乔治·克林顿

George Edward Clinton (born July 22, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and bandleader. His Parliament-Funkadelic collective (which primarily recorded under the distinct band names Parliament and Funkadelic) developed an influential and eclectic form of funk music during the 1970s that drew on Afrofuturism, outlandish fashion, psychedelia, and surreal humor. He launched his solo career with the 1982 album Computer Games and went on to influence 1990s hip-hop and G-funk.

Clinton is regarded, along with James Brown and Sly Stone, as one of the foremost innovators of funk. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, alongside 15 other members of Parliament-Funkadelic. In 2019, he and Parliament-Funkadelic were given Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Early life

George Edward Clinton was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey, and as of 2026 has lived in Tallahassee, Florida for 32 years. During his teen years, Clinton formed a doo-wop group inspired by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers called the Parliaments, while straightening hair at a barbershop in Plainfield, New Jersey. Clinton is color blind. In a conversation with artist Amadour, Clinton stated, "I see light gray, dark gray, black, and white. I can feel the tones and shades, just like dogs. I was a barber at one point. So I know how to fade in more ways than just looking at the colors. I can fade just from the shapes of things and their feeling. I started trying to intellectualize it, writing it down and thinking how do you do this?" The West End of Plainfield was once home to a barbershop on 216 Plainfield Avenue known as "Silk Palace".……

Career

1960s and 1970s

For a period in the 1960s Clinton was a staff songwriter for Motown. Despite initial commercial failure and one major hit single ("(I Wanna) Testify" in 1967), as well as arranging and producing scores of singles on many of the independent Detroit soul music labels, the Parliaments eventually found success under the names Parliament and Funkadelic in the 1970s (see also P-Funk). These two bands combined the elements of musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Frank Zappa, and James Brown while exploring various sounds, technology, and lyricism. Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic dominated Black music during the 1970s, with more than 40 R&B hit singles (including three number ones) and three platinum albums.

From 1971 to late 1973, Clinton and several other members of the band settled in Toronto. During their years in Toronto, they honed their live show and recorded the album America Eats Its Young, which was their first to feature Bootsy Collins.

1980s

In the 1980s, Clinton began to encounter legal difficulties arising from PolyGram's acquisition of Parliament's label, Casablanca Records.……

Personal life

Carol Hall was Clinton's first wife. They had several children, including Donna, George III, Darryl, and Lushawn Clinton. Clinton married Stephanie Lynn Clinton in 1990. In February 2013, after 22 years of marriage, he filed for divorce. He is now married to Carlon Thompson-Clinton, his manager of more than 10 years.

On February 1, 2010, Clinton's son George Clinton Jr. was found dead in his Florida home. According to police, he died of natural causes and had been dead for several days.

Clinton was inducted as an honorary member of Omega Psi Phi on July 30, 2020, and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Clinton College in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on May 3, 2024.

Clinton claims to have witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena. In an interview with The Last Podcast on the Left, he said that he and Bootsy Collins were driving to his home from a studio when they saw flying metallic objects, one of which hit their car. He described the object as "like mercury" and could not explain the sighting because "we weren't even high".