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In 2019, George Clinton embarked upon what was supposed to be afarewell tourwith Parliament-Funkadelic, but when he recently sat down for a new episode of The Rolling Stone Interview, he made it clear he’s changed his mind. “I’m gonna pull back from that,” says Clinton, who celebrated his 80th birthday on July 22nd. “I feel good, you know. Got all my bloodwork done with the doctors and all that. I ain’t got no problem. No meds… It’s hello again. You’re gonna have to drag me off.”
In fact, he wouldn’t mind if he actually ended up dying on stage. I feel good as hell right now,” he says. “So if I go out on stage, yeah, cool. ‘You went out funking.’ “
Meanwhile, Clinton says a Verzuz episode is in the works for August, starring himself and his current touring version of Parliament-Funkadelic, as well as hip-hop artists who’ve sampled his work over the years. (A Verzuz spokesperson didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.)
Clinton also says he has two P-Funk albums on the way: a trap-influenced studio album called Reaching For Litness, plusa live release. And despite being colorblind, he’s taken up a new career as a painter. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing,” he says. “And everyone seems to like it. Itreminded me of when we actually started going into funk music as opposed to doo-wop, we was ad-libbing and jamming and grooving, and it became our thing Funk became our calling.”
To see more episodes of the “Rolling Stone Interview” and other exclusive videos, check out Rolling Stone’s YouTube channel.
