years of just listening and finding out that I could play piano, playing drums, playing just about anything I wanted to play came really easy to me, I felt really comfortable in, in hearing and listening to funky music. And that's how I, I, you know, came to grips with, I think I'd rather play funky music than anything else. I'm, I'm just at home, I'm just more comfortable with in, in performing and playing funky music. And it did something to me to hear other, other funky music being played by the groups. I can remember Ray Charles with his big band. But now Ray Charles played, you know, the whole circle. He played, you know, big band jazzy stuff, but didn't, he did what I say, he did ballads, you know like the, the "Georgia on my Mind" and all this stuff. But he did [sings] that thing, that's, I mean that's good and funky. But when I heard James Brown, James Brown's style of playing was so much similar to the way we were performing as, as kids. We were lucky enough to start our own group as, as pre-teens right through high school, right through college. And, and we played funky music all that time. So when I met James Brown in the year of 1964 I had been performing and playing almost, what, 10, 11, 12 years I guess. So I was somewhat way ahead of, you know, kids my age and, you know, playing and performing that kind of music. And I think it showed when I, when you got a chance to hear me play. But when you are really comfortable in playing funky music, you know you sort of seek out those who, who, who are also comfortable in playing it.

What was it that drew you to Bootsy's Rubber Band?

Ah, Boots, I heard of Bootsy. In fact Bootsy lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. We used to do a lot of recording there. Somehow he would find out when we're going to be, when we were going to be in Cincinnati recording. The old King Studio was there, that's where James Brown did, was recording. We were there maybe twice a week and somehow almost all the time, there's Bootsy as a little kid, you know, sticking his head through the door, through the window, you know, saying, hey, hey, you know, give me a chance. I can do this. I can do that. Say, oh, get away little kid, you're just a little kid. Maybe five or ten years from now, maybe, you know, but he's just a kid. But I think Bootsy worked with James Brown one of the times when I was gone. But I heard him, I heard his bass playing. And I knew right away he was one of those guys, one of those funky musicians. And then I heard other people telling me, you know, saying, boy, what, boy, I can't, if Maceo, if Maceo and Bootsy could have been in the same time, wow. You know what would it have been like if they could have been on the same team or in the same group. And, then it, it starts you wonder, well maybe, maybe, you know just maybe. Then came a time when, you know, he was a position to start, along with George Clinton, to start, you know the Bootsy's Rubber Band. And again I was away from James Brown and they made a few phone calls. And again I was sort of, you know, I really did like the way Bootsy played and I was sort of eager to, you know sort of working on the side of him. There's a saying, you know, how, how, you know, it would, it would work. And I had a lot of fun doing it.

Playing with James Brown.

Coming, coming from, you know, the tradition of, of, you know wearing the tuxedos, the bow ties and the shined shoes and, you know, all this stuff, uniform and everybody, you know, is wearing the same thing, coming from that to working with George Clinton and Funk Marv and all this was totally shocking, it really was. It was really scary because you know throughout my life and my career, you know everybody was, you know, had to tell us about, you know, stage decorum, you got to have, you know, your suits pressed and you know this kind of thing. When I met George it was like the total opposite, you know. And it took me a minute to really, you know, get, let this soak in because I couldn't understand, you know, how these guys, they had a trunk and the trunk had all sorts of things, you know, inside. They'd just reach in and grabbed and it seemed like it didn't matter, you know, what you got, as long as you just wear something, you know. And, and, ah, it was, it was shocking. You know you may look over see, he's got no shoes at all, you know, you look over he's got no shirt at all, you know. And it took a while. Anyhow the music was good and funky, you know. Ah, the heighth of excitement and all that was, was, you know, as high as you could go. But, ah, to see a guy maybe wearing a diaper or one shoe, one tennis shoe and half shirt and all this. It was, it was, it took a minute to get used to this. Ah, but I, I, I also treasure, you know, the time that I spent with George Clinton and Bootsy.

Musically what you did in the Horny Horns different from what you did with James, if it was different?

What we did with the group Horny Horns opposed to what did, when we were with James Brown was probably no different at all other than I was featured a lot with James Brown. The Horny Horns was like a section, a horn section. But again, what happens is, you know, you, everybody listens and say, for instance, if you're George Clinton, Clinton, you listen and you hear, you hear, golly what are those horn players doing over there with James Brown and who are those guys? And then pretty soon from listening you pick up a name a Fred Wesley, a Maceo Parker, you know. Then you say, if you get in a, a position you say, you know, I want to something like, is, is it possible to do something with those guys? And then you ask somebody, you know, to seek it out and, and then, yeah, it's possible. And then, you have the same guys that you heard over there now they're over here. We'll call them Horny Horns, great: same guys, same licks, same everything, same intense, you know intensity that we're going to have, you know, when we play, when we perform. And that's why I make it exciting 'cause we would try to carry the same, ah, ah, excitement from, you know, James Brown to George Clinton from George Clinton to Bootsy right on to now.

…

It, it comes a times when we feel it's necessary to make a statement with the horns rather than, you know, with words and that's where we, Frank was trying to do work with Horny Horns, you know, just, just let the horn section be the lead so when Fred, for instance, got ready to write the parts he, I'm sure he had this in mind because this was it was all about, you know, giving the horns a chance to be heard or take the lead and then you could come back if you liked to do the, you know, the ah, and oohs and ah, and background stuff, with voices later. But all of the dynamics and all that thing with the horns be heard. This is the time where the horns take control, like somebody said in one of the records. And that was, that was one of the fun things that, that we enjoyed while we were doing, you know, Horny Horns.