Switched on Pop - Bootsy Collins is gonna funk you up (with Bootsy Collins)

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Bootsy Collins is, perhaps, the funkiest man of all time. Over the course of his nearly six decade career, Collins has given up the funk in the iconic Parliament Funkadelic, helmed Bootsy’s Rubber Band, and lended his slaparific talents to songs from everybody from James Brown to Dee-Lite to Fatboy Slim. His new album, aptly titled Album of the Year #1 Funkateer, is on the way, so in celebration of his illustrious career, we invited Bootsy Collins – aka Casper the Funky Ghost – onto Switched on Pop to reminisce on some of his greatest hits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switched-on Pop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. And I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. Charlie, I don't know if you know this about me, but I actually have three parents. Really? I know Bob and Randy. There's Bob and Randy and Parliament Funkadelic.

How did they raise you? Well, some kids had nursery rhymes. Boba Blacksheet, perhaps. I had this. So just to be clear, at night, you would dim the lights, you turn on a sound machine, and then George Clinton would slowly walk into the room saying, tear the roof off the mother sucker, tear the roof off the sucker? Okay, not my literal parent, Charlie, but I'm speaking in metaphor here.

This music raised me. And as I grew up, this obsession with funkadelic parliament continued. My eighth grade yearbook quote was, put a glide in your story. stride, a dip in your hip, and come on up to the mothership. Put a glide in your strides, a dip in your hip, and come on to the mothership. That was from their track, Mothership Connection. And remind me, what was the name of your band, one of your first bands? That would be Function with a K.

It sounded like you said, but I think you meant, oh. Oh. You know, you often grill me real hard. I'm just going to let you get away with this one. I can't argue with that, Charlie. Now, my youthful obsession did not dim with age. In fact, it only deepened. I started to learn more about the figures behind this legendary group, the one you mentioned, the ringleader, George Clinton, the keyboard and synthesizer wizard Bernie Worell.

Oh, yeah. And holding down the low end, the master of the space base, Bootsie Collins. of all the members of parliament funkadelic bootsie definitely is the one that feels like he's coming down from the mothership from a whole another galaxy totally i mean he had so many alter egos right bootzilla who we just heard from the rhinestone cowboy uh he had caspar the funky ghost boom and chew buzz face what i didn't know all these and once he broke off from parliament funked in the late 1970s and started his own band, he called it Bootsie's rubber band. You know, nothing could just be normal for him.

Does Bootsie's rubber band prefigure the saying it slaps by decades? Rubber band slaps, the bass slaps? No, I think it's extrapolating from the world of slap. I think it refers to stretching out. Oh, to stretching through. Stretching out in a rubber band. Okay. Which was actually the title of one of the

songs. And you can hear at this point, like, his own voice is starting to become as iconic as his bass playing. They call McCasper, not the friendly ghost, but the holy ghost, day, and I'm here. The way he sings is like a rubber band. It stretches. It's slack. He sort of glides between notes. It's a funky way of singing. And there's so much personality. It just, like, pops. out of the grooves of the record. He reeled off a string of hits as a solo artist.

Probably the best known today is the devastating slow jam. I'd rather be with you. Obviously, the clear inspiration for Childish Gambino's Red Bone from the mid-2010s. I always love Bootsie's music, Charlie, but the more I learned about him, the more I learned that he was devoted to this funk music, not just as a genre, but really as a philosophy, a way of being in the world searching for open-mindedness, willing collaboration, and frankly, like joy. He was a kid from Cincinnati who went from playing in garage funk bands to touring and

recording with James Brown, then Parliament Funkadelic, then to his solo work, and from there collaborations with Delight, Fat Boy Slim, Silk Sonic, and. Caliuchus. I mean, this is a pretty unique profile for a 20th century artist. So I've always been amazed and kind of fascinated by Bootsie Collins. And I was pretty excited when I got the chance to speak with him about the wild ride he's had as an artist. He's got a new solo album coming out. So this was the perfect chance to get on Zoom with him. And even though it was the middle of the day, Charlie, and he was sitting at his kitchen table, he did, not disappoint, okay? He was wearing purple tinted star-shaped sunglasses.

