Bootsy Collins Biography

Bootsy Collins was born William Earl Collins in 1951 in Ohio. In 1968, Bootsy formed his first funk band, The Pacemakers, with his brother. Two years later, James Brown hired the band as his official backup, renaming them The J.B.’s, which increased their exposure significantly. Although the J.B.’s only lasted a year, they provided music for some of Brown’s most memorable hits and launched Collins’s career as a musician.

After the breakup of the J.B.’s, Bootsy Collins reformed another band, but it was a fortuitous meeting in 1972 which led Bootsy to George Clinton, and his subsequent inclusion in both Funkadelic and later, Parliament, for which he served as the bass player. By the mid 1970’s, Bootsy had branched out to form Bootsy’s Rubber Band, alongside Robert Johnson and Mudbone Cooper. Bootsy’s album Bootsy? Player of the Year gave audiences the hit “Bootzilla” and brought the album to the top of the R&B charts in 1978.

After disappearing for much of the 1980’s, Collins returned with What’s Bootsy Doin’? in 1988, followed by a number of notable albums, including: Jungle Bass, Blasters of the Universe, Keepin’ Dah Funk Alive 4-1995, Play with Boosty, and Tha Funk Capital of the World. Since that time, Bootsy Collins has been recognized as a legend among R&B musicians, collaborating with dozens of notable performers on a variety of projects, including Bill Laswell ( Fatboy Slim), TobyMac, Nicole C. Mullens, and Buckethead, and fellow bass player Victor Wooten.

In addition to his own music projects, Bootsy Collins has founded the Funk University (Funk U), which provides students with opportunities to learn to play bass guitar through online and social media venues. Most recently, he contributed tracks for the film Superbad in 2007, participated in the Rock the Vote campaign of 2008, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Bass Player Magazine in 2010.