Aced Out Podcast

visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more When singer/musician/songwriter LINDA SHIDER met the folks in Parliament-Funkadelic , she was working as a stewardess for Pan Am. A friend of hers had just moved to San Francisco, so she invited Linda to come visit. That friend in turn introduced her to a woman who was dating Bernie Worrell , wizard of the boards, and from there she became acquainted...

visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more When DAWN SILVA – ( Brides of Funkenstein , P-Funk , GAP Band , All My funky Friends ] – shopped her autobiography, The FUNK QUEEN to book publishers, they didn’t exactly grasp the entire vision. “Everybody said the same thing,” she says. “ ‘You can’t do it.’ ” This is because the OG funkateer had created something you don’t see on shelves every day....

visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more As an undergrad at Cal Berkeley in the early 80s, RICKEY VINCENT — ( History of Funk show and book/ Party Music / Phool 4 the Funk )— stumbled into a music history course. It was quite dense with Black culture, but on the very last day of the 2nd semester, the teacher came to class with his scratchy James Brown 45s , including “Superbad.” Young Ricke...

visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more “I remember I got paid $20 for a gig, man,” says RUSTEE ALLEN , funk bassist extraordinaire, first introduced to the world via the transcendent soul staple FRESH by none other than Sly & the Family Stone . “I thought I made a ton of money!” he laughs. “I didn’t even know you even got paid for playing,” agrees his good friend and fellow Bay Area l...

visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and read more At just age 20, STEVIE PANNELL , then strictly a bassist , wrote a song in his grandmother’s basement. He thought it was kinda special, so he went to Detroit and managed to present the tune to a man by the name of George Clinton . “It was right after ‘Knee Deep’ ” Stevie recalls. The funk doctor dug what Stevie had come up with, so he told the k...

visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more “Keepin that funk alive, to me, there’s no more of an important mission.” So declares PATRYCE “CHOC’LET” BANKS , cofounder of one of the most important bands in all of funk history: Graham Central Station . “That’s my mission,” she promises. “To keep the funk alive until the wheels fall off.” And she has been doing just that ever since the formation...

visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more “As long as you’re consistent, things can happen.” So says solo artist JAY DOUBLE YOU! —who began his funk career as a pro drummer in the late 70s at Don Davis’ legendary United Sound Studios in Detroit . His golden opportunity came in the form of a session with none other than OG Parliament vocalist Fuzzy Haskins , who had landed his own solo deal a...

visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more In the early 1980s, when percussionist extraordinaire JUAN ESCOVEDO was in his early 20s, he was working for his cousin as a landscaper at different homes around the Bay Area, CA . However, he also just so happened to be in heavy rotation on the then-very-popular MTV , appearing as part of his sister Sheila E ’s band in the video for her smash hit “G...

** visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more ** In the late 80s , when wonder woman of funk and rock bass STARR CULLARS was in her senior year in college, Prince —who was then in the midst of working on the Lovesexy album—offered her a spot with his crew. This was after a grueling audition process, in which Starr muscled her way into Paisley Park , bum-rushed the legendary Alan Leeds with he...

** visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more ** “The funk is the stench that you smell after you work really hard.” So says MURGA BOOKER , drummer, percussionist, shaman & card-carrying funkateer. And he would know. After all, from 1980 to ‘85 , Booker was deeply embedded in the P-Funk camp , working with George Clinton and everyone else around Disc Ltd. Studios in Detroit . He was snatc...

** visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more ** The powerpack West Coast hip hop duo GOOCH GANG began out of necessity. Just over 10 years ago, LA-raised, longtime Bay Area Cali resident MWNSTR recorded a single with WAES , “Brutalizin.” When they realized the cut needed another verse, they instantly thought of KALIBAN , whom Mwnstr had known since the late 90s . That’s when he would see the...

** visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more **   Lifetime Achievement Grammy winner ,  Rock and Roll Hall of Famer , and  Original P-FunkateerGRADY THOMAS ’ first job in the music biz wasn’t all that glamorous. “I had a job working at a record plant,” he explains. “I used to drive a truck around to all the stores delivering records and stuff.” One day, something amazing snuck...

** visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more ** 2021 is the year that  MARSHALL THOMPSON —driving force and choreographer for  Chicago  hitmakers the  CHI-LITES —shimmies from star to  superstar  status. Specifically, his group has been selected for inclusion among this year’s additions to the  Hollywood Walk of Fame . And it’s been a long time coming. Betw...

** visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more ** By the time guitar hero  ANDRE FOXXE  ( P-Funk / Jimmy G and the Tackheads / Incorporated Thang Band / Psychedelic Ghetto Pimpz ) was in his early 20s, he had a production deal with the legendary  Don Davis  at  United Sound , the funk pride of  Detroit . Amazingly, that gave him free reign in a place where&nb...

** visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more ** “When you think of Motown , you think of Detroit ,” explains timbale player RICHARD SEGOVIA , celebrating his 42nd year with his band PURO BANDIDO . “When you think of LATIN ROCK , it’s right there in the MISSION ”—the Mission District that is, the legendary San Francisco neighborhood where the genre was born. And a very young Segovia—now affec...

** visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more ** If you’ve hit up a GEORGE CLINTON & the P-FUNK ALL-STARS show anytime over the last 30 years, you’ve seen a whole lotta STEVE BOYD, the golden-voiced Detroit doo wop master originally of the group FIVE SPECIAL , best known for their hit “ Why Leave Us Alone , ” (produced by Wayne Henderson of the Jazz Crusaders). But when Boyd first toured...

** visit acedoutpodcast.com to see photos and more ** FUNK FAM:  This is your boy Ace. Like the rest of you, last year brought us our share of heartbreak. Specifically, on  Nov 6, 2020 , we lost a member of the  FUNKANAUTS —guitar wizard, bassologist, soul rock encyclopedia, and  Bay Area CA  legend  PATRICK OWENS , whom many of us knew as  BROTHA P . We dedicate...

“I have literally danced my entire life,” says SWEET LD , OG member of MC HAMMER and the POSSE and its pioneering, all-women offshoot OAKTOWN 357 . And as a young lady living in the East Bay, CA in the 80s , that was just about all LD aka Suhayla Sabir and her friends ever wanted to do. She especially loved to frequent a place called Silk’s in Emeryville because it had three floors, each with its...

When SHIRLEY HAYDEN [ PARLET/P-FUNK ] auditioned for Parliament-Funkadelic in singer Malia Franklin’s family basement, she was scared. It was the late 70s and, like every other artist raised in Detroit , she had already been a fan of George Clinton’s clan, then in the midst of recording the stank staple One Nation Under a Groove . “It was a hell of an audition,” she remembers. “The band was hot as...

WAYNE FOOTE aka “Foote Funk” never would have thought he’d be asked to replace Steve Arrington as lead singer in monster funk outfit SLAVE . After all, he was 19 years old, living with his folks just outside San Francisco in Daly City , while Slave were based out of Dayton, Ohio —part of the Ohio Player lineage and knee deep in a super-stank scene that included Zapp , Faze-O , Lakeside , Heatwave...

“I think, if I didn’t have music, I wouldn’t know what I would be living for,” says EMILY PALEN , leader of Bay Area, CA superpower trio KNIGHTRESSM1 . And from the sound of her soon-to-be-released album Dreams and Devastation , this composer, singer, producer, and shreddingly innovative violinist has gotta lot to live for these days. After all, her latest 12-track magnum opus was recorded at Dave...

Don’t even get PATRYCE BANKS aka CHOC’LET from Graham Central Station started on the expression “old school,” which she can’t stand. “Here in America… it’s all about what is next,” she explains. “So anything that is vintage is considered old and old is considered no good… They want to throw everything old or experienced or vintage or classic away… So ‘old’ has a negative connotation.” Instead, she...

Please join us for a celebration of the Life & Drums of WILLIE "WILD" SPARKS of Graham Central Station (1951-2020). Cohosted by Patryce “Choc’Late” Banks (Graham Central Station) Featuring: Ray White (Frank Zappa / Wild Bunch) Rustee Allen (Sly & the Family Stone) Eddie “Cold Bird” Wright (road manager for GCS) James McKinney (Graham Central Station / Wild Bunch) Stozo the Clown (P-Funk) J...

By the time O.G. Horny Horn RICK GARDNER ( Bootsy’s Rubber Band, Parliament, et al) had reached his mid-20s, he was already a seasoned vet. After all, he had played with Kansas’ own Fabulous Flippers , a rockin’, blue-eyed soul outfit with a mean horn section famous for humbling Chicago at the Kansas City Rock Festival . Then, using his performance on the Flippers’ Something Tangible album as an a...

Each and every time he sets foot onstage or breathes into a mic, singer/songwriter/soul superhero STYMIE steals the show. Indeed, his beautiful, bountiful band of misfits, STYMIE & THE PIMP JONES LUV ORCHESTRA , has been assiduously stankifying stages since the mid-90s, when Stymie put together his first concoction of the collective in the Hayes Valley District of San Francisco . Nowadays, Sty...