ETERNAL FUNK

‘Funkadelic’ Legend and Funk Rock Pioneer Dead at 75

“Rest in eternal peace and Funk,” read the post announcing the bassist’s death.

William ‘Billy Bass’ Nelson, the original bassist for the funk rock band Funkadelic and a key figure in 1970s funk, has died at 75. Nelson got his start as a teenager working in singer George Clinton’s barbershop before joining Clinton’s doo‑wop group, the Parliaments, in a backing band he eventually named Funkadelic—later evolving into the legendary Parliament‑Funkadelic collective. Nelson’s death was first reported on a Facebook page linked to George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, which confirmed he died on Saturday. “Rest in eternal peace and Funk,” read the Facebook post. No cause of death has been disclosed, though the bassist had reportedly been in hospice care. Clinton’s page had previously posted a mistaken announcement of his death on January 26, which was later deleted. Nelson played on three of the group’s albums—Funkadelic, Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow, and Maggot Brain—before leaving in 1971 over financial disagreements. He was later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, along with fifteen other members of the collective. “We took the rhythm and blues and the funk that was already there, and we took it to another level,” Nelson said in the 2016 documentary Tear the Roof Off: The Untold Story of Parliament-Funkadelic.