We were talking earlier about technology and how it's changing everything. And if you could tell me a little bit about, you were telling me they're actually programming in sounds like…

Oh yeah, please let me tell you a little bit about that. Um, you know, the way they doing sounds and stuff now, it's like I was speaking on Bernie. You know, it's like, it sounds like this particular keyboard, I don't know if you're ain't supposed to show it or whatever, but anyway, this particular keyboard is like, um, I had first got one, I had been over in Europe, I came back, you know, and bought one, you know, and listened to it, you know, like man, this sucker -- I mean it sounds like they listened to everything Bernie played and programmed, you know, his sound, his main sound, like he did on record.

I just talked to him on the ..., he just talked to me last night at home, what are you doing here?

For real, and it was amazing to me, what they're doing with this new stuff, and it's like the new rack, I got some rack gear that I don't actually bring out with my old stuff, but I got some in the studio that's just, it's got like a Bootzilla sound, it got a Bootsy vibe, you know, these are all presets. It's got a space bass, uh, preset. And it's just, they just taken those thangs and just doing different things with it, and you know, it's their version of it, it's just like the band's version, the new band's version of funk.

But they got the essence from --

They got the essence from, you know, from the sources. And it's, you know, it's not that we're mad or nothing, it's just, uh, it'd be nice if they could've put Bernie's name on there, you know --

Or Bootsy's name on it. It's like, but, that's being addressed.

You know. But um, but those are the things that's kinda happening now.

When you first heard Stevie Wonder, I mean Stevie really used the technology fairly early.

Yeah.

What was that, when you heard those sounds?

Well, it's funny, you know, Stevie and I wrote, after George moved Funkadelic to Detroit, Stevie used to come to our shows and sit right out front and watch me, P-Funk, and have his little portable keyboard, this is at the 20 Grand nightclub in Detroit. I mean the Temptations would come, -- [OVERLAPPING TALK] -- just about all the Motown people. Stevie would be there every time we play, and then there was a music store across town where the RMI piano came out, Stevie got the first one, then I heard about it and I got the second one. And then, he would, then the Mini-Moog, you know, you heard it on Stevie's records, but he was able to upgrade a little faster I guess --

And why is that?

He had more money.

Okay.

Hey, Berry -- it was, you know. And his genius, all right, his genius, and he was able to show me, and what I showed him, oh …

It was all in that same time, you know, it was all in that same time. And Bernie's trying to be lightweight and humble but I'll go ahead and bust the thing, this one here, they was coming to check him out. They was definitely checking him out. And he takes a, you know, he don't want to, he's a humble cat, but uh, I'm humble too, but I can take, I can take on defense for him, because I can do it better for him than I can for myself.

Anyways, I got to do it for him.

What did that mean to your sound, how did it change the sound of, how did it change what you could do with keyboards?

Well, let me, let me say something on that. Because see, it's just like, uh, here's a perfect example. Okay, um, uh, everything we was doing with Parliament mostly was like real bass. I was doing like, right, ______, real bass. Then we did this record called "Flashlight." Okay? A whole, um, this particular time period Bernie had started messing with, you know, bass on the Moog, you know, and this was before it got really popular. You know, because we hadn't been recording and nobody had been doing that. You know, so Bernie started doing this thing where I would do a -- [SINGS] -- and he started loving that. [OVERLAPPING TALK] And then he'd start doing it on the Moog, right? So everybody start grooving on that, saying yeah, and then George wanted to just try it on this record, "Flashlight," which we had cut for Bootsy's Rubber Band, but we decided since I had all of my records that was going on Bootzilla, the record Bootzilla, "Flashlight" became a Parliament song. Bernie came in and did the Moog bass on there. You know, and that was a whole 'nother --

That started another --

A whole 'nother, and then bass players started getting mad (?), you know, yeah, it was a whole 'nother vibe.

Then after that, "One Nation" --

And then you had the other grooves, Gap Band, you know, everybody started, you know, started doing that, and of course, taking the credit. You know, but it was cool because we knew what was happening.

