The Mothership’s Final Voyage
“IN THE OLD DAYS, you partied all night,” George Clinton says. “You didn’t go to bed till 7 [a.m.], and then you got back up at 10. Back then I had every kind of drug I could get my hands on, illegal or not.”
The Funkmaster General changed his hard-partying ways about six or seven years ago — he’s not sure of the precise date. “That wasn’t long ago, but I ain’t trying to count no days either,” he says. Now 77, he spends most of his Parliament-Funkadelic touring days resting in his dressing room, so he can save up energy for his legendarily wild stage act.
Clinton, who founded the core bands in the P-Funk collective more than 50 years ago, is boarding the Mothership one more time in May for what he says will be his final run of freewheeling performances before retiring. Opening acts include spiritual P-Funk heirs like Galactic and Dumpstaphunk. Clinton calls it the One Nation Under a Groove Tour. “It’s coming right on time,” he says. “I would love to keep on doing this, but I’ll be 78 in a few more months. Even though I feel like I’m just getting started, the reality is the group needs to go ahead and keep it going.” (Parliament-Funkadelic’s current lineup intends to continue touring without Clinton.)
After his final show, in Las Vegas this August, Clinton will return to the studio — and work on getting back the copyrights to his music in a longstanding dispute with a company that oversees much of his back catalog. “You gotta fight for these copyrights,” he says. “It gave me energy to reignite my career and write new shit, and I’m thankful for that. I’m-a kick they ass. That’s my next mission.”