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The Latest Breaking News from Bootsy Collins

“I was the most vocal about being unhappy. That's when George grabbed Bootsy Collins and his band to replace us”: He was schooled by James Jamerson and freaked Larry Graham out – how William ‘Billy Bass’ Nelson founded the Funkadelic sound

The late Funkadelic co-founder tells the story of his encounter with Larry Graham, bass lessons with James Jamerson, and life in George Clinton’s ever-changing band

Guitar World

“I thought it was a prank, so I didn’t answer!” She put a video of herself playing bass on YouTube. Then Prince called

Having caught the attention of Prince and Bootsy Collins, Alissia is riding a new wave of recognition with her debut single featuring Nile Rodgers and EarthGang

Guitar World

“All I remember is thinking that the bass turned into a snake. I broke all the strings, threw it down and left the stage”: Bootsy Collins was tripping on LSD when he took the James Brown bass chair to its most in-your-face level

Unable to deal with Brown’s disciplinary code, Bootsy was gone within a year

Guitar World

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“He broke my heart, but at the same time, I was like, ‘Okay, well, I would love to have a Fender Jazz Bass’”: Bootsy Collins' first Fender Jazz Bass has just been sold at auction – and shot past its estimate

James Brown bought the bass sometime in 1970 for his young protégé, William Earl Collins, better known as Bootsy Collins, and it would go on to be played by another one of his bassists, Fred Thomas

Guitar World

“James Brown told me, ‘Son, you can’t come on my stage with that funny-looking thing!’” When a young Bootsy Collins joined James Brown’s band, the Godfather of Funk bought him a Fender Jazz Bass. Now it’s up for auction

Following Bootsy’s departure from the JBs in 1972, the bass continued its life on stage with Fred Thomas, another of Brown’s longtime bassists

Guitar World

“I thought it was the worst film I’d seen in my life! I was super-embarrassed. But that solo became part of the franchise’”: Stevie Salas on Bill & Ted, playing arenas with Rod Stewart then opening for Joe Satriani, and turning down both Van Halen singers

The ahead-of-his-time guitar great recalls starting a trend followed by Steve Vai and Tosin Abasi, why he had to quit a Joe Satriani tour, and why he sometimes aimed to be the worst player in the room

Guitar World

Tributes Flow For Singer D’Angelo Who Has Died, Aged 51: ‘True Voice Of Soul’

"My musical DNA was helped shaped by this man. Forever grateful."

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“They kept talking about this bizarre guitar player who practiced nonstop in his room and was very eccentric. I thought, ‘I want to work with him’”: Bill Laswell survived Buckethead, John Lydon, Ginger Baker and Eddie Hazel – and made it sound easy

The bass journeyman, soundscape creator and producer recalls having his P-Bass stolen the night before his first Brian Eno session, making PiL classic Rise, and hoping illness hasn’t ended his surprisingly fight-free career

Guitar World

“I had no contact. I just happened to be looking through emails and saw, ‘Bootsy Collins appearing at the NAMM booth’”: How Bootsy Collins and James Brown’s band ended up playing on the soundtrack of this hit Seth Rogen movie

Legendary sideman and film composer Lyle Workman recounts how he managed to reunite the legendary funkateers for 2007’s Superbad – by approaching Bootsy at NAMM

Guitar World

“I don’t know how he got my address. He sent me a videotape of him jamming his head off. I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’” Buckethead gives rare ‘interview’ to Bootsy Collins – but speaks through his Les Paul

Collins talks and Buckethead riffs in the strangest guitar interview of 2025

Guitar World

“He played upright but wanted to play the P-Bass. Motown said, ‘Nah, you ain't making no money playing that.’ But he said, ‘If you want me, I'm playing the P-Bass’”: Bootsy Collins on the musician that totally “changed his mind” about bass playing

James Jamerson's immense contribution to Motown Records in the ’60s and ’70s went largely uncredited – but his game-changing adoption of the P-Bass, coupled with his off-kilter technique, makes him an electric bass pioneer

Guitar World

“Everywhere I went with the picture, I would show it to ’em, and they was like, it was something evil”: Bootsy Collins’ Space Bass design was turned down everywhere he went – his ‘last straw’ proved the winner

