Bootsy Collins is one
of the greatest bassists of all time: a member of the
baddest version of the
JB's, a funk-force with the Parliament-Funkadelic
empire in the '70s and
leader of his own impossibly stanky group, Bootsy's
Rubber Band. Currently
at work at his home studio (which he jokingly calls
"the Bootzvilla Rehab")
on multiple projects-including a new Rubber Band
album, a new Funkadelic
album and a reunion with all of the surviving
members of the original
JB's -Bootsy took a few minutes to speak with Mean
about the JB's' famous
visit to Nigeria in 1970.
Bootsy: Everybody
was talkin' about Fela when we got there, and about how
he was like the African
James Brown. And everybody was tellin' us he was
THE man. So after we did
one gig in Lagos, Nigeria we all just went over.
Me, Bobby Byrd, Vicki Anderson,
Jabo..
What was getting to the club like?
Oh man, that was wild! Cuz
you know their police force was the Army. They
were serious. You know,
everybody treated us really good from the day we
stepped off the plane. But
this Army, they didn't take nothin'. I mean,
they didn't care who you
were. It was like everybody was scum of the earth,
man. [laughs] So we were
on the way, and the Army just stopped us out of
the clear blue and then
they started asking who were we, and where were we
goin'. And of course we
were dirty, you know? We'd just played and we was
out havin' a little fun.
So we had a few dirty thangs on us. And it was
like, 'Well what do you
have in the boot? What's in the boot?' And what I
had just done, I had just
put my dirt in my sock. And I thought the guy was
talkin' about you know what's
in my boot, like what's in my shoe.
[laughter] I was through,
man! I thought I was gonna be gone forever. But
luckily Vicki Anderson figured
it out, that he was talking about the trunk.
Cuz I had my dirt and everybody
else's dirt in my boot, man! [laughs] So
they didn't check nothing
but the trunk, then they let us through.
We went on to the club and as we was pulling up, I'd say about a
mile and a half, two miles
before you got to the club, you could hear these
drums, you could hear this
rhythm goin' on. And as we were approaching, you
just moved, you just started
movin'. We didn't even see nobody yet, we just
heard the music, because
the club that he had was roofless. And when you
start gettin' in the area,
you just start vibin', cuz I mean, those drums
and the music that they
had goin' on...! And the things that you're told
about Africa-we had no idea
that they had electric guitars, you know.
You though they'd be playing folk music...
Yeah, we had no idea! And
we pulled up and all this was goin' on, man. They
came and got us and we went
to a room. This was when...Fela, he hadn't went
on yet. He was still in
the dressing room. And man, we walked in the room
and the smoke knocked us
down! [laughter] They was handing these cigars
around that was like...
We was in heaven! So we vibed with him, we talked,
and we went out to see the
show. He came out and did his thing, man, and we
had never seen NOTHIN' like
that, or FELT anything like that, you know. It
was AMAZING, and I guess
by going there and seeing that, I kind of absorbed
whatever I was hearing and
whatever I was seeing. I just brought it back
with me, and it became a
part of me.
Now when you guys went to the club, James didn't go, right?
No. We tried to get him to
go but he...you know, he's always into his
thang, you know. And he
probably didn't want to see somebody, you know,
other than him on the stage.
[laughter] But you know, that's the way he is.
Did you all go there more than one night?
It had to be two or three
nights. Because we played there. It had to be two
or three nights that we
played right there in Lagos, the capitol. Everybody
loved us. It's the James
Brown show, everybody was there. We played in a
stadium. It was amazing,
man. Uh-maze-ing.
So you'd finish playing at the stadium and go over to Fela's-
Oh yeah. We had to go, man.
And we developed a real good relationship, man.
It was like...the way he
spoke, we understood what he said and he
understood what we said.
It was more of a vibe goin' on. And man, when
these cats hit the stage
and when the drums started, I mean...whatever you
was doin', you just stopped
doin' that and your body just start movin'!
[laughter]
See, at that particular time in my life, I was so AMAZED, period. I
mean, about EVERYTHING.
You were young-
Yeah! I was over in Africa when I was 17 years old-
...you're 17, you're touring
Africa with the greatest band in the world,
and you're going to a
club and seeing another one of the greatest bands in
the world-
Well actually I thought THEY
were the greatest, period. Even before I got
into James Brown's band,
the James Brown band was number one to me. But
once I got there and saw
Fela and them, then I had second thoughts about
it. I mean, seriously. The
James Brown band reminded me of that same
non-stop groove, you know:
you gotta move. And then when I heard these
cats, it was like another
dimension of that. A dimension that I had never
experienced before. And
it had a deeper feel to me. I couldn't explain it,
you know, but it was something
I had been involved with but not as deep.
When I heard them, that
was the deepest level you could get. That's the
only way I can explain that.
Not that I'm doggin' myself along with the
rest of the guys, but that's
the way I felt. When I heard that, it was
like, 'Man, this is IT.
We gotta try to be like this!' [laughs] And I knew
we couldn't! We had to be
what we were, but at the same time, that was some
helluva inspiration. When
I got with Parliament and Funkadelic, if you
listen to 'Stretchin' Out,'
that was me playin' drums. And that was my
version of what I had picked
up. [laughter]
Wow. Thanks for taking the time to reminisce with us...
It digs up some great memories,
man. And a lot of times if you don't talk
about that stuff, it's there,
but you don't really experience it again. And
it's a good feeling, man,
just to rap. That sparked a whole 'nother...Now I
gotta go back downstairs
and make sure I can do that beat again!