And you're sure you couldn't possibly give us a demonstration of what that sounds like?

Well, actually it don't have, he don't have the Moog, I mean the Moog, everything --

What did it sound, when you did that kind of thing?

How could you put that in, they got a, they got a --

This is a little --

This is an imitation of. Give them a little of flashlight. Okay, you see what I'm saying. [SINGS] Don't give 'em too much, Bernie. Lighten up. [LAUGHS] No, but that's what he started doing and he put it on that record "Flashlight," and it caught on like wildfire, you know. And bass players started losing sessions, and you know looking And they started wearing Bernie one, I think I was the only one with Bernie that kept him from being --

Right, because then it started to be overkill, to use it. You'd say, Bootsy, please come in and -- the other guys.

Then what was the next sound.

I would say, well, the clav might've even before that.

Well, Stevie had, wrote, Stevie wrote "Superstition," and then I recorded Chairman of the Board's "Finders Keepers" --

Right with Joyful Process.

Joyful Process, right.

That was, you know, because you was doing things with the RMI --

Which was like pre-

That was like the beginning of the clav.

Pre-clav, right.

So it was a couple of things that had happened before "Flashlight" but "Flashlight" I think was really a major thing to start getting everybody kind of upset at, at Bernie. That's why I wanted to bust that real quick. Yeah. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah, oh man.

What was it about P-Funk that made it so successful?

I think it was real. It was real and we'd done it real. I mean it was --

I need you to say --

Oh, the P-Funk music.

The P-Funk sound.

Oh, the P-Funk sound.

What do you think about the P-Funk sound?

I think it was like, uh, it was, I think it still lasts because it was real. You know, and it was real people doing it. And we didn't know what the heck we were doing, it was just, this is what we do, Bernie was doing what he do, I was doing what I do, George was doing what he did, and it all just, you know, it came all together, and it happened to work.

Did you know, in terms of making the big hits, they usually talk about how you have to crossover and get off the R and B charts --

We weren't in that.

No, no, we didn't think these things were going to be hits, we just did it.

Talk about crossover, we didn't even know the records was going to do anything. We was just happy to be doing what we was doing. We wasn't concerned about a record.

A self-contained with being able to have product put out.

We were thinking more like musicians. Now George might have been thinking about it, but I can say Bernie and myself, we had not a clue about no record, sitting down and writing a hit record, even today, sitting down and writing a hit record, no, man, that ain't what we're about. We don't know nothing about that. All we know how to do is what we do.

One of the things I remember reading that you had said was that it was, recording wasn't what was important to you. I'd like to know what was important?

That we had the opportunity --

I need --

Oh, what was important to me, the question was what?

Just start recording wasn't as important to me as --

Oh, I got you. Okay. Uh, recording wasn't as important to me as actually being to get on stage and act the fool the way we do. That was our, that was the dessert.

It was a release.

Yeah, I mean, recording was there and we got into it and we learned how to start doing it. But um, we didn't know, we didn't, it wasn't never a real get off, like getting on stage was. And uh, getting on stage was our way of, yeah, here we are, we able, man, we could, you mean we could actually do this on stage. And not only that, but wind up starting getting paid for it? It was like, whoa.

And then it's from, from that feeling like Bootsy said before, uh, that, from the funk of that feeling, then to translate to wax or CD now or whatever. That's the first thing.

It was just in you. And see today, today kids don't think like kids, kids are like, they see everybody else getting paid and wanting to get paid, that's their main goal. Our whole thing was, we were just glad to be able to do what we were doing. Because we were just hoping maybe eventually one day we might get two or three dollars here and there. We wasn't looking at that, like it was going to be like a serious, God, you know, because I was maybe looking at making 200 dollars a week for the rest of my life.

I want to talk about James Brown.

Oh yeah, got it.

I know Bootsy you attended James Brown University.

Oh yeah, definitely, James Brown University for sure. I think that was probably --

He graduated cum laude.