A must. A studded leather bracelet on both arms. Of course. And a top hat with an embroidered skull and crossbones stenciled into it. As it must be. And this is like at 2 p.m. at a Wednesday. Love it. You know, they say don't meet your heroes, but this was an exception because even though Bootsy's been making music nonstop since he was 17 years old. When I spoke to him, he had lost none of his exuberance and love of music and listening through his discography from the very

beginning to his most recent work. It was probably one of the great joys of my career doing this show. So, Charles, without further ado, all right, here's Bootsie. Let's get funky. Hello. Hello. Yes. How's everybody doing? Welcome. Glad to be here. Glad to be here. Thank you so much for joining us. We are in the presence of Casper the Friendly Ghost, Bootsilla, Turn Nose, De Boy to Funk. I'm talking, of course, about the one and only Bootsie Collins. Oh, man, that's a fludgeon, man. Just to, like I say, get back in the loop,

do what we do, and keeping the funk alive. You were keeping the funk alive with your latest track, Funk, Not Fight. Yeah. And you've also got a new album on the way. Yes, right. With these exciting developments in mind, I would love to take this opportunity to go through your incredibly funky career and talk about some of the ways that you have forever changed the sound of popular music around the world. And think about how your career has led you to what you're working on now in 2020. 24. Yeah. You know, you tell me where to start and, you know, I'll try to get there because it's, it's

been a while. It's been a while. I'd love to take it all the way back to maybe one of the first songs that you ever recorded as a member of the Cincinnati funk band, The House Guests. Yeah. What So Never the Dance. Should we listen to a little bit of this together? Let's do it. Wow. Man, that brings back a ton of memories. One of the things I love about listening to this is, is the fact that you're already highlighting your bass playing. We get a base break in the first, I don't know, 15 seconds of this team. Well, as you know, we, we wasn't trying to do nothing fabulous as far as base breaks and stuff like that.

We were just trying to be a band, you know? And the era I was coming up was bands coming up front and doing their thing, you know? Yeah. And so, you know, for me, at that time, it was all. about the band. You know, if you get up there and do your best and get down and just give it up, you know. And that's what we did in the house guess. It made believers out of all of the whole band. We were so young, you know, it was like, you know, we didn't have no responsibilities, you know. So it's like the only responsibility we had was to play music for the people

and have fun doing it. And you all came from an incredibly, funky musical city, Cincinnati. Yeah. How did that city shape the sound and help you develop into the musician that you became? Well, it was so many musicians around in Cincinnati. I mean, great musicians. Musicians that never made it.

You know, they were always working on the weekends. And I knew a lot of older musicians because of my brother, catfish. and he was like eight years older than I. So when I was like nine years old, he was like in his teens, you know, and playing in clubs and stuff. And that's what eventually I aspired to be. You know, I wanted to be like him playing in clubs and watching people dance

and have a good time. And to me, they were like the heroes, you know. So that kind of rubbed off on me early on. I watched every move they made, you know, they might think a thought I wasn't playing attention when I was playing attention. Well, that attention paid off because you and your brother Catfish joined James Brown's band. Yeah. And we can hear your bass playing and Catfish's guitar playing on some of the most iconic tracks of James Brown and the J.Bs, for instance, Super Bad.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Watch me I got it I'm like what it's all about Yeah Man Boosie You're working hard on that bass line That's a lot

That's a workout To me it was like You know It wasn't a workout at all It was like This is fun Yeah You know

It's all groovy You know what I mean And plus I'm learning from the best of them And I'm surrounded by all these great musicians Clas Stubblefield, I mean, Jabbo, you know, Fred Wesley. I mean, and it just goes on, Bobby Bird.

