Parliament-Funkadelic’s Lead Guitarist Discusses Into the Public Domain

Transmission 293: Interview with Michael Hampton

Michael Hampton is an American guitarist and a central architect of the Parliament-Funkadelic universe. A self-taught player who honed his craft against the radio signals of Jimi Hendrix and Wes Montgomery, he is known to the world as “Kidd Funkadelic.” He secured his legacy at seventeen with an impromptu audition in a dark living room for George Clinton, interpreting Maggot Brain with a ferocity that earned him an immediate seat in Parliament alongside Eddie Hazel.

A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Hampton has spent the last half-century touring with the P-Funk collective, logging nearly 400 shows across six continents. His fretwork anchors definitive Funkadelic tracks like (Not Just) Knee Deep and permeates the DNA of 90s G-Funk through samples by Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and De La Soul. On December 13, Hampton returns with Into the Public Domain, an EP produced by Joe “The Butcher” Nicolo. This release moves beyond the group’s signature funk into a fusion of rock, jazz, and Western textures, featuring collaborations with Philip Samuel Smith and Phil Keaggy. Tracks like the racing “Fight or Flight” and the orchestral closer “Tecnicolor Moble Home” showcase a departure from his roots, incorporating elements of shoegaze and spacey pedal steel.

Michael Hampton ‘s Bandcamp | Featured image: Philip Samuel Smith

What made you pick up the guitar at 10? Was there a specific moment or song?

Well, my friends and I would mess around with the little guitars, and really always would only be two or three strings on the guitar because nobody really took it very serious. It would usually end up being in the corner somewhere. But the first time, we always play like single notes, like Get Ready on the single note or (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction on a single string. But what really, getting to the heart of it, you’d play like, you’d play football.

No, that didn’t seem like it was going to work. Pro, you play basketball. No, I can’t jump the ball.

Tennis, no, peewee baseball, I was okay. But all the sports and things that I really wanted to do, it just kind of narrowed it down. After messing around with the guitar a little bit, I learned, as I learned different parts on one string, then I wanted to play on the other strings.

Just one string led to another, and I finally asked for a guitar. Also guitar was the choice because my parents, we’re a small house, so I wanted to play drums, but you can’t have drums over your parents’ bedroom. So, yeah, it’s just kind of a process of elimination.

I think I had some love for it. I always loved music. Finally, I found something I could replicate what I was hearing on an instrument.

Which artists had an influence on your style when you began forming your approach?

Let’s say like Wes Montgomery, B.B. King, and Jimi Hendrix, anybody that played on some of the hits that people know, like the guy that did the solo on Slipping into Darkness from War, the guy that played the solo on Fencewalk for… maybe that group… oh, this is terrible. Anyway, Santana, Albert King, I mean, we used to watch Hee Haw, so like those guys, the fingerpicking, Roy Clark, I think. Yeah, yeah.

It was a bunch of guitar players, so many. I mean, as far as Catfish Collins, Bootsy’s brother, played for James Brown, and I think when I learned the little Super Bad lick, that’s about as simple as it gets. But that kind of clicked because it was such a funky song and yeah, I had a little feeling, it has a feel, the feeling of playing something and getting it kind of like mirroring the song.

I felt something, but I just kept playing after that, mostly because I had a knack for it and I didn’t have the physical girth for other sports or the build. I raced cars, I mean, that was way out, I liked motorcycles and all that stuff, but excuse me, but the choices just got narrow. So being introverted and playing guitar, I fused as one, I guess.

“Guitar was the choice because my parents, we’re a small house… you can’t have drums over your parents’ bedroom. It’s just kind of a process of elimination.”

How did that backstage audition with George Clinton actually happen? What memories stand out vividly from your very first audition with George Clinton?

So, it wasn’t like a formal audition. I’m from Cleveland, Ohio. Parliament-Funkadelic, came to town and he did a show at Public Hall with Bloodstone. The guy that I was playing with at the time, Ed Sparks, he knew the band, so he would invite the band over to have an after party after we’d seen the concert. We just happened to have our stuff over there, our equipment over his house and they heard me play Maggot Brain. Ed Sparks kind of edged me on to doing it, he said, go on, play Maggot Brain, but he knew the band. I used to just play for my friends that song to actually prove that I could play a little bit, because unless you play something that people are familiar with, they just look at you like, “what’s that?” You gotta play something that they know. I used to play that for my friends all the time, listen to the record and learn the parts. But yeah, it was just a dark living room, my cousin and I, he played the rhythm part, Lige Curry, my cousin, and I played the lead part. They called me like about two weeks after that, I had just graduated high school. Yeah, they called me, and my first show was… Tiki Fulwood, drummer, he called me and asked me, can I come? I just, my cousin drove me to the airport, I didn’t really ask my parents, like, “hey, can I go?” I just like, “they’ll understand.” Went to the airport, took the plane and I did that show that night in Landover, Maryland. Yeah, it was at the Capitol Center in 1974.

