In 1999, there was a moment I was fortunate to have...

A very cool record guy at the time, George Skevetis I believe is his name, got the call from the WBCN Asst MD Steve Strick to try and help out a BCN staffer who was interested in seeing George Clinton at Lupos Heartbreak Hotel, in Providence, RI.

George hooked me up with Marcy G of the P-Funk organization, who we met up with at the venue that night. Marcy was very cool, and as I recall, it was dark outside, close to showtime. We met her in the very front lobby of the club, one of my favorites in the world... She was super cool, and brought my then gf Nancy and I into the back area, where we partied with the band before the show. It included Blackbird, Gary Shider (Diaper Man), and the man, Kidd Funkadelic himself, Michael Hampton. Gary loved my Kiss Dodgers Stadium shirt from '98 so much (I was wearing it, with the band wearing dodgers outfits), he traded me a P-Funk t-shirt and his P-Funk dog tags...  very cool moment... Then, it was onto the P-Funk tour bus!!!

We were led to the rear, and there was the man himself, big George, very mellow, kicking it there... We were introduced, he was warm and fuzzy, super mellow, and I told him how some of his music was super inspiring to me, for example, Funkadelic's incredible 1975 jam Red Hot Momma, which I proceeded to sing the chorus to: "Red Hot Momma from Louisiana, she was working her way to Savannah, she been cooped up too long". I will never forget (and am having a hearty laugh now remembering) how big George's eyes got... He lit up so much as I sang that snatch of one of his EPIC jams... This white boy was at least trying... I will always remember how he got this huge surprised smile, and how his eyes got so big and had this impressed, pleasantly startled quality...

I cannot remember what else was said, but I do recall as we went to do the picture, we had been talking about Mommy, Who's A Funkadelic? from the first record, and as we posed and got our picture, George and I were doing the part of that jam "do do do do do... do do do do do.... do...do...do do do do do do do..." too funny to remember, man. It was just this natural moment, where two quality Funkadelic masterpieces were sung by one of the two of us, or BOTH. LOL. I will never forget how awesome that was...

My experience with George Clinton was that he is the man, everything good about him, with nothing negative at all to say. I was so impressed with him, and to this day, cherish the time on the bus.

After we split the bus, we went into the show, taking our place on the side of the stage, thanks to the hospitality of Marcy and the gang. George came out, after the customary vamping for 20+ minutes by the band, getting their soundcheck done live LOL... and we were standing next to one of the guys on his crew... George was pointing at us... The guy leaned over, and said to me, "He wants you to know this one's for you", and with that, the band launched into Red Hot Momma.

Priceless memories to share...

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