I mean, these cats are just heroes and legends. It was just such a beautiful thing. I couldn't have written that script any better. We had a chance to have fun with our audience, you know, and we went James Brown. Come on, man. It didn't get no better than that, you know. I feel like the next project that,

you were a part of, Parliament Funkadelic, had this larger-than-life performance, but it was also very tight and very sharply rehearsed. Yeah. I feel like you can hear that on a Parliament song, which you contribute another incredible baseline to give up the funk, parenthesis, tear the roof off the sucker. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Man, that's pretty incredible. I couldn't agree more. And something I love about listening to some of your bass parts, Bootsie, is they're not just accompaniments. They're melodies in themselves. If you took away everything and just listened to a Bootsie Collins baseline, it would be enough because it's a melody. Yeah.

So I'm curious, you know, whether with this particular song, if you can remember, or maybe other parliament songs, what was the process like for creating some of these melodic baselines? Well, really, listening to that inner universe because I didn't really learn how to play bass. I didn't learn from another bass player. Right. It's just stuff I was hearing in my head. And I never wanted to be like nobody else playing bass. So I just absorbed whatever came forth. and I wanted to put it out the way I would, what I do.

How do I hear this song, you know, this track? And whatever I heard, that's what I played. I could just kind of go at it any kind of way I wanted to. And bass lines at that time was the big deal. You know, it wasn't how fast you can play them or how many notes can you play. It was all about a baseline that you can kind of follow. And I wanted to be able to do that and make it funky and put it on the one. And so by not being taught, I didn't know I was breaking rules when I was doing stuff you

wasn't supposed to be playing. That ain't, you know, that ain't what you're supposed to be playing. You know, I didn't know that. So I just played anything I felt, you know. And that gave me, I guess, more of an opportunity to do my thing, which I didn't know. what it was yet. So I was learning all the time. And I never want to stop learning because I kind of surprised myself on this new record that's coming out, coming up with some baselines like what you was just talking about.

I wanted to see myself do it. Yeah. You know, because, dang, I used to do that all the time, you know. And by experiencing this whole new record, it's all coming out now. And it's a real good feeling, really good feeling. I love hearing that. I think that's such an important takeaway, you know, never stop learning, never stop growing. Yeah.

I love that idea. What you were just saying about the freedom to experiment. Yeah. I feel like that's something that I start to see in the way that you dress and the star-shaped glasses that you're wearing right now and the incredible hat with a beaded skull on it. And then not only that, Bootsie, but some of the characters that. you created one of my favorites is sir knows devoid of funk oh yeah who makes an appearance on your track the pinocchio theory right there you is there you this is the west sing f a n s rubber fans and punketeers yeah that's just like yesterday man it's you know like having a full band in the

Yeah. I mean, being on tour and being on stage is one thing that's incredible. But in the studio, it's a whole different ballgame. Do you remember this character coming into being Sir Nose Devoid of Funk? Like, did he emerge spontaneously? Or? He was always around. George kind of called him out. He summoned him, sort of invoked him. I love this. Right, right. And it was such a cool thing because we were both into characters and cartoons and, you know, movies, books. And we got an opportunity to put a lot of that stuff, not just the music, but a lot of the stuff that we were digging on ourselves, that along with the trips we were taking. You know, it all started to make sense, you know. It wasn't just for us individually.

It was for the people. You know, and we got a chance to share that with a lot of people. And that made it even that much more fun. I love that. And the trips you were taking, those weren't trips on a jet plane, I think. You think? No, they were real trips. And, you know, I wouldn't advise anybody to take a trip like the ones we were taking.

But, you know, we somehow got through it. And, you know, we're still here to do it, you know. Around this time, Bootsie, you release so much amazing music. One track I'd be so keen to hear more about is I'd rather be with you. Oh, wow. Whoa. Yeah. Oh, man.

