The exuberant singer who helped shape Parliament-Funkadelic

It was hard to miss Fuzzy Haskins on stage. A vocalist and songwriter for Parliament-Funkadelic, the music collective led by George Clinton, Haskins was known for his wild performances, wearing tight long johns and gyrating against the microphone pole. He started out in the five-member doo-wop group the Parliaments, which soon changed its name to Parliament and created an alter-ego funk band called Funkadelic, blurring genre distinctions and disrupting the pop music scene. Haskins’ bluesy tenor was on display in both groups—by then, he’d been honing his ability to sing with others for decades. “We used to sing church music—hymns, gospel—at home,” he said. “We’d harmonize.”

Born in Elkhorn, W.Va., Clarence Haskins grew up with a coal-miner father and a homemaker mother. The family moved to New Jersey, where Haskins met Clinton in his final year of high school. Clinton’s teen vocal group had just lost a member, and Haskins quickly integrated into the band. As Parliament, the group was “vocally oriented,” said The New York Times, and as Funkadelic, the same performers drew on funk and psychedelic rock to create a new sound.

After clashing with Clinton, Haskins left the band for a solo career in the 1970s, releasing two albums. He reunited for a Funkadelic reboot with two of his old bandmates (though not Clinton) in the ‘80s, and they toured again in the late ‘90s as Original P. He’d later “find a new path as a preacher,” said Spin, recording some of the gospel songs of his youth. Music had a spiritual connection for him. “Once you reach a goal with your music,” he said, “it sort of opens you up.”