Mothership Connection<\/em>, which had arrived a year prior, and Clinton had envisioned his own \u201cfunk opera.\u201d With the help of theatrical stage designer Jules Fisher and set designer Peter Larkin, the 1,200-pound Mothership came to life and was used as a vessel for Clinton\u2019s alter-ego, Dr. Funkenstein, who would emerge from the ship in all his psychedelic glory. The updated version, which Clinton recently inspected in Nashville, where it was built, is almost an exact replica of the original, but with modern technology and lighter materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tOver the last 50 years, Clinton has evolved with the times, riding the waves of doo-wop, Motown, rock \u2019n roll, psychedelic rock, experimental jazz, hip-hop and everything in between. The fact he\u2019s made it to 84 years old (he\u2019ll be 85 on July 22) is arguably the most incredible feat he\u2019s ever pulled off. Clinton funked around\u2014and he funked hard<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tBut, like Ice-T once said, music is like the fountain of youth\u2014just ask Mick Jagger or Keith Richards. Not only has Clinton remained active, but he\u2019s often the main event. Whether he\u2019s being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, performing at the Grammys with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, getting a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, or rapping on stage with Rakim as he did at the 2025 Hip-Hop Grandmaster Awards last September, Clinton is omnipresent. In fact, when he got on the phone, he was mere hours away from hopping on a plane to Los Angeles for the BET Awards as part of a tribute to D\u2019Angelo, who died in October 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tVIBE <\/em>had a chance to speak with Clinton about the reimagined Mothership, his alter-ego, Dr. Funkenstein, what he thinks about sampling, and how he plans to live forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tVIBE: What are you most looking forward to about the unveiling of the new Mothership on July 5, especially back in New Orleans?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tGeorge Clinton: <\/strong>Oh wow, well this is the third time and third time\u2019s a charm, so I\u2019m looking forward to it. I saw it in Nashville, and it looked up to par for this generation, and I\u2019m ready for it. The band is ready for it. We\u2019ve been on tour for the last four or five years killing it without the Mothership, so it\u2019s gonna be all of that. I can\u2019t wait. We gonna open the show now instead of close it. We needed more time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tWhat\u2019s the difference between this one and the other two?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIt\u2019s made from the same blueprint. It\u2019s actually the same ship, made from the same blueprint as the first one. We did it down in Nashville, where they make all the current props for all the rock stars, Beyonc\u00e9 and all that. It\u2019s probably up to date with the lights for this era, but other than that, the ship looks the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIt probably doesn\u2019t weigh 1,200 pounds.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIt probably don\u2019t, but it look like it do \u2018cause they can do that with this technology now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tI hate that I have to miss it, but it\u2019s going to go around the world at some point, right?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tAh yeah, got to do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat was innovative about the original Mothership?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tBack in those days, in the early \u201870s, the only big, big, big prop was Pink Floyd, and they made their whole thing based on that big production. I always thought that\u2019s where P-Funk should go. I wanted to have a \u201cfunk opera.\u201d That\u2019s what was going on in my head. Motown had peaked. Beatles was peaking, and rock \u2019n roll was getting like Broadway. Hair<\/em> was like a rock show with a band, and Jesus Christ Superstar <\/em>was the same way. I always wanted to be in that funk-opera realm, where it could be a group or a Broadway play. We had enough members. There were 10 of us, and the Mothership just peaked at that time. It was the right thing to do. After we did it, we had trouble finding the next thing. I just ran my mouth one day, \u201cWe going to New Orleans,\u201d and that was a hard one trying to come up with [laughs<\/em>].<\/p>\n\n\tBy now, you had added a horn section, right?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tYeah, when Bootsy [Collins] came, it was actually three groups there, including Parliament and Funkadelic. He brought Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley from James Brown\u2019s band, the J.B.\u2019s. So now it\u2019s even bigger. Still, we traveled like it was one band. We were all on the same bus for a while when we first went out. Then we got three buses later, but at first, all of us was on one bus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat was that like?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIt was like a football team or a hockey team. When we got the Mothership, we were able to spread out a little bit \u2018cause we got trucks to carry it and buses for each of us \u2018cause we had hit records. We had 70 people at one time.<\/p>\n
\n
