1. George Clinton is so funky, he was actually born in an outhouse, in Kannapolis, North Carolina in 1941.
Says Clinton, “I was born in the funk. My mom started to birth me in the outhouse. She heard nature’s call, and it was nature calling about me. There I was, hanging on by the string. I didn’t come from the mother ship, I came from the mother’s shit.”
2. He grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey, where he started the doo-wop band The Parliaments in the 1950’s, at age 15. Named after Parliament cigarettes, they preformed for customers in the barbershops and salons where Clinton worked straightening hair.
3. In the 1960’s, Clinton was a staff songwriter for Motown Records. He didn’t strike it big there but he did have one single, "I Wanna Testify," a hit single in 1967.
4. George Clinton and his band dominated in the soulful and funky 1970’s, when they produced over 40 R&B hit singles, three songs that hit number one on the charts, and had three platinum albums.
5. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, huge fans of Clinton’s funk, sought him out to produce their 1985 album, Freaky Stley, giving him a career revival as a producer and collaborator. He even wrote the lyrics for the hit title track, which originally was going to be an instrumental.
6. Clinton and his various bands and network of funk performers finally received the accolades they deserved. In February 2002, Spin Magazine rated Parliament-Funkadelic number six on their list of the "50 Greatest Bands of All Time.” In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Parliament-Funkadelic #56 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time." In 1997, Clinton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.
7. Side by side with James Brown, George Clinton is one of the most sampled musicians ever. The song “Atomic Dog,” is perhaps the most sampled song in the history of hip hop.
8. Clinton’s various bands over the decades have been called Parliament, Parliament-Funkadelics, P-Funk, the P-Funk All-Stars, the Funkadelics, and many more variations. This was partially so his huge network of funk singers and performers could work on projects and perform concurrently. But a bigger reason for the frequent name changes was that Clinton has oft been embroiled in legal trouble, royalty disputes, and copyright lawsuits around his work, spanning several record labels. In total, they achieved thirteen top ten hits in the American R&B music charts, including six number one hits.
9. His music and role as an ambassador of Funk music allowed Clinton to cross over into movies and popular culture. He appeared in the films Graffiti Bridge (1990), House Party (1990), PCU (1994), Good Burger (1997), and The Breaks (1999) and had a cameo role in the season two premiere of “How I Met Your Mother,” in 2006. He’s also been the voice of animated characters and been immortalized in video games.
10. The most notable other members of the Parliament umbrella are guitarist, producer, and solo artist, Bootsy Collins, and Gary Shider, before he succumbed to cancer in 2010. Shider was best known for appearing on stage and performing in nothing but a diaper, earning the moniker, “Diaper Man.”
2. He grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey, where he started the doo-wop band The Parliaments in the 1950’s, at age 15. Named after Parliament cigarettes, they preformed for customers in the barbershops and salons where Clinton worked straightening hair.
3. In the 1960’s, Clinton was a staff songwriter for Motown Records. He didn’t strike it big there but he did have one single, "I Wanna Testify," a hit single in 1967.
4. George Clinton and his band dominated in the soulful and funky 1970’s, when they produced over 40 R&B hit singles, three songs that hit number one on the charts, and had three platinum albums.
6. Clinton and his various bands and network of funk performers finally received the accolades they deserved. In February 2002, Spin Magazine rated Parliament-Funkadelic number six on their list of the "50 Greatest Bands of All Time.” In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Parliament-Funkadelic #56 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time." In 1997, Clinton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.
8. Clinton’s various bands over the decades have been called Parliament, Parliament-Funkadelics, P-Funk, the P-Funk All-Stars, the Funkadelics, and many more variations. This was partially so his huge network of funk singers and performers could work on projects and perform concurrently. But a bigger reason for the frequent name changes was that Clinton has oft been embroiled in legal trouble, royalty disputes, and copyright lawsuits around his work, spanning several record labels. In total, they achieved thirteen top ten hits in the American R&B music charts, including six number one hits.
9. His music and role as an ambassador of Funk music allowed Clinton to cross over into movies and popular culture. He appeared in the films Graffiti Bridge (1990), House Party (1990), PCU (1994), Good Burger (1997), and The Breaks (1999) and had a cameo role in the season two premiere of “How I Met Your Mother,” in 2006. He’s also been the voice of animated characters and been immortalized in video games.10. The most notable other members of the Parliament umbrella are guitarist, producer, and solo artist, Bootsy Collins, and Gary Shider, before he succumbed to cancer in 2010. Shider was best known for appearing on stage and performing in nothing but a diaper, earning the moniker, “Diaper Man.”