That was probably the best thing that ever could've happened to me at that time. Because uh, it was like during the riots was going on, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, all that was going on and we was out in the streets throwing Molotov cocktails, you know, breaking in stores, and we was, uh, we was going to wind up dead. You know, and then James Brown was, um, in town, doing his thing, because his record company was there, King Records. And by us being so interested in the music, you know, we just wanted to meet the band, we wanted to be over there, check it out, so we start bugging him. You know, we became pests, you know? So by doing that, that kind of took us off the streets and then we stopped throwing Molotov cocktails and started getting interested in, God, man, James Brown, man. So, uh, it kind of got, you know, turned our interests from that into more about the music, because we had an opportunity there that, that gave us, okay, well, we might -- you know, if we can get in there, man, you know, maybe we can get something going on. Maybe we can get the little band happening. So, it kind of turned our interest. You know, so, I think that was good. We was at that age where something needed to happen or else we was going to wind up in jail, dead, because something, so that was pretty much right on time for us.

I know you were an infant at the time, but do you remember your feeling in terms of change in the music when you heard James Brown doing "Cold Sweat."

Oh man, oh man. When I heard "Cold Sweat" the James Brown being on the radio, you know, it was, I told you, I'll tell you what really got me was the drumming and the syncopation between the bass and the guitars. You know, I was blown away by the band, to tell you the truth. Because I had met, um, Maceo and Fred, and uh, they kind of took to it, you know, they kind of pulled us in. Everybody else didn't really want to have nothing to do with us. You know, we was pets. You know, get away, out of our way, boy, you bother me. And uh, you know, we had gotten so used to that, you know, people closing the door on our face and da-da-da, you know, so we had the attitude though, I don't care, you know, throw me out, throw me where you want me, I'm going to be in your face, you know. So we had that old managed attitude, so, you know, it didn't matter if people didn't, but Fred, Maceo, Bobby Byrd, they kind of, you know, even though James didn't want us around, you know, at the time, because he didn't know one day he's going to have to use us. So uh, but they kind of grabbed us in, would listen to our little rap that we had, you know, we wanted to hear this and we wanted to do that, and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but we never knew one day that we'd wind up you know actually being in the band.

How did you actually wind up being in the band?

Well, well, the way we wound up being in the band with James is we did, we start being like studio musicians over at King Records. And we were recording like, uh, all the different artists that King Records had, like Arthur Prysock, Bill Doggett, Hank Ballard, um, tons of artists that King Records, and then we started developing a, a reputation, like that rhythm section, man have you heard that rhythm section. And everybody over at King started talking about it. All the artists started talking about it. And then it kind of got back to James. And it was like, uh, James's ears went up like a bulldog. You know, so he wanted to hear it. He wanted to, so um, you know, then Bobby Byrd would talk about us to him a lot. And you know, one thing I think kind of led to another. When he had a um, this thing happened to him, uh, where was it in Columbus, Georgia, where Maceo and them kind of walked out on him, he kind of needed us.

Could you tell me about that? I'd love to hear the drama of that story.

Well, the call from James Brown to come to be his band happened, uh, we was playing at the Wine Bar in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the place was about, I would say, about as big as this little space right here. We had a stage, everybody was drunk, we was playing a benefit and we ain't got paid yet, okay? [LAUGHS] Okay. So that's where we got the call there. And Bobby Byrd called and said, um, ah, Bootsy we got a problem down here. James Brown needs you all. You know, I'm flying there, uh, got the Lear jet, we'll be there in 45 minutes, don't worry about a thing, he hung up. And I got off the phone and said, I told, my brother and them, that Bobby Byrd is on the way, they laughed at me. You know, so we continued to rehearse, because you know we was getting ready for our benefit, you know. So uh, 45 minutes, Bobby Byrd walked through the door. And um, everybody was shocked, you know. So he said come as you are, just bring your instrument. Well, we got to get us go -- no, no, just bring your, just come like you are. That's the way we went. We went to the airport, got on James's Lear jet, 40,000 up in the air. First time I ever been on a plane, looking crazy. And we went all the way to Columbus, Georgia. Walked right through the audience, the audience was mad, because James hadn't been on stage yet, and they were mad at us, and we had no idea why. You know, because we didn't even know what the heck was going on, you know? So after we got there and got up to the, um, dressing rooms and everything, we start finding out, you know, we start piecing things together. We see the band in there, uh, Maceo, Cush and them, you know, they didn't actually have James up in the air like this, you know, but they would've loved to -- they were talking, you know, James was talking, well, goddog it, goddog it, ah, you know, and we're looking at each other like what have we walked into. Because these were our heroes, and here we are now, down on their gig, you know, getting ready to do their gig. And we're saying, now, we can't do this. And at the same time we wanted to play with James Brown. So, you know, we were just hoping that they understood, and that everything would come out, you know, because we didn't know what the heck was going to happen, you know. So that was the first night.

