Bootsy Collins, funk bassist, singer and songwriter, is 71 years old today.
Rising to prominence with James Brown in the late 1960s, and with Parliament-Funkadelic in the '70s, Collins's driving bass guitar and humorous vocals established him as one of the leading names in funk.
With his elder brother, Phelps "Catfish" Collins, Frankie "Kash" Waddy and Philippé Wynne, Collins formed a funk band called The Pacemakers in 1968.
In March, 1970, after most of the members of James Brown's band quit over a pay dispute, The Pacemakers were hired as Brown's backing band and they became known as The J.B.'s. They are often referred to as the "original" J.B.'s to distinguish them from later line-ups that went by the same name.
Although they worked for Brown for only 11 months, the original J.B.'s played on some of Brown's most intense funk recordings, including "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine,” "Bewildered (1970),” "Super Bad,” "Soul Power,” "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing,” and two instrumental singles, the much-sampled, "The Grunt" and "These Are the J.B.’s.”
After parting ways with Brown, Collins returned to Cincinnati and formed House Guests with his brother, Phelps Collins, as well as Rufus Allen, Clayton "Chicken" Gunnels, Frankie Waddy, Ronnie Greenaway and Robert McCullough.
The House Guests released "What So Never the Dance" and another single on the House Guests label, as well as a third, “The Sound of Vision.”
Next Collins moved to Detroit, after Philippé Wynne suggested joining The Spinners, for whom Wynne had been singing. However, following the advice of singer and future Parliament member Mallia Franklin, Collins had another choice.
Franklin introduced both Collins brothers to George Clinton. In 1972, both of the Collins brothers, along with Waddy, joined Funkadelic. Collins played bass on most of Funkadelic and all of Parliament's albums (with the exception of Osmium) through the early 1980s, garnering several songwriting credits as well.
In 1976, Collins, Catfish, Waddy, Joel Johnson, Gary "Mudbone" Cooper, Robert Johnson and The Horny Horns formed Collin’s Rubber Band, a separate touring unit of Clinton's P-Funk collective. The group recorded five albums together, the first three of which are often considered to be among the quintessential P-Funk recordings.
The group's 1978 album, Bootsy? Player of the Year, reached the top of the R&B album chart and spawned the #1 R&B single, "Bootzilla.” Like Clinton, Collins took on several alter egos, from Casper the Funky Ghost to Bootzilla, "the world's only rhinestone rockstar monster of a doll,” all as parts of the evolving character of an alien rock star who grew gradually more bizarre as time went on (see P-Funk mythology). He also adopted his trademark "space bass" around this time.
In the 90s, Collins collaborated with bluegrass legends Del McCoury, Doc Watson and Mac Wiseman to form the GrooveGrass Boyz. They produced a fusion of bluegrass and funk.
In October, 2010, Collins was awarded a Bass Player Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award at the Key Club in Los Angeles.
In July, 2010, Collins, in partnership with former child actor, Cory Danziger, launched Funk University ("Funk U"), an online-only bass guitar school in which he also serves as curator and lead professor. Funk University offers an intense curriculum tailored for intermediate to advanced bass players as well as anyone interested in a deeper understanding of funk.