Born in 1961 tell us about growing up and what inspired you musically and your aspirations in being an athlete?

I grew up in Brooklyn New York and my dad was a minister, so that is how I started performing in front of an audience . I always love to run track as well, so both music and athletics were a big part of my life. I didn’t actually compete until I was in high school and I ran 20.8 seconds in a 200 yard dash when I was 16 years old. From that point I qualified for the 1984 Olympic Games but I didn’t go because I hurt my knee in a car accident when I performed in Brazil. I also studied at a design school because I was going to be an illustrator.

Who influenced you musically before you got your first record deal?

I loved Sam Cooke, Otis Reading, The Temptations and Curtis Mayfield. The first record I purchased was Sly & The Family Stone. I liked the combination of love music and the funk.

I know you wrote ‘Mind Up Tonight’ for Melba Moore but what elsewhere you doing before you got your record deal, and cut the ‘Let Me Be Yours’ debut album? 

I did a lot of background vocals for various people like George Benson and Melba Moore on her ‘Peach Melba’ album on ‘Take My Love’. I was a study background singer working for artists like James Ingram. When I wroteMind Up Tonight it was supposed to be for Evelyn King but she passed on it and Melba Moore recorded it.

‘Mind Up Tonight’ was around 1980 so how long where you background singing before you got your own deal?

I’d say for about two years and I was also in college at the time. 

It’s clear you accident determined you being a singer but prior to that were you at a cross roads in being a singer, an athlete or an illustrator?

I was studying to be an illustrator and had already established my track skills but I hadn’t given my singing an opportunity. I had a job during the illustrating years but I wanted to put all my effort into doing music. It took me two years to land the record deal after doing the background stuff for Melba .  

I remembered discovering you in 1983 via a tape a mutual music fan had rubbed off for me. It had lots of various tracks starting with the remix of First Choice ‘Let No Man Put Asunder’ but the third record was ‘I Love It’. I rewinded the tape so many times to listen to that song as it blew me away.(Right) That naturally inspired me to by the ‘Let Me Be Yours’ album which had some great tracks as a debut album. I loved your Temptations cover of ‘Just My Imagination’, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, ‘You’re A Good Girl’ and ‘Trust Me’ but ‘I Love It’ was such a good track to dance to. 

Yeah that was Paul Laurence who wrote that and Freddie Jackson wrote ‘Trust Me’.

Melba and her husband had a management company which had yourself Kashif, Paul Laurence and Freddie Jackson. How did that experience work for you?

That was great and we all came together as none of us were previously on Hush Productions. Paul and Kashif were with Morrie Brown’s Might M Production. Morrie would take their songs and shop them to other artists. I knew Kashif from Brooklyn as we both grew up there and Kashif brought me to Mighty M Production. They liked my song ‘Mind Up Tonight’ and that’s where I met Melba who as one of my advisors in getting my deal, and I was the first to sign up to Hush Productions. Paul Laurence came over and became my producer and we were both on Capitol Record, but Kashif was on Arista. I did a lot of Kashif’s background vocals but he never wrote on any of my CDs as that was just Paul Laurence Jones.

When I listen to Paul Laurence’s production he does sounded like a clone of Kashif, who was now working with Melba, Howard Johnson and George Benson. Did they work that closely together on production because if I didn’t know it was Paul Laurence, I would have thought it was Kashif who produced you?

Yeah I think a lot of people would think that. The difference was that Kashif had become and artist as well but Paul Laurence concentrated on producing and became an artist later. So Kashif and Paul worked very closely together at Mighty M Production. They both have their own uniqueness. Kashif is an excellent keyboard player and he wrote very nice grooves, but Paul had a very sensitive touch in knowing how to embellish a song, and they both learned from each other. Paul is a little quieter than Kashif who is a little bit more out there.

Did you know Kashif when he was in BT Express and before he changed his name ?

Yeah I knew Kashif when he was in a group called Stepping Stone and this was way back in the day before BT Express. We didn’t hang out but we knew each other from being into the music scene and I knew him as Michael Jones . 

Did Stepping Stone ever record anything?

No they were just a neighbourhood band.

How was it working with Tawatha on your album?

Fonzie Thornton and Tawatha were in demand as session vocalists in those days. Also Audrey Wheeler and Cindy Mizelle where very tight back then.

The next album ‘All For You’ you sang the title with Melba Moore but the track that created excitement for us over hear was ‘Settle Down’.

Oh Ok that was a big club track in the USA

I also liked ‘I Like Your Style’ and you did a version of ‘My Girl’ by The Temps

Yeah as I said I love The Temptations and on one my albums I also did an Otis Redding tracks as I’m a big fan of him as well.

How did you end up touring with Eddie Murphy with your second album?

Eddie was a fan and he was doing his tour and he invited me to come along. The first part of the tour was done by the Bussboys, then he asked me to do the second part, because they were going out on their own tour. It was just a random call one day when he asked me and he also gave me a shout in his film ‘The Nutty Professor’ which was really nice(Ok I messed that I’ll have to watch the film again for that part.)