\n\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Mothership of the funk band Parliament-Funkadelic lands onstage on June 4, 1977 at the Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. <\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\tThat\u2019s a big crew. What was the difference between George Clinton and Dr. Funkenstein? Can you tell me a little bit about your alter-ego?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHe was out there. He was a character. I think that was in my personality even before I said the words \u201cDr. Funkenstein.\u201d I think I acted out the character in the years of Maggot Brain <\/em>and Funkadelic, so much so that the girls that would want to be with the character? I was scared of them! If you wanna be with that dude, I\u2019m scared of you! [Laughs<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\tDid you get into character onstage though?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tAll of that was a good excuse to get out there and do what I do. We kind of majored in clowning, so all of that was straight outta the barbershop. When you put a big prop with that, it looks extraordinary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tI\u2019m actually at a hotel in Harlem next to the Apollo, and I would have loved to hang out with you in a barbershop around here back in the day. I can imagine laughing all day.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tWow! My brother\u2014well, my fake brother, but he\u2019s a member of the band\u2014Ron Ford used to work right up on 7th Avenue and 125th Street in this shop called Playboys. You can ask any old school person about it. It\u2019s where all the stars got their hair done. We used to go over there to get our hair done up, and they\u2019d come see us in Jersey to get theirs done. The parlor is where we hung out when I\u2019d skip school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tHow did you go from the sound of your doo-wop group, The Parliaments, to the sound of Parliament-Funkadelic?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI started in the \u201850s when rock \u2019n roll and doo-wop was just becoming a thing. Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans was the big craze just coming out of the Big Band era of the \u201830s and \u201840s. You started getting R&B, and radio started playing rock \u2019n roll like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Elvis. We were singing doo-wop, which was the R&B version of what would eventually become pop. In about \u201959, between Motown coming into play, Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach, that was the sound we were hearing. We went from doo-wop into Motown until about \u201966. I was basically a songwriter and into the Motown sounds and all the sounds of New York. We saw Motown going into hard rock, rock like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin. Then we did Funkadelic and Parliament in the midst of the Beatles and when Motown was changing into psychedelic rock. We changed it from there and started doing Funkadelic music. During the \u201970s, it was P-Funk, the Brides of Funkenstein, Funkadelic\u2014we had our own genre until the \u201880s. Then hip-hop came along, and funk was the DNA for hip-hop.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen hip-hop began to emerge in the \u201870s and \u201880s, what did you think of sampling?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI felt really good about it \u2018cause I was waiting on whatever the next thing was gonna be. We were pretty aware of when our thing was gonna peak, and we were trying to figure out our way to stay around. When we saw that they were making these things called mixtapes, with the cassette machines and making beats that seemed to be a thing in New York, we didn\u2019t think there were going to be records like that, but we thought it was kinda cute. On Mothership Connection<\/em>, we had done the deejay thing. We pretty much started that deejay trend, and deejays became stars after that. As a matter of fact, in order to get your record on the radio, you had to start going to deejay pools. From that, they went to deejays in clubs. Sugarhill Gang\u2019s B-Side to \u201cTroy\u201d was \u201cGirls,\u201d and that was our first hip-hop sample. [Editor\u2019s Note<\/em>: \u201cGirls\u201d is a rap adaptation of the 1974 soul jam \u201cGirls\u201d originally performed by The Moments and The Whatnauts.]<\/p>\n\n\tThat was \u201979, 1980.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tYep. We realized by 1980, it was getting ready to be something. We didn\u2019t know what it was going to be, but it was better than the records they were selling in those K-tel packages on TV.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIt gave your music another life.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tThat\u2019s what I\u2019m sayin\u2019. So we hurried up and made alliances with the ones in the Bronx and all the rappers in the Sugarhill Gang. We knew right from the get-go, so I did a record called \u201cSample Some of This and Some of That.\u201d I made it really easy for them to sample. I didn\u2019t get paid for it. I\u2019m still fighting for it. It kept us relevant, and we were still able to sell out places and get a brand-new Mothership. The finance part is going to happen. I ain\u2019t worried about that. My thing is not to stop. I know the system wants us to stop, but we ain\u2019t stopping. We part of the Afrofuturism. We going until \u201ce-i-e-i-o.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tI\u2019m glad you mentioned Afrofuturism. As I understand, that term was applied to P-Funk later.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIt was around, but you thought of it in terms of experimental or abstract jazz.