Back in 1975, the funkateer had a larger-than-life vision for his dream bass – one which would see him knock on the door of many a luthier and music store before it became a reality

Guitar World

“I was playing stuff I don’t think James Brown understood. He told me, ‘You have to play the one – you’re playing too much’”: Six years after he quit touring, Bootsy Collins reflects on James Brown and George Clinton, and what he gets out of playing today

One of the world’s greatest bassists talks switching from guitar, how LSD helped him become a songwriter and why he’s finally embracing five-string bass

Guitar World

“I asked him to get me four bass strings because I only had a $29 guitar from Sears”: Bootsy Collins is one of the all-time bass greats, but he started out on guitar. Here’s the sole reason why he switched

Before he became ‘the’ Bootsy Collins, William Collins was a young guitarist who desperately wanted to join his brother's band

Guitar World

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“He fined me 50 bucks and fired me, even though I didn’t mess up”: The bassists of James Brown reveal what life was really like playing alongside the Godfather of Soul

Fred Thomas, Ray Brundidge and Bootsy Collins dig into what it meant to play with Soul Band No. 1

Guitar World

“Blurs your bassist so the mix stays focused on where it really matters”: From feline fuzz pedals to Bootsy Jooce, the April Fools Day guitar gags are out in full force this year – and we've rounded up the best

Andertons, Orange, Positive Grid, and more have all taken the festivities seriously this year, with a range of silly stompboxes and wacky gadgets that will tickle your funny bone

Guitar World

“The bass is the instrument you need to play the longest to become truly funky”: 20 funk bass legends who took low-end groove to new heights

A rundown of the best funk bass players of all time, featuring the trailblazers, the early innovators, and the monster groovers around today

MusicRadar

“James felt the fines would make you work harder. He was using that reverse psychology on us, and we didn’t understand at the time”: Bootsy Collins on why James Brown’s fines worked for his musicians

Plus how he found someone to make his ‘space’ bass

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Guitar World

“Jimi Hendrix was my superhero, and so I threw a bit of his style into the bassline”: How a young Bootsy Collins took the James Brown bass chair to its busiest level on this Bootsy-fied recut from 1970’s Sex Machine

The first version of the song was recorded in October 1968 with Charles ‘Sweets’ Sherrell on bass

MusicRadar

"The living, breathing embodiment of funk": Bootsy Collins' bass guitar, Farfisa organ and Yamaha DX7 go up for sale along with a collection of memorabilia

Offering a "rare window into Bootsy's brief run with the Godfather of Soul", the Bootsy Collins Collection also features a $5 fine issued to Collins by James Brown Productions

Guitar World

“James would always try to break you down. Any time you played a great gig, he'd call you into his dressing room and say, ‘You just ain't on it. You ain't on the one!’” If you play funk, you owe Bootsy Collins – the bass legend who played with James Brown

Bootsy Collins is a legend not just for his interstellar bass playing, but also for his star-shaped bass guitars

Guitar World

“Until I found the Mu-Tron, I never heard anything that made the bass sound totally wacko”: How Bootsy Collins’ mastery of the envelope filter became the flamboyant funkateer’s signature sound

Bootsy Collins piled on the effects on Parliament’s P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)

Guitar World

“An important piece of the low end theory”: T.M. Stevens, bass legend and session pro who performed and recorded with the likes of Steve Vai, James Brown, Bootsy Collins, and the Pretenders, dies at 72

Stevens manned the low-end on Vai's Sex & Religion album, and played on James Brown's latter-day hit, Living in America

Guitar World

“Don’t sell your first bass. Even if you never play it again, in later life you’ll wish you still had it”: With a stage name coined by Bootsy Collins, Freekbass names the one bass that “like an idiot” he ended up selling

Chris ‘Freekbass’ Sherman on how a Rickenbacker and a BC Rich (via Tiran Porter from the Doobie Brothers) set him on a lifelong low-end path

Guitar World

“We were auditioning for bass players, but most of the guys who came in were too good. One day I just said, ‘What if I play bass?’” Shavo Odadjian on why he switched from guitar to the bass

Shavo Odadjian holds down the low-end in System of a Down, America’s most uncategorisable band

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