Next album was ‘Sexy Girl’ another massive track 

I’d left Hush production and was doing things on my own, so that was the first album outside of them in 1987, as I did a direct deal with Capitol as the previous was just a production deal.

You managed to capture people with you voice and that electro soul we were experiencing in the 80’s as opposed to the live instruments moving with technology.(Yeah getting into drum machines)

I have to admit I stopped picking up your stuff after ‘Sexy Girl’ and although you did a couple more albums it would appear that you weren’t as prominent as you were previously, so what were you up to?

I stopped music for a while as I felt that the industry was changing although for 7 to 8 years I was still on the road. I just felt to back up and re assess what I was in the industry for. I took a break for three years and got involved in other businesses. I found music again and came back in the way I felt most comfortable. When you work with Hush Production and Capitol they work with other people and they have different vision to how you see yourself, so I need to understand where I was coming from as an artist. 

Would you say that your falsetto voice was your chosen key to sing in?

Yes I sing very naturally with that tone and it’s basically the same way that I talk.

Out of The Temptations I would say your voice would lend to Eddie Kendrick and also to Curtis Mayfield’s falsetto style (Right and there is Smokey Robinson too and that kind of tone).

Did you do backing vocals on Paul Laurence’s ‘There Ain’t Nothing Like Your Loving?’

No Paul didn’t let me do anything on his album because he wanted to see what he could do on his own. The only one was ‘She’s Not A Sleaze’ with me Paul and Freddie Jackson. 

I always felt you could have sung that song(Really?) For sure because Paul did a great job but for me you had already set the template with ‘I Love It’. His vocals are not too dissimilar to yours. maybe he found you a bit of a threat

Yeah I think he had me in mind when he did his vocals and he always said he enjoyed my vocals.

Enjoy your time performing in London unfortunately I’m working elsewhere.

Thank you I’m looking forward to get re aquatinted with London again, say hello and have a great show and a good time.

Thanks Lillo

Nice talking with you Fitzroy

Catch Lillo Thomas at 51st State Saturday 4th August at Trent Park check the website for details https://www.51ststatefestival.com

You’ve been making music since the 1950s when you were part of the Doo Wop act The Parliments. How would you describe your journey from being a Doo Wop act to becoming part of Motown’s writing staff, not recording anything and then evolving in the late 1960s to become Funkadelic in the 1970s?

From The Parliments, Motown was the next evolution of Doo Wop. It was all about the Doo Wop groups like Anthony & The Imperials and The Heartbeats before Motown came with Smokey Robinson and ‘Shop Around’ in 1959. So we gravitated towards Motown and it was really hard to get into that because we were not from Detroit. However I ended up writing songs for Jobete, which was Berry Gordy’s wife’s label in New York. In the meantime I got a deal with a label in Detroit called Golden World. They were one of Motown’s competitors and put out a single out called ‘I Wanna Testify’ on their Revilot label, which was our first single. This was around 1967-1968 when the England and Europe invasion started to influence rock and roll in America. Motown was waining so we had to change again.

What the English and European groups were doing was blues and rock and roll, which was what I heard around my Mother in my early childhood. The funky part of that hadn’t been explored, which was basically what New Orleans was doing and what Motown was doing without the violins. We decided to turn the volume up on the Motown sound by turning the guitars up on the Marshall amp and made our version of psychedelic and called it Funkadelic. The bass was predominant and treated funk the way rock and roll had been previously treated. That was the beginning of psychedelic Motown and they used to call us The Temptations or James Brown on acid. Bootsy then came along and added to that which became what you now know as P Funk. We added the horns and that James Brown sound so it was another evolution and that’s when we become the Mothership Connection. Hip-hop came along and it was popular with the hip-hop culture and here we are now.

Absolutely. What’s interesting is that I was born in 1964 and as a teenager in the 1970s I saw the whole evolution of Parliament becoming Funkadelic more so toward the end of the 1970s. Being a black Afro Caribbean child and seeing you guys up there being innovative philosophical and outrageous using all the elements of black music that had come before was inspiring. We are talking rock, funk jazz, gospel, psychedelia and I loved the creativity. In your own way you were doing an ideology slightly more left field and psychedelic of what Earth Wind & Fire were doing. (George: “Right.”) How do you explain mixing all those different genres with gospel church organ melodies with melancholy story telling and profound meaning on those ‘Mothership Connection’ to ‘Gloryhalistupid’ Casablanca albums, and getting away with it especially at a time when music was being pigeon holed into certain areas?