Did you know what you were going to play, did you know the songs?

Oh, all the bands, you know, as far as knowing what songs to play and everything, you know, the bands around where I was, you know, came up, everybody knew James Brown's songs. I think we knew them better, because we had been back and forth over to his studio and the interest was growing like that we might be doing something with him, you know. So it was like, uh, we really go sharp, you know, we really got sharp. We was playing in all the clubs. You know, it was a thing in the Midwest. Everybody was competing to playing these clubs. So we had to be the best, we had to have the tightest show, you know, um, and we worked on it. We just really worked on it. Everybody started giving us the rep that we was the tightest rhythm section that they had ever heard. So we had started getting that rep around. So I don't know.

It wasn't long afterwards that you joined that you actually made your first recording with him.

Uh, yeah.

And I'd love to talk about "Get Up."

Yeah, well, let's do that.

I remember reading somewhere Adam Leeds when he first heard "Don't Mess Around," he thought, well, that sounds like "Get Up and Turn It Loose." What happened to this? And James said, well, you just wait until we record and then you'll hear something. Do you remember that session?

Kinda, I kinda remember saying, because, you see, James used to um, as far as remembering sessions and stuff like that, he used to, wait until we're like, wow, to do tings, you know, he would wait until after the show to go to the studio. You know, this is like after we done played down, and everybody's kind of cooked, and he would want to go to the studio to record. So that was his best time to record was after the show. So um, we would, we got on the bus, James got on the bus with us, and him and Bobby Byrd was up in the seat right in front of us. And James was, um, and Bobby were going back and forth about feel like a sex machine. And James had this, I mean Bobby Byrd had this paper bag they had tore off, and they were writing lyrics, you know, and me and Catfish were sitting in the back seat in back of them, and we were just back there messing with -- [PLAYS] You know we was messing with some stuff there, and uh, everybody was getting in the groove. Next thing you know, everybody kind of moved up and started doing the thing. And then once we, uh, kind of came up with a good idea, we got to the studio, went in, James said, hit it! And there it was, there it was. It was all, um, body movements with James, and um, he did more body movements than actual talking and rapping and explaining. I guess we were more like antennas or --

Interpreters.

Interpreters. Okay, exactly. Just like over in Japan, you know how you need an interpreter. We were more of his interpreters. You know, he would say something that he was feeling and we'd have to figure it out. You know, and um, it just happened that the things that you heard were the things that we kind of figured out.

This body movements, what were they like?

Uh, I mean, his whole rhythm, you know, his whole rhythm, I mean, only James could do it.

Body movements is a language in itself, so he interpreted it.

You know, and only he could do that, only he could do that. I couldn't do James, I mean, you know, only he could do that, and uh, you know, we knew what it was. We had been there, we had seen him, and you know, we really knew what it was after we started playing with him. You know, we knew when he was getting ready to do something, we knew what hit to make, you know, what he was getting ready to do. We kind of knew it when he moved his foot over here, we kind of knew what to do. I mean, you know, so it was kind of, we just paid attention and we had got used to doing that, and you know, kind of figured it all out and I think in the end, once we had figured it all out, I think it started getting kind of like anything else, you know, you figured it out now, it's time to move on. So I think uh, because my being young, things have to keep sparking you. You know, and um, I think that had a lot to do with it.