Biography

Parliament/Funkadelic were voted the 56th Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artists of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.

Before he went into music, he worked as a hairdresser.

More people are familiar with the more dance-oriented music of his younger group, Parliament. However, the older Funkadelic (who recorded as far back as 1969) was a much grittier heavy funk group that experimented heavily with hard rock, particularly on the album "Maggot Brain". In more recent times, though, his two groups have been combined into one, so it is difficult to distinguish the musical styles.

His best-known band member is almost certainly Bootsy Collins, although his #1 protégé earlier on was Eddie Hazel, a young guitarist with so much skill that some say he was an equal to Jimi Hendrix. Unfortunately, like Hendrix, Hazel died young and never gained the recognition that many believe he deserved.

One of the personalities mentioned in the song "Genius of Love" by Tom Tom Club. The others mentioned were James Brown, Bob Marley, Smokey Robinson, Hamilton Bohannon, Bootsy Collins, Kurtis Blow and Lowell 'Sly' Dunbar (as Sly and Robbie) and Robbie Shakespeare (as Sly and Robbie).