That's the story of my life, you know, and a lot of other people's lives, you know. That kind of started with my first relationship that I had, you know, when I was like 12. 13 and I always told this girl, you know, because, you know, I was a kid. I like to play around with a lot of different girls at an early age. Yeah. And I would tell this girl, you know, you know, I had to go do this, that, and the other. But, you know, I'd really rather be with you. Yeah.

That's where the idea came from. I said to myself, I need to really write a song because it was coming from the heart. When I said it, you know, when I said it, I meant it. And then when Gary Cooper and myself started hooking up the Bootsie's Rubber band, that one and Vanishing Our Sleep came from that same source of real experiences that I was, you know, going through. I mean, all of these songs kind of, especially with the slow, songs I was doing. They had something to do always with what I was going through. My experiences were girls mainly. And I had a chance to get a lot of that out of me. Yeah. You called it a slow

song and that's a good description. It's also a song that features your your slap bass technique. And that's so many, you don't, I don't, you know, associate those, a slow song and slap bass. Those don't always go together. Yeah. But it's very effective here because it's almost like the bassist is talking and providing more, more narrative to this story. Yeah, of more of what I was really feeling. Yeah. And, you know, it wasn't like that's the way I planned it. It's just, it came out like that, you know. And I got a chance to talk through the base in an unfamiliar format. And it was. like, you know, and I didn't know that that's what I was doing at the time.

And then when I started looking back, it's like, bag, somebody in there knew something, but I can't take the credit for that. Somebody knew something. But it was pretty amazing to me that that was coming through me, and I never thought about it like that. It's a song that's had a lot of longevity. And, you know, recently there was a song by Donald Glover. Lover, aka childish Gambino called Redbone.

A lot of people heard, I'd rather be with you when they listen to that. You know, on one hand, that's a really beautiful tribute to your legacy. Some people said, oh, he's ripping him off. I was curious how you felt about that moment. Well, you know, actually we talked, Donald Glover and I, we talked, you know, this was after. Yeah. And actually, I felt good about it. I mean, you know, because he wasn't like the first one that did that.

So it was a lot of people that was doing that. And I thought it was a very cool thing to do, especially when we started getting recognition and getting introduced to the younger kids, the next generation. And then on top of that, we started getting paid for it. It was like, what? I thought we had to pay you guys, you know. You know, so it was really a cool thing, you know. And for me and for George and for P-Funk, the hip-hop and the new generation, that's what kept the funk alive. Yeah.

And gave us a chance to come back around and for kids to want to know who we were and what we did and our songs. And so it was a blessing. It was a blessing. And anybody that fonks with the fom, my hat goes off to have. Maria, you have a podcast now and you need to start acting like it. What's the first step as a podcaster? Well, you have to ask lots of questions. I'm Maria Sharpova, and I'm hosting a new podcast called Pretty Tough.

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There's been so many young artists who have looked to you as a source of inspiration and incorporated you into their own projects. Yeah. Fat Boy Slim's weapon of choice. Oh, man. Yes. Yes. Yeah, let's listen to that. Let's listen a little bit of that.

Let's do it. Let's do it. All right. Nice. Yeah, I love it. I love it, man. I mean, who would have ever thought or who would have ever knew, man? I'm up there jamming with fat boy. In this studio, we're like upstairs in the room, locked in the room and just jamming that. Oh, man. It was so incredible. I didn't know I had stomped a hole in the floor. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. To this day, he always reminds me. of that, you know? Like, oh, man. So you would remember that. What about the record, man?