Basically we made that possible when we did Funkadelic ‘Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow’. We did that not to be put in a bag again, and do whatever we wanted to do. By doing it in an album format we were not worried about getting hit singles as we always went for concept albums. By the time we get to ‘Chocolate City’ and ‘Mothership Connection’ we made the whole albums as a story. It was easy to do what the King Crimson or The Beatles did, as all those groups used pop, folk, classical, funk and all those different sounds without being put into a bag. So that’s what I did with mixing the blues, gospel and jazz but it was all really black, extremely black. We were not preaching but we asked questions about what people would be thinking, but nobody would ask. Our ethos was “Thinking ain’t illegal yet!” In our songs all we asked was for those to think instead of being preached to. 

Definitely there were so many subliminal messages, in particular for black people, in those albums. You mentioned James Brown earlier on, I cannot recollect if you two ever worked together and if not why not?

During a particular period of time I had half of his band as the horn players came from James Brown and Bootsy came from him too. 

Yeah I know Maceo and Fred Wesley etc played with you but because you were both distinctive individual funk generals, I can only imagine what you two, as a combination would produce.

We did one song called ‘Go For Your Funk.’

In 1978 I was fourteen years old at high school when Funkadelic ‘One Nation Under A Groove’ came out. (George: “That was big for us and we came to London on the day it came out.”) That record blew me away as it really solidified for me how deep you guys were. That song was deeper than the earth’s core and I understood everything stated in the lyrics of that song. It reminded me of what Gamble & Huff where doing with Philadelphia International Records with concepts and a message in the music. “Getting down just for the funk of it, we‘re on the move nothing can stop us now, here’s our chance to dance our way out of our constrictions”. It was as you describe very black and such a massive uplifting record for us, so I’m guessing that is what you aimed it to be?

That is exactly what I wanted it to be and I’m glad you said that because that is one of the songs that as a copyright I now own, alongside ‘Knee Deep’. Funkadelic got its first big hit with ‘One Nation Under A Groove’. (I loved on the import 12 that it has the predominately instrumental version with the rock guitar). Yeah I’m getting ready to release that again right now both versions.

I also remember buying ‘Knee Deep’ from Lullaby’s in West Ealing during my lunch break at school in 1980. I cannot explain what that record does to me with all the Funkadelic trademarks including operatic style that reminded me of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. (George: “Right I know what you mean and I intended elements of that song to be like the waltz with that classical inspiration.”) 

So around the late 1970s early 80s you created this empire of P Funk with The Parlets, Bernie Worrell, Bootsy with his two personas Bootzilla and Bootsy and all these different acts kind of creating you own Motown. How did it feel as a consummate black artist having so much control over your artists and musicians?

Well it was great but as we got to that point we started getting a back lash. The very thing that you said about it being another Motown was what the industry didn’t want particularly as they dominated the charts every week. We were aspiring to do that with all the different concepts on different labels. We were getting too much power and it became our obstacle to getting the Uncle Jam label. Roger from Zapp was supposed to be the first artist on Uncle Jam but he got stolen from us and ended up on Warner Brothers. (Fitzroy: “Ok I didn’t know that.”) That was 1980 and that virtually ended our relationships with all the labels at the same time. Our new album Medicated Broad Dog is the first one we’ve had out since 1980 and this picks up where we left off in 1980.

P Funk impacted on a lot of bands including The Gap Band and George Duke who had what I call G Funk and that whole sound was being adapted by so many different outfits. There were times if you didn’t know who the artists were you’d ask yourself if it was Funkadelic or Parliament. So how did you feel about so many emulating your style?

I felt good as that is what happened in the 50’s with rock and roll. Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and anyone that did what they did in 1955 started out that way. Although you got soft rock, light rock and easy rock all those came from the rock and roll source. So making funk legitimate using jazz or blues and all the other elements, I’m proud of that. They still haven’t given us a Grammy for the Funk platform, which they will because it’s getting ready to be pop now with Bruno Mars and all that is pop music.

I’m going to be really respectful and end this because my time is up. Thanks for agreeing to continue this interview another time.

Thanks Fitzroy

You can get tickets to catch George Clinton live at The Innervision Festival at The Round House July 8th 2018 via this link https://www.innervisionsfestival.com

Just over 2 weeks and counting till the Afternoon to late night action packed Any Old Sunday at it’s new home in Camden 29th April… you coming??

The Return of Any Old Sunday back at it’s new home in Inverness Street Camden at Miusan 16 Inverness St, Camden Town, London NW1 7HJ Sunday 29th April and 20th May between 5pm-12am, FREE ENTRY with an action packed evening’s entertainment. The original DJ line up stars Dez Parkes, co starring Dezzi D and Fitzroy(Soul Survivors), will be spinning an eclectic selection of ‘Snake In The Money Shadow’ jazz funk and soulful grooves old and new, in a nice plush venue with an attractive restaurant upstairs and plenty space on the wooden dance floor area downstairs, with a side bar. There is 25% off food if you book beforehand and an extended Happy Hour 5pm-8pm. If you’re in the area looking for somewhere to continue partying or celebrating..pop down to Any Old Sunday