In the ’60s, Bootsy Collins took an LSD trip to the stars, learning to dial in “the one” for an ever-demanding James Brown. After that, he joined George Clinton, who Collins describes “a freaking madman,” but also someone who urged the bass player to branch out on his own.
Collins has never looked back. He’s played alongside everyone from Bernie Worrell to Snoop Dogg. “This will probably sound crazy,” he says of his experiences. “But I think Buckethead is qualified to be up there in ‘the one’ column. And Sly Stone, I think, is a better musician than people think, or thought.
“And Flea is doing his thing and keeping it alive. He’s on the one, definitely. He’s up there.”
Speaking of being on the one – the way of life that Collins picked up from James Brown – the veteran four-stringer is heard doing just that with his latest release, Album of the Year #1 Funkateer. “It’s an energetic vibe that goes on,” he says. “It’s beautiful, man. I just had a great time recording this album.
“It’s harder,” the 73-year-old admits. “But I still get the same vibe from the people, and that’s kind of fun. When you’re young you just go at it; you don’t care. Now, I’m a little safer. I have to receive things from the universe.
“I can’t go out talking about anything – it has to mean something to me musically and lyrically. So, just fooling around like we used to do, that’s minimal now, which I sometimes do miss. But you work through it and find other ways to have fun.”
Collins, stopped touring in 2019. But he’s not hiding: “Part of being a musician is being out here and being in the public. I love vibing with people, listening to what’s going on and what they’re talking about today.”
Did you choose the bass, or did the bass choose you?
“I guess you’d have to say the bass chose me, because I was actually playing guitar by the age of nine. I wanted to be like my brother (P-Funk and James Brown guitarist) Catfish Collins, who was eight years older than me.
“I just loved his band coming by the house. Of course, my brother didn’t want me around because it was too much responsibility for him, so that made me work even harder. I wanted to learn how to play and be in a band – in his band, actually.
“When I got the opportunity, he needed a bass player as opposed to a guitar player. I told him I could do that, but I’d never even attempted to play bass! I asked him to get me four bass strings because I only had a $29 guitar from Sears and Roebuck, and that’s how I started. I played bass one night in a club with my brother; I got my wish. We had so much fun, man.”
Did the bass come easily for you?
“It came easy because I was hearing things in my head. There was nobody to teach me. Today, you just go online and it’s all there. But I just played and practiced all the time, and things would come to me.”
You eventually joined James Brown’s band. What was the key to fitting in?
“You had to really hold the groove and the foundation down. And most of all, you had to keep it on ‘the one.’ I didn’t know what the heck he was talking about, you know, ‘Put it on the one.’ I was like, ‘What the heck is that?’”
Did you ever figure out what “the one” was exactly?
“I don’t think he really knew what the one was! But he knew it was like every measure had a count of four. When he said, ‘Put it on the one,’ you had to count that, you know, slow bars, and hit the one real strong.”
Did James explain that to you?
“I was playing a lot of stuff that I don’t think he understood. He told me, ‘You have to play the one because you’re playing too much stuff.’ Coming off the guitar, I guess I was. I didn’t really know how to play bass, I mean… I didn’t tell him that! So I learned how to be the bass player he wanted.
We’d started taking LSD. And James Brown wants you to watch his moves and be on it. It was a challenge
“Then he didn’t care what I played – I just seemed to play what he was feeling. All I was leaving out was the one. So, I practiced hitting that one, the whole band started hitting that one, and next thing you know, we were on point!”
Your LSD intake around this time is notable. How did that impact your bass playing?
“It opened my whole approach to playing bass, but I also felt like I had some writing in me. I started to write and it opened up a whole new world to me.
“But driving under the influence of LSD is just the most wacked-out thing you could possibly do. You stay up for three days; it’s the craziest thing. We were coming out of the hippie days, so to get the inspiration going, ‘You’ve got to try this LSD – you’ve got to try this sunshine.’
“All of it was right on time for me. I wouldn’t advise it for kids now, but back then it was the proper thing for us to get to the next level. And it was amazing, it was mind-blowing.”
Do you have a favorite bassline from your James Brown days?
“I would say Super Bad. It was consistent. It made you feel strong, you know? It’s like you just looked out into the audience, and you felt like you were somebody.”
