Bootsy Collins recalled the painful moment his relationship with George Clinton changed forever.
In a new interview with the Zach Sang Show, the 73-year-old funk icon described a trip to Florida where the P-Funk bandmates were supposed to relax, fish, and make music.
Near the 50-minute mark in the video linked above, Collins said at one point in the hotel, Clinton told him, “I don’t ever want to see you doing this,” before lighting up a crack pipe.
“He fired it up in front of me, and he was telling me, ‘Don’t you ever—don’t even think about it,’” Collins recounted. “I always looked up to George as a bigger brother, a mentor.”
Moments later, Clinton came back out, pipe in hand, and said, “Here,” urging Collins to try it. When Collins questioned him by reminding him of his warning earlier, Clinton brushed it off, saying, “Oh, I was just joking. This is like sex, man. It’s like sex. You take it, just take it. Just hit it one time.”
The moment left a lasting impression on Collins.
“I thought he was trying to trick me, but he was serious,” he said.
From that point, Collins said the interaction “changed the whole dynamic” for him and led him to distance himself from Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic world before beginning a path towards sobriety.
“By being out of that gave me an opportunity to get straight. And I must say that I think I’m more straight now than ever, and I feel pretty good about it,” he said.
When asked if he wished he had helped Clinton in that moment, Collins said, “No, he had to go through that. He’s a lot better for it now. He’s still out there, you know? He changed some of his ways, but it’s only because of health reasons.”
Earlier in the conversation, Collins told the Zach Sang Show he had at one point become addicted to cocaine after a stint with LSD led him to experiencing “breakdowns” and feeling unfocused on making music.
“That’s what alerted me that something was wrong, was when this drug took over,” he recalled. “I wanted that first before I even even gave a thought about the music.”
Watch Bootsy Collins’ interview with the Zach Sang Show up top.