Well, I'm curious if that was like a new kind of experience for you, because did you play bass on that or just vocals? I think I did bass too. Base too. So, you know, earlier you talked about being with the rubber band in the studio and that electricity. I imagine this was a little different because it's not a, it's not a live band, and you're putting your vocals and your bass on top of this pre-referral.

recorded track. It was such a new experience that I was looking forward to what's new and what's the next journey. What's the next experience? And that's the best, you know. So I was really reaching for those kind of projects that I wasn't familiar with or that I didn't usually do. That made me feel that same thing that I felt with the band, but it might have been one or two people, if that makes any sense. I mean, you know, so it's like whatever it was that excited me

and challenged me to do, you know, something that I ain't never done. Yeah. That is what made me feel like the whole band was around me. No, I understand what you're saying. It's that excitement that came from the challenge and embracing something that you hadn't done before. Yes.

instead of being scared of it or being like, oh, I never did that before, so I ain't going to mess with that. I was wanting to do all of this, the crazier, you know, the better for me, you know, bucket here, you know. Yeah. Buckethead, the legendary mysterious guitarist who performs in a white mask, long curly wig and an upturned KFC bucket on his head. I cut his first record, his first album here in Cincinnati. You know, nobody really knows that, you know, buckethead land. You know, we recorded that. And that's when I was trying to figure out, because I knew things were changing. I knew different music was coming in, and I wanted to be a part of it.

It wasn't like, you know, the funk, this is all I'm going to do forever. And, you know, I'm going to have a band forever. At first, I used to think that. Yeah. You know, but when you actually start seeing the things changing in front of you, You either run from it or you run towards it. And so I ran towards it. I guess that's a part of being crazy.

Or fearless. I mean, you see everything as an opportunity. Was there ever a collaborator who came to you and you said, no, that's just, even for me, I can't. That's too out of my, no. I don't think there is none. No. I mean, every one that came, we did something.

And it might have been crazy, but, you know, I mean, we did it. Because I don't really look at things to let's do this hit together or formula stuff. I look at it like, let's see what we can do together. Yeah. That to me is more exciting than making a hit record. Yeah. I've never been able to make a hit record. I mean, you know, going to studio and saying, let's make a hit.

I've never been able to do that, you know. whatever comes out comes out you know and if it's a hit great if it's not hey we got a chance to jam together you know i think i think it's that positivity and that like you were saying the the willingness to embrace change that is what attracts a lot of contemporary artists to your work and yeah you know i think it's really cool that there's whether you listen to a song like after the Storm by Callie Uchis and Tyler the Creator, where you provide the introduction. Or Silk Sonic, Bruno Mars, and Anderson Pack, and you are the MC, the guide. The host, yeah.

Well, all right. It is I, Blaster of the universe. Both silver himself. Wow, man. Now, that was really like yesterday, for real. How did it feel to get that call saying, we want you to be the MC of this project? It was pretty incredible.

It was pretty incredible because, first of all, I didn't know what I was going to be doing. And so when it broke down and Bruno was like, man, I need you to host not only this song, but the whole record. And it's like, let's do. do it. I didn't know what I was doing. I mean, you know, and it's like doing it like without having all the songs and what the songs feel like. And they were just putting it together.

Yeah. So I can't say it was guesswork. It was just Bruno had a feeling. Yeah. And he shared that with me. And I gave him what I felt. He's a genuine genius for real. Yeah. He's got all this stuff in his head. He remind me of James Brown. Really? His energy, his stamina, and wanting to move forward and what, nothing going to stop it. You know, this is the record. You're talking about a hit record. He knows how to make a hit record.

And, you know, a lot of artists can learn a lot from not only him, but knowing how to make a hit record. I'm not, I don't have nothing against that. It's just I can't do it. I can be a part of one. You know what I'm saying. But somebody told me to go in and make a hit record, I can't do it. You know, because I'm going to give you all the wrong stuff. Right.

You know, it's going to be funked up. Speaking of funked up in 2023, you released a powerfully funky single, Funk Not Fight, featuring Baby Triggie. Yeah. And Fantasma. Yes. So tell us about the message here. And that's more to me.

So tell us about the message here, funk not fight. Yeah, it's more of a thing where it's a lot of violence going on now. I mean, and music I know has been not. not only a motivator, but a great communicator to pull together. Let's funk and not fight. You know, because the funk brings people together. That's what we do. And we didn't come together to fight.