Unless you play something that people are familiar with, they just look at you like, ‘what’s that?’ You gotta play something that they know.

What were the biggest challenges you faced transitioning from being a fan from a full-time member of a fan club?

Oh, yeah, well, just being young. I was getting like some special attention because I was younger, so sometimes it would be like me trying to be grown up being older and the guys telling me, “you’re just a little kid.” That was a transition making that from the road, on the road, that was a transition I had to make. I was like, I tried to kick it, hang out with the older crowd and they were like, “no, go to bed.” So I think that me playing, practicing in the room, being like, I wanted to be out and partying, but they were telling me no. So yeah, the transition, when it did happen, and it still, it always happens, is like, you kind of have to have this balance. So I’m still trying to find that, it’s still pretty hard. It’s like being professional and then at the same time kind of kicking it with everybody, “hey, come on, Mike, let’s…” But yeah, that was a transition.

Most of the transition was kind of like just me growing up, like growing pains. I mean, well, I’ve seen everybody partying, well, not everybody, but… and then there would be, I guess you could say the girls, and they would be older, and they’d be, “oh, hi, how are you, you’re not like your little puppy,” and then you’d be like, “hey, I want to rock!” But I had no idea. I was just, yeah, the normal, I guess to say the normal growing pains or hardships. I mean, other bands, it would always be the battle of the bands, even though everybody, when you’re touring with people, other groups, it’s like, “hey,” but everybody’s really out there to do their best and maybe outdo the other band. So that was a pressure. There was guitar players who were much better than me, and they still are, and when you come to play, that overcoming that part of it, like, it’s just a healthy way of competing, but yeah, that would be the pressure, is to be respected by your peers.

When hip-hop producers started sampling your work, did that change how you thought about your guitar parts?

No, it changed the way I listened to the editing. It was one song I repeated in another interview, and they had sampled (Not Just) Knee Deep, and when it got to the solo, whatever parts they wanted to put in the loop, they didn’t think about the guitar structure, the solo at all. You could just tell, it just like, they cut it there. They should have just maybe taken the guitar out of the whole thing, but because they left it in, you can obviously tell. Whereas like if you listen to the original, and if it was spliced… but it was just so blatant, like, whatever, that part of the solo, I don’t know what they would think.

They probably just wanted to get the right BPMs, they wanted it to sync up, and they liked the parts, they was listening to everything else, but they weren’t thinking about the flow of the solo at all. It’s there a little bit of it, and then it went to the end of the song, whatever. But yeah, that was, that’s cool. I mean, I liked the sampling part of it, but at first, they weren’t paying attention to the key center. As I would say, it just seemed like they didn’t care about what key the song was in, or they just care about the beats, the drum beat, and maybe some parts of bass, whatever, but when it came to melodies, it just seemed like it went into a whole other key, and they probably had no idea. I don’t know who, it depends on who you listen to. Yeah, I can’t say everybody did it, but now with Auto-Tune and whatever else they have out there on the market, you can make everything sound like it was done that way, even though it may not have been recorded live that way. Is that good enough?

“They liked the parts… but they weren’t thinking about the flow of the solo at all. It just seemed like they didn’t care about what key the song was in.”

Are there any external influences, such as movies, events, even cultural movements, that shaped your new album in the public domain?

No, just basically what I’ve been through all my life. I mean, the first movie, I’ve seen horror movies, Night of the Living Dead, when I was younger, you went to the movies to see that, and Superfly, I saw that on a Sunday in Cleveland, Ohio. I don’t think it had anything to do with that, except for subconsciously. Like, I watch a lot of anime, I like a lot of animation, but I listen to a lot of classical when I’m off, I listen to just about everything, and I always go back to classical. Then sometimes when you’re playing any songs, it’s just going through the motions, especially if you’re using effects, the effects make you play something different in your imagination. Yeah, nothing in particular, just my, maybe what I’ve been through, touring, and people that I like, like Sly Stone, and War, and Ohio Players, it’s all in there. Not all in there, but the Indian… oh yeah, scales play a big part of… I haven’t even gotten into that in this particular series of music, but I do like different scales. I don’t want to hear the same mode all the time, which you, I mean, I like it, but you find today that a lot of songs have the same progression. It’s like, “why does this song remind me of this song?” And it’s like, it’s different sounds, but it might be the same progression that people like. Yeah, it’s just life itself is what promoted what we were doing, and you meet different people, and it sets off different feelings in you, and we see where it goes.