Is it true that LSD led to your departure from his band?
“We were on the road before we got with James Brown, and when we were called to be in his band, we’d started taking LSD. And he wants you to watch his moves and be on it. It was a challenge.
“At some point, it got to the point where it was like, ‘This cat is just crazy.’ Then I really started taking LSD on his show, and that was a mistake on my part.
“But it was like you couldn’t do anything right, and this cat don’t show you no love. He’s always talking about how bad you are, how you’re not on it, and ‘Where’s the one?’ So, it was kind of a mess; but at the same time, I could dig where he was coming from – especially after I got away.
“He was just crazy, but I really appreciated the lessons we learned from him. He didn’t trust nobody. Once I got away I started to understand he needed us young cats around him to help keep the energy up. Somebody has to be crazy, and we were taking LSD, so we couldn’t not be crazy!”
George was like, ‘You don’t just want to be in Funkadelic – you need to be in front of a band’… I wasn’t down with that
After you joined Parliament Funkadelic, did you find George Clinton to be an equally eccentric character?
“Yeah, he really is. But he’s got another side that people don’t see. When we got together, I thought he was just a madman. His looks, his talk, everything made you want to listen to him – but you knew that he was off the hinge!
“We got along perfectly because he knew a lot more about the business. All I wanted to do was play music in the band. We all liked to do the same things: acting a fool, taking drugs, all that stuff.
“Nowadays it’s so different. I look back on my life, and I feel good about making it through that time period because we had a hell of a time. George was a freaking madman, but he never missed a gig.”
Musically, what made you a good fit for P-Funk?
“It was more about doing your own thing; it was challenging, but at the same time, we were all together. We were moving – we didn’t know where we were going, but we were moving! You felt like you had a unit.”
So, then what made you start your Rubber Band?
“We had a band before we got with James and George, which was the Pacemakers. I wanted to play with my brother, Catfish, and I proved to him that I was worthy. When I got that one chance, the people fell in love with me; it changed his mind. That band pretty much went through James and George.
“George was like, ‘You don’t just want to be in Funkadelic – you need to be in front of a band. You need to be showcasing your own talent.’ He kind of talked me into being the frontman for Bootsy’s Rubber Band.
“I wasn’t down with that because I’d never wanted to be a frontman. I didn’t want to be responsible. But once he talked me into it I went for it, and a lot of other good things happened.”
How has your bass rig evolved over the years?
“On this new record I do some Fender P-Bass, some Fender Jazz Bass, and Warwick four-string bass. I got a five-string Star bass and I got a chance to play it on this record. I’d made up my mind that I wasn’t going to play five-strings because four-strings is what I learned on. I just wasn’t going to do it.
“I started feeling like, ‘Man, for the old technique, you’re going to be criticized when you change up’ – but I did it. I still only want to do it when it’s called for, though, because I’m still a four-string guy.”
The original Space Bass was once stolen. Where is it now?
“It’s in my meditation room. It’s the only bass in the house; everything else is in the studio. Somebody had stolen it about two years into touring. But I got her back; and then I started taking more care and keeping more eyes on her. I’ve got it close to my bedroom, and she’s not going nowhere.”
Why should I tour when I’m not able to be 100 percent? I’m not going to fake you out
Why did you step away from touring in 2019?
“It was difficult. I try to listen to what my body is saying, and what the universe is saying. I felt like if I gave them half of what I’d been giving them, that would be considered faking the funk. Why should I put myself through it when I’m not able to be 100 percent? That’s what people are used to.
“They need it all because that’s what I need. I’m not going to fake you out. Wear and tear, just at some point, it grabs you. I had to face the reality that it was wearing me down.”
Has age changed the way you play?
“I don’t play as much. Collaborating with different people helps me keep that fire burning. It ain’t like I’m just starting out, you know? I think business has a lot to do with beating you down, and it never stops – instead of just going out, having a great time, just playing and performing for people.”
In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked you at number four on its list of the 50 greatest bassists of all time. High enough for you?
“I’ll definitely take it, man! There’s so many great, great, great people before me, but definitely, I’ll take it! I just want to be in the picture, man. It’s a beautiful thing.”
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