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Jeff Hahne/Getty ImagesFunk legend William “Bootsy” Collins is cancelling all current tour dates after announcing that he is suffering from a tumor in his ear.
The 65-year-old former James Brown bass player and Parliament-Funkadelic star announced on Facebook Tuesday, “Yep Funkateers! I found out last week that I had to get surgery to remove the tumour in my ear. But all things happen for a reason no matter what it looks like to us. The good news is that I am ready for Heads or Tails. The One prepared me this way. I am not concerned because I know that (THE ONE IS GOOD Y’ALL)! The Holy Grail said: ‘JUST A FLESH WOUND’! Love to all my Funkateers! Bootsy baby!!!”
Collins said that he has asked former Sly & the Family Stone bass player Larry Graham to take over as many of the cancelled tour dates as possible.
Collins rose to prominence in 1970 as a 19-year-old backing James Brown as a member of The J.B.’s on classics like “(Get Up I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine,” “Super Bad” and “Soul Power,” and with the band recording the much-sampled instrumental “The Grunt.”
With Parliament-Funkadelic, Collins co-authored a number of funk classics including the Parliament hits “Tear the Roof Off the Sucker (Give Up The Funk)” and “Flashlight.” Leading his own P.Funk offshoot, Bootsy’s Rubber Band, Collins charted seven top-20 R&B hits including the 1978 R&B number-one “Bootzilla.”
As a member of P.Funk he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
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