You know, we come together to party and have a good time and, you know, hold each other up. And that's what the funk and party was all about. You know, funk, not fight. Yeah. And Bootsie, finally, you're taking some time to talk to us. you're taking a break from the studio. What are we going to hear on the album that you're working on right now? It's a different way of working for me.

I think this album is my new challenge because I have got used to not having a band around me all the time. So I had to make these steps to learn how to record, keep the feeling, but at the same time, be communicating with somebody else, Like we're on the phone now. We're doing the Zoom. This is the way we do studio. You know, like 75% of the time, it's like this.

The other 25% we are in the studio. But I never worked like that. You know, it was always the band. And so I had to, I guess, take steps at a certain pace to learn how to deal with the emotional part of not having people around you. Yeah. You know, because that, to me, was like, that was part of the whole thing. That's what made the one, you know, was having everybody with you. But it's a new day and it's a new way.

And I want to learn it all as much as I can, you know. And so this album is making me happy because, yeah, because it's showing me that, you know, you don't have to back away from anything. You know, don't be scared of the box, you know. You know, it's like the computer in the box. Don't be scared of that boy. You know, learn how to work it, you know. And that's what I've been doing. And it's all a challenge, man, it's just all these different ways and different challenges, different products and stuff you have to go through to get to the next level.

And I always want to get to the next level. I feel like that's a theme in this conversation that has come up, again and again is don't stagnate. Yeah. Sometimes you want to shake your fist at the world because it's changing around you. Yeah. And you're saying, no, you have to change with it.

Well, that goes back to the song you play. Don't fake the funk or your nose got to grow, right? You cannot fake the funk, man. Yeah. I mean, you know, no matter what you're doing, that funk has to go down. It has to go down for real. And that's what we have to keep delivering to the people.

Because they have to know that no matter what you do, you can do it too. Nobody's no better than anybody else. We all have to do it as one. And that's what the funk is about. And the album's name, and you'll be the first to know it, it's going to be called Album of the Year. Album of the Year. Wow. We got an exclusive here on the podcast.

I love it. We got a scoop. Yeah. And I ain't going to say you don't tell nobody because you can tell everybody. Have fun with it, man. I love it. You know, we just want to back it up. It's just like when we came out, you know, we want to fuck, give up the phone, you know,

and we're telling everybody we're going to funk them up. Well, that's what the, you know, the album of the year is going to funk you up. Yeah. Something to look forward to. Yes, yes. And I'm looking forward to it too. Good. That's a deep thing, you know.

It's like a lot of times you can get to the point of not looking forward to anything that you do. I run into a lot of musicians and artists that, you know, just feel like they just don't know what else to do, you know. If you, you know, you can't beat them, funk them. You know? I mean, that's the reward right there. So stick it out there, man. Go on and get into it. Bootsie Collins.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us about your incredible career, drop some wisdom, and reminding us of the power of the one. Power of the one, man. Keep putting it out there because it's always going to come back to you. Absolutely. Always. And thank you, man. This was a pleasure.

Oh, I'm so glad. All right. Pleasure. All right. All right. And thank you Patty as well. Oh, yeah. She, she, she don't ran out of the kitchen.

She's gone. Have a good with my man. Pleasure. Bye-bye. Switch on pop is produced by Rana Cruz, edited by Art Chung, engineer by Brandon McFarlane, illustrations by R.S. Gottlieb, community management by Abby Barr. Our executive producer, is Josh Kerwa. A member of the box media podcast network and production of Vulture,

which is part of New York Magazine. You can subscribe to New York Magazine at NYMag.com slash pod. You can find more episodes of Switchedon Pop anywhere you get podcasts. our website switchedonpop.com. And you can hit us up on social media at Switched on Pop. Tell us what your favorite Bootsie Collins track collaboration sample is. We want to hear what you love about this iconic artist.

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