Parliament in Session

Spencer Patterson

Saturday, Nov. 13, 2004 | 12:27 p.m.

Great-grandfathers aren't supposed to don multicolored costumes and perform at the head of giant funk mobs 275 times each year.

But then, George Clinton isn't your average great-grandfather.

More than three decades after founding his first band, Parliament, in 1970, the 64-year-old Godfather remains a musical force.

Clinton tours regularly with his massive band of musicians, Parliament-Funkadelic (or P-Funk for short), releases recordings by the group and supervises solo projects from its individual members.

Tonight the P-Funk crew rolls into Las Vegas for a show at Rain at the Palms, in conjunction with the casino's third anniversary celebration. Doors open at 7 p.m.

One of music's most colorful characters throughout his storied career, Clinton helped bring psychedelic funk music to the masses during the 1970s with such seminal albums as "Mothership Connection," "Maggot Brain" and "One Nation Under a Groove."

New generations turned onto the music of Parliament-Funkadelic during the 1980s and '90s, as hip-hop artists began sampling the group's classic licks and rhythms.

On Monday the Sun caught up with Clinton during a stopover at a Portland, Ore., hotel:

Las Vegas Sun: So what happens when P-Funk checks into a hotel? Do they just give you guys an entire floor?

George Clinton: We're all over the place. They try and corner us off in a place where we don't disturb nobody.

But we've been doing this so long everybody's pretty mellowed out now. It's hard to be rock and roll once you get a couple of grandkids. But I mean, some of them still manage ...

Sun: Your granddaughter (Sevita) is a P-Funk regular, right?

GC: Yeah. She's 26 and she's been with us almost 10 years. I learn from her now. Time is moving faster than I can keep up with. As a matter of fact, I'm a great-granddad now.

Sun: What's kept you out on the road this long?

GC: It's something that I love doing and we always manage to be down with whatever's going on. And you've got to have a job doing something so you might as well do something you like.

Sun: Do you a see a day when you'll call it quits, or at least take an extended break?

GC: No I can't imagine that. It keeps me young.

Sun: Spending close to 300 days on the road each year must get tiring, though.

GC: I get tired if I don't do nothing. As a matter of fact I'm tired all day long 'til I get to the show.

Sun: After playing together this long, does the band even plan out what it will play on a given night? Or is it just free-form at this point?

GC: It's spontaneous. We've been doing this so many years it's never the same, no matter how hard you try to do it the same. That's part of the magic. If it gets too tight I'll make sure I cause some problems so we get some improvisation going.

Sun: (Ex-bassist) Bootsy Collins played with you during this year's Grammy Awards show. Can you envision him rejoining P-Funk permanently?

GC: It's gonna happen real soon. I don't know the exact time, but we're all working towards a time when we can have the whole big thing on a major scale and then have a movie done about it.

Sun: What does the word "funk" mean to you?

GC: To me, besides the music, it's a way of life. It's an attitude. It's like, do the best you can in any situation and then after that just turn it loose and leave it to the force, Luke. (Laughs.)

You get up there and jam and try and pay attention but at the same time let yourself go, which is not as easy as it sounds.

Sun: Do you see anyone out there carrying the funk torch today?

GC: OutKast is definitely one of the clones. We put a record out called the "Clones of Dr. Funkenstein," and to me sampling is identical to that concept. You take a piece of music and you make a brand new song out of it.

So you've got hip-hop and alternative music and techno, and funk is the DNA for all of that.

Sun: What did you think when rappers began sampling your stuff in the early days of hip-hop?

GC: I saw immediately that funk was gonna have a chance to stay out here. I picked up on that real quick, because we had a few young kids in there running around with beat boxes and rapping to it. I just had to find a way to use it to our advantage.

Sun: What music have you been listening to lately?

GC: I'm pretty much listening to everything that's going on. Right now it's that funny rapping in the South. I've been waiting on that. I knew they were gonna have a whole 'nother spin on the lyrics, which is really silly and more of a chant type of thing.

It's all about booty. And I'm partial to that anyway.

Sun: Any new P-Funk projects in the works?

GC: An album by one of the girls in the group, Kendra Foster, and one by my granddaughter, Sativa. Those two records are finished. And Belita Woods, who's been with us for quite a while, has one that will be out real soon.

Sun: Your music was rarely overtly political, but your songs did include a fair amount of social commentary. What are your thoughts about the recent presidential election?

GC: I'm suspicious of everything about today's technology. I've never heard one person say that they voted for Bush, yet ...

I'd like to see some kind of paper trail from the vote machines. Because the last one was so obviously messed up, and they ain't gonna tell me that he had more people vote for him this time than last time.

To me there should be some kind of way to verify it. And they're too close to the CIA. There's enough technology in this world for ... you know "Mission Impossible" was not a fantasy. That was some real possibilities.

But I still think he's gonna get impeached.

Sun: Sounds as if you were happier with a Clinton in the White House.

GC: Yeah. I'd definitely rather have somebody with the problems Clinton had -- they're supposed to be problems -- than the ones that Bush got.

If you've got a problem like the one Clinton had, I would say just provide him with whatever it is. I think the person in that seat should have everything he wants so he won't have to go outside to get it.

Take care of him make sure he won't need do money, no sex life or no nothing. Volunteer people who want to be with him. He should be completely satisfied. (Laughs.)