking at the time?
If you’ve ever seen nat King Cole and sugar Ray Robinson, it’s called a process. I was doing processes and I was wearing a process. new Jersey and new york were the kings of that. It was the style of the ‘50s. But it changed, just like styles do and I’ve been around long enough to change back into some of the old styles that I rocked before. People only have about a 25 year attention span on that kind of thing, styles and culture. 25 years it’s pretty much new to all of the next generation. while the kids may hate their parents, they look up to their older brothers and sisters, but every so often it’ll flip and get real freaky, but then they’ll want to do something that’s kind of late. It could be out of style, but if you feel it right, it could still be in style for you. some people just wear sh*t like that.
Where did Garry Shider get the idea for the diaper?
If you look at the album just prior to that, I wore the diaper ... But then I got too big for my diaper. Ha! Then Gary came along, he was the baby, so he got to wear it.
Back in the day, a lot of the stage wear would just be stolen from the various hotel rooms you’d stay at, right?
yes! The diaper was a Holiday Inn towel, sometimes the robe was a Holiday Inn sheet or the drapes off the window.
When Parliament was first starting out, you shared the stage with both The Stooges and MC5, which would probably make one of the best shows in the history of the universe. What do you remember about playing with them?
It was around our album Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow. All of them were like the princes of the punk rock that’s made today. Like system of a Down is, to me today, like national punk, but Iggy Pop back in Detroit was local. we had a ball exploring that craziness rock ‘n’ roll was evolving into. The MC5, all of them, we had the same nature so we played a lot together. There was a club in Detroit called Randy’s Ballroom that was all punk rock and that’s what it took to get it off the ground. It was very interesting, coming from doo-wop and going into that was really fun for us because it was new.
Your recent memoir had some incredible stories in it. We especially enjoyed the one about the band accidentally winding up on the set of George Romero’s classic night of The Living Dead while lost on tour.
Oh yeah! Just outside of Pittsburgh. we had just went on the road with Testify and our driver always wanted to take shortcuts. so we were looking for this shortcut from Pittsburgh to, I think it was, Iowa and he wanted to take the back way. next thing I know, we were on this road and see these people walking just like zombies. Then we saw the lights and all these people were yelling at us to get the f%&k out of here! we had went through a roadblock ... Ha!
Where is P-Funk going next?
we’re just going to keep touring. we also just had a single come out with Kendrick Lamar singing on it, doing a video, and working on a new Parliament album for the end of the year called Medicated Fraud Dog.
Awesome, we can’t wait to get funked up with you!
| Mike Williams has had the funk for years, mostly thanks to his hatred of deodorant. music@thenoise.us
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