Guitarist Phelps “Catfish” Collins died on Friday following a battle with cancer, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. He was 66. Phelps was the older brother of bassist Bootsy Collins, with whom he played in James Brown’s band the J.B.’s and George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic outfits.
According to Bootsy Collins, it was his sibling who first inspired him to play music. “I just kept bugging him and kept stealing his guitar when he went on his paper route,” the bassist told the Los Angeles Times in 1990.
Collins contributed to numerous James Brown hits, including 1970′s seminal funk anthem “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine.” More recently, together with his brother, he played on the soundtrack to the 2007 movie Superbad.
Collins’ death comes less than two months after that of Funkadelic guitarist Gary Shider, who passed away on June 16.
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Who???? Why are we supposed to care about some weird-named dude that nobody’s ever heard of? Why does EW continue wasting bandwidth on the death on some “musician” that has not sold as many records as true superstars like Madonna, Elvis, Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra or Aretha. When any of those die, thenn call us. Jeezus~!
I love how the most ignorant among us speak the loudest. I guess that’s part of being an ignoramus.
I heard of phelps,Mr Joe. Phelps, contributed
to some of the greatest music of all time.
God bless the Collins family, the P-Funk family, and funkateers everywhere. Catfish may not be famous, but his sound influenced almost every song we hear on the radio today. He was a brilliant, inspiring guitarist and he will be missed.
joe os a real fool
joe the people you quote are real superstars yes, but i bet you dont even listen to them eirher