How did you meet Joe Nicolo, and how did his production style impact the final sound of the album?

Okay, I met Joe through Philip, the artist. His experience… I hear that he produced Cypress Hill, he did some production for Billy Joel, he has a great ear, great feel for music. So basically, when we’re recording, we’re all full out in a creative mode, and then Joe will listen. I can’t say exactly what he does, but he would choose… just like the people that might, not saying that he samples, but he may, but like, when people are creating something, or working with different people, he kind of takes into consideration the person. He’s really funny to me, reminds me of Bernie Worrell, the keyboard player for Funkadelic, the late keyboard player, he was like my big brother, but he, very funny guy. He would tell you honestly what he feels about certain things, and you just let it go. I put a lot of trust in him and Philip, and actually saying, “oh, I feel this part,” so I played a lot more, a lot of different things, they choose the parts to enhance and put in the mix, they choose the mix, it’s the flow. I don’t really get in the way on that, I’m just to be creative, I’m just improvise, and I keep improvising until something kind of, “hey, that made my big toe swell up in my foot,” or something, or swell up in my shoe, he’ll feel something, and we cut it there. Or if he doesn’t say it right at the time, he’ll listen to it after I leave the session, and then he’ll send me something to listen to as an okay. But yeah, I met Joe through Philip, and we’ve been doing work ever since. It’s a nice working relationship, even if we don’t work, we’re cool.

Yeah, what guitar or pedal can’t you work without?

I can work without the pedals, if I had to. I really, I mean, for what I do, the amp or something would have to have another channel for overdrive. I mean, I’m not a great jazz clear playing person, I could play clean, but for solos, the distortion part would probably be the one. If I had to do it without it, I could do it, but if I had to put one out there, maybe that one. And then the wah-wah pedal is so popular, it’s like, if you had to have one effect, that wah-wah pedal could be the one. Like, “oh man, they don’t have a wah-wah pedal? I’m not playing, man, I’m not playing unless they get me a wah-wah pedal.” I can’t do it, you know, but I’ll play clean anytime. I’m not, I’d say afraid, but I don’t need effects per se. I could, I think I can do something that is relevant, whatever. Nothing, I can’t sing it out, but as long as I get the guitar, the guitar and an amp, or just the guitar, I think I can do something. I’m sorry, but yeah, it is some effects, you get hooked on effects, and you really like them, and it’s just like, well, we get hooked on drugs or something, it’s like, “I gotta have this, I can’t do it without, it’s gotta have that sound.” But I’m used to playing without it, I’m used to showing up and it’s not there, and I’d never put that in the rider they give the groups, it’s like, “well, if he doesn’t have this, he’s not gonna do this.” If I don’t have nothing, I gotta still show up, right. If I don’t have an effect, I gotta show up.

If they don’t have the amps, I gotta show up. So, yeah, I’m gonna show up.

What’s your most vivid memory from 50 years of touring?

It’s the first time I played, when they called me to go to Washington, Landover, Maryland. I busted a string, and then I went around to all of the bands that night to see if I could get an extra E string, and nobody had a string. So I had to, I did like what I did at home, like I would repair the string, I retied the string around the knot and then put it on the guitar. So doing that was great.

I mean, it was like, I’m glad I had that experience from not having, because I couldn’t afford sets of strings, so if it broke, I had to retie it, put it back on the guitar. And then when I went to do the show, I brought the band on. George, George came out of the coffin with the chicken foot. Anyway, it was good, but yeah, some pictures of that, but my first real memory that I treasure, and it was like, not being like I’m all full of myself, but it was this place called the Capitol Center, was the first place to have closed circuit TV. So they had the screens, big screens up in the middle of the stadium. We’re inside, and I look up, and I could see my face on the screen, it was like, “wow,” I think after that, I was done. I don’t think it got any better than that. Yeah, that was my first show, so yeah, that was it.

“I look up, and I could see my face on the screen [at the Capitol Center], it was like, ‘wow,’ I think after that, I was done. I don’t think it got any better than that.”

Are you working on new material?

Always. I mean, I have stuff that’s old, that could be new, but yeah, always, it’s still a lot of stuff that we didn’t include on the series of songs that we have out, that I have out, but yeah, always working. Like, wait a minute, I love the guitar inside, like I usually have a guitar with me, right, I’m trying to keep it with me all the time, but yeah, all the time. I have some other things that I, other music ideas, and even now would be like a great time to create something fresh, right off the cuff, you and me. It’s just, you know, what are you feeling? But yeah, always, music is always being creative, it’s always happening. The guy is working on a road back here, so the clang is a note, the birds, birds sing a note, the car goes by, that’s a note, depends on how you think of it. Yeah, always writing.

Photos courtesy of Michael Hampton

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others