George Clinton Remembers Prince as the ’Epitome’ of a Rock Star
Prince's funk came from a lot of sources, but one of the primary ones was George Clinton. The two became friends after meeting during the late '70s, and Prince repaid the favor of any influence Clinton provided by signing Dr. Funkenstein to his Paisley Park Records label during the late '90s and releasing The Cinderella Theory, a 12-track set that gave Clinton some mainstream attention after leaving Capitol Records three years earlier. Clinton also appeared on Prince's 1990 companion album for the film Graffiti Bridge and appeared as himself in the film, and the two remained in touch until Prince's shocking death last week. Clinton took a few minutes with Billboard to reminisce about his friend, protege and savior of sorts.
He came to a show we did, that would've been '77, and he was looking like Bootsy, all Funkadelic, and Warners was telling him he was the new artist. The same [management] people who had Earth, Wind & Fire brought him to the show for us to check him out, and I just met him for a minute. But then a few years later, I was off of Capitol and I called and asked him what was up, and he said, "Come on!" It was that simple.
