It wasn't about black, white, green grass, bluegrass, it was all about music to me. All music had a certain effect on me and I appreciated all of it. Music is all one, not to be separated. It doesn't need a name. The key question is, "How does it make you feel?" Funk is where you don't have nothing and you make something out of nothing. I didn't have a bass, so I made my guitar into a bass. My brother gave me four bass strings, I restrung the guitar and "Ta-dah!" I'm ready to go.

[Jimi Hendrix] was my hero--the only artist whose poster I had hung up in my room. To this day he goes with me wherever I go. Even though I had all the respect in the world for James Brown, the push for independence and wanting to be free, to express ourselves on stage and dress differently, was too great. We were supposed to be in suits, shoes, well-groomed, and we wanted to do the wild thing. And we knew we couldn't do the wild thing with James Brown. It was his way or the highway. George [George Clinton] was like, "Whatever you can bring to the party, bring it". I would never have rode in the car with James Brown, with three chicks in the back seat, getting high. Anything and everything was possible with George. That was one extreme to the other. You need both in your life--the key is to combine the two.

We have so much more information now you would think we'd be better people, but it's working backwards. That's kind of scary. To experience being lost is much better. That's what I would throw in the mix. It's all right to get lost. We're throwing so much perfection in the game with our computers and smart phones, it's not cool to make a mistake., our self esteem goes down and we never like to hear the word 'no'. But our lives were mistake after mistake and through that we learned how to succeed.