Founding Member of Iconic Funk Band Dies at 75

A founding member of the George Clinton-led Parliament-Funkadelic has died at 75. William “Billy Bass” Nelson was the original bassist for the funk collective, which has a rotating cast of musicians over the decades, including many of Clinton’s family and friends.

“Rest in eternal peace and funk,” Clinton commented on his social media account. The cause of death was not announced.

The group formed in the 1960s, experimenting with a mix of acid rock and bass-heavy riffs. Nelson played on the band’s first albums, Funkadelic (1970), Free Your Mind…and Your Ass Will Follow (1970), the album which they allegedly recorded while under the influence of LSD. They recorded Maggot Brain (1971). In 1974, he played guitar on Up for the Down Stroke.

Nelson is credited with suggesting Funkadelic as the name for the backing band, so they could sign with a different record label. They had band members coming and going, including Bootsy Collins, who helped the band go platinum with the Mothership Connection album, hitting #4 and #13 on the R&B charts. During this time, the stage performances grew more creative and wild with references to science fiction, and they had a large spacecraft prop, the aforementioned “Mothership.”

The band went through several more iterations throughout the decades and became George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars. The various versions of the band influenced up-and-coming bands and rappers in the 1990s, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone, Outkast, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg.

They crowded into NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert space in 2018 for a memorable day.