Paying his respect to one of the most prominent entertainers and influences of early Hip Hop, Bootsy Collins will be honoring the late James Brown with a tribute tour this fall.
Having risen to fame through performing alongside The Godfather of Soul in the beginning of his career, Collins has decided to pay homage and maintain Brown’s image and music.
“It’s Bootsy Collins’ tribute to James Brown,” he told Billboard. It’s about James Brown’s music, his legacy, what his music meant to me—not only me but a lot of people, a lot of musicians and fans. So it’s pretty much me paying [my] respect,” he explained.
Accompanying him will be alumni from Brown’s well-known 1970s band The J.B.’s including Phelps “Catfish” Collins playing on the guitar along with drummers John “Jabo” Starks and Clyde Stubblefield. In addition, Brown’s daughter, Venisha, is expected to provide vocals and whom Collins claims “not only looks exactly like him but dances the way he does.”
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Originally planned to begin May 1st to June 4th, Collins‘ tour manager Ron Bembry spoke with Billboard to justify the rescheduling to September 25th.
“For a major artist on this level to go out and do a tribute tour where they’re not going to hear any of the songs he’s famous for, that’s kind of a challenge. As soon as people hear Bootsy, the first thing that comes to mind is ‘I wanna see him do Bootsy,'” he explained. “They don’t know him from James Brown, but that was his foundation. So hopefully we’ll come up with a proper marketing and promoting strategy to make it all work,” he concluded.
Although not widely recognized within the genre, Brown’s music throughout the 1970s and 1980s helped shape the early rhythms of Hip Hop as various followers sampled his Funk grooves to help create the foundations of the format.
Reported by Cyrus Langhorne.
