William Collins (born October 26, 1951, Cincinnati, Ohio), best known as Bootsy Collins, is a pioneering funk bassist, singer and songwriter.

With his brother, Catfish Collins, and Kash Waddy and Philippe Wynne, Collins formed a group called The Pacesetters in 1968. Until 1971, the Pacesetters were the backing band for James Brown, and were known in that context as The JB's.

A possibly apocryphal story states than Brown fired Collins after the latter suffered LSD hallucinations on-stage. Regardless of his reasons for leaving Brown's band, Collins then moved to Detroit, following the advice of singer and future Parliament member Mallia Franklin.

Franklin introduced both Collins brothers to George Clinton, and 1972 saw both of the Collins brothers, along with Waddy and Wynne, join Funkadelic. Bootsy played on most of their early albums, garnering several songwriting credits as well. His bass playing was hard, driving and rhythmic, and has been very influential in the development of Funk, Heavy Metal and Soul music.

He also took the name "Bootsy" during this time, adopting it as part of an ever-evolving character, an alien rock star who grew gradually more alien, bizarre and flashy as time went on (see P Funk mythology). When Bootsy, Catfish, Waddy, Joel Johnson , Mudbone Cooper , Robert Johnson and The Horny Horns formed Bootsy's Rubber Band in 1976, the character of Bootsy evolved into Bootzilla, a rhinestone-bedecked, flashy rock god.

Bootsy's Rubber Band is a part of the P Funk umbrella of bands. Most of Bootsy's albums in the post-Parliament and Funkadelic days were released under the name Bootsy's Rubber Band.

Collins has collaborated extensively with Bill Laswell and made bright appearances on two Fatboy Slim records.

Bootsy recently provided "vocal spice" on the TobyMac album, Welcome to Diversity.

The following albums were released under the name Bootsy Collins or William "Bootsy" Collins.

External link

• Official Homepage for Bootsy