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tLike Sun Ra?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tYeah, Sun Ra and out-there music. Outer space music. Far out music. It was around. When we did Maggot Brain <\/em>and Free Your Mind<\/em>, they started calling it that then, but it didn\u2019t catch on as a phrase. We may have even mentioned it in one song or another. We were definitely into the concept of playing the most bluesiest, funkiest music, sometimes with classical music mixed in \u2018cause we had the chops of Bernie Worrell and the guitar playing of Eddie Hazel. We could go off into outer space in all directions. We definitely talked about it on the stage in the \u201880s. We did one of Fela Kuti\u2019s songs, so we were always into the tribal part of African music and futuristic music of synthesizers. That was conscious shit. We did that with the Mothership and Afrofuturism. Now that\u2019s a concept around the world. It helped us stay around.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tI\u2019m glad you mentioned the word \u201csynthesizer.\u201d You\u2019ve worked with numerous hip-hop artists over the years, including Ice Cube, Wu-Tang, 2Pac, and Outkast, including their song \u201cSynthesizer.\u201d What did you learn from them?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tWhen we say \u201cOne Nation Under a Groove,\u201d I found out that that\u2019s the best way to look at it. It helped us stay relevant and in touch with guys like Andr\u00e9 3000 and Big Boi. I\u2019m on two or three of their records. You learn a lot from the kids and the next new thing. When I did that, I was working with Dallas Austin in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tThe P Funk Mothership is housed in the Cultures galleries at the Smithsonian Institute\u2019s National Museum of African American History and Culture, NMAAHC, on Wednesday, September 14, 2016, in Washington, DC. <\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJahi Chikwendiu\/The Washington Post\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\tOh wow.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHe was working with TLC and Brandy and all of them, so I was like granddad when they were doing all of that. Matter of fact, Outkast, Dungeon Family, all them was like one big group, almost like Parliament-Funkadelic. I was very much a part of that situation. A lot of people don\u2019t know it, but when Dallas was around, he did a couple songs on the Hey, Man, Smell My Finger <\/em>album I did with Prince.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tI didn\u2019t know that. Did Dr. Dre have to get your permission first to do <\/strong>The Chronic<\/em><\/strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tBasically, before they ever got started, when they were deejaying, they asked for permission to use Uncle Jamm\u2019s Army. That was one of our albums, Uncle Jam Wants You<\/em>. Battlecat, Dre, Yella\u2014all of them was doing the DJ thing, so we was definitely going to be a part of that. Everything we put out was all around Compton, L.A., and San Francisco, so we felt a part of that anyway. When they did that, after seeing what they were doing in New York with the samples, we pretty much knew, \u2018Oh yeah, we gonna be a part of this.\u2019 We wasn\u2019t getting paid or anything. We didn\u2019t even know how we got paid. De La Soul was the first one that paid us. Like I said, being relevant was more important than stopping it at that moment. I was at the Grammys with Snoop and Dre, and I said to them then, just make sure the writers get paid. It was out of their hands at that time, but we still cool, and not only did verses with Dre, but I did 2Pac, Snoop, Kendrick, Ice Cube\u2014all of them. When I did \u201cBop Gun\u201d with Cube, we went to the Grammys twice with that record. Kirk Franklin did \u201cOne Nation,\u201d and Cube did \u201cBop Gun,\u201d which is the same record.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tYou funked so hard for decades. What is your secret to living so long George?!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tFunk is its own reward. That\u2019s the energy. The chance to funk keeps me forever wanting to funk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tYou\u2019re not going anywhere.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tThat ain\u2019t even in the plans yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBetter not be! Even so, you\u2019ll beam back down on the Mothership.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tOK!? I ain\u2019t going nowhere. I\u2019ll find a way to stay around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIf anyone can do it, it\u2019s going to be you.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI\u2019ll clone myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Music The Mothership is coming. On July 5, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic will descend on the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans for the ESSENCE Fest, where they\u2019ll unveil the third iteration of the iconic stage prop for its 50th anniversary. The original Mothership touched down at the Municipal Auditorium in October 1976 as part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":932429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[131522],"class_list":["post-932428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business-news","tag-podcast-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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