Even if you know the name Bootsy Collins, you may not be familiar with the man who got him into music in the first place: his big brother Phelps, aka Catfish Collins (1943–2010).
A lifelong resident of Cincinnati, Catfish was eight years Bootsy’s senior and a father figure to his younger sibling. In 1968, the two started their first band, The Pacemakers, with Catfish on rhythm guitar and Bootsy on the bass. James Brown hired them as his backing band (renamed as The J.B.s) and the brothers helped record some of Brown’s biggest hits, including “Super Bad” and “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine.”
In 1971 they left Brown, and after a short lived stint as The House Guests, joined the Parliament-Funkadelic collective. The two would be largely responsible for the Parliament-Funkadelic sound, playing on most of their records up until 1980.
Catfish also accompanied his brother in Bootsy’s Rubber Band and later recorded with New York based dance band Dee-Lite. More recently, Catfish’s guitar stylings can be heard on the soundtrack of the hit movie comedy “Superbad.”
“He was a hell of a musician. He taught me a lot about rhythms,” P-Funk regular and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame keyboardist Bernie Worrell told Cincinnati.com. “People seem to forget that the rhythm guitar behind James Brown was Catfish’s creative genius, and that was the rhythm besides Bootsy’s bass.”
It’s a been a tough few years for the P-Funk collective. R.I.P. Catfish Collins and fellow P-Funkers.
