Founding Parliament–Funkadelic bassist Billy Bass has died of unspecified causes at the age of 74, two days shy of his 75th birthday.
P-Funk bandleader George Clinton shared the news on social media Monday morning. Earlier this month, Clinton noted that the group was keeping Bass “in our thoughts and in our hearts,” again without mentioning any specifics.
As a teenager, Bass (real name: William Nelson) worked for Clinton at a barbershop. He was recruited to back his boss’s vocal group, then known as the Parliaments. In his 2014 autobiography, Clinton recalled how Bass helped him write the band’s first big hit single, 1967’s “(I Wanna) Testify.”
“It comes from an afternoon in the barbershop with the other guys, shooting the shit, and Billy Bass Nelson banging on the guitar,” Clinton explained.
“He was just strumming simple chords, and I was singing a lyric that had been stuck in my head for a while: ‘I just want to testify what your love has done for me.’ Billy and I sang that and let the words settle around us.
“The more we played this new song, the more I knew it would work, not only on the radio but also live. It was so infectious, and even there in the barbershop I could tell that there were so many turnarounds you could do once you got to vamping.”
Hear the Parliaments Perform ‘(I Wanna) Testify’
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When legal problems kept Clinton from using the Parliaments name, he shifted the group’s direction, emphasizing electric guitars under a new band name reportedly coined by Bass: Funkadelic.
In the documentary One Nation Under a Groove, Bass recalls how the heavy psychedelic rock of Funkadelic crystalized at a show where they opened for Vanilla Fudge. When Funkadelic’s gear was lost on the way to the show, the headliners came to the rescue.
“These guys were like superstars, right? But they were real nice and agreed to let us use their equipment as long as we didn’t tear it up,” Bass explained. “They had this state of the art stuff. None of us had ever played on any equipment like that. It was so large it was ridiculous. That was the night that we found our niche.”
Bass went on to perform on the group’s first three groundbreaking albums: 1970’s Funkadelic and Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow and 1971’s Maggot Brain, as well as a newly rechristened Parliament’s 1970 debut Osmium. In addition to bass, Bass handled lead vocals for a song or two on each of the Funkadelic albums.
As Clinton’s official website notes, Bass was the first of many musicians to leave the P-Funk organization over financial disagreements, but he returned for a brief appearance on 1975’s Let’s Take it to the Stage.
After performing alongside the Commodores, Chairmen of the Board, Fishbone, Jermaine Jackson, Parlet, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson and Lenny Williams, Bass returned to Parliament-Funkadelic for various tours beginning in 1994.
Hear Billy Bass Sing on Funkadelic’s ‘You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